Wednesday August 14th

Mayar and Driesh- David and Rachel

Rachel had given David a wonderful present of a stay in the highlands with a view to walking a few Munros together. The gift came to fruition today, and as the weather for tomorrow didn't look promising, we decided to do our first walk today. Having driven up from Edinburgh, we dropped Jacinta off at the Airbnb and made our way to the start of the walk in Glen Doll. The first section was through the Glendoll Forest but, on leaving the forest the view opened up with a spectacular view of Corrie Fee.

Corrie Fee

The corrie is a glaciated bowl with lots of drumlins (which we assume were deposited by glaciation) which were mostly covered in heather in full bloom.

Walking through the heather

We had a quick snack before starting up the steeper back wall of the corrie and were rewarded by views back down to the forest.

View down the corrie to Glendol Forest

We passed by the waterfall at the head of the corrie.

Corrie Fee cascade

We stopped a little short of the summit of Mayar for our lunch at a spot with tussocks to sit on and a view.

Lunchtime view

At the summit, appropriate selfies were taken- it was very breezy!

Mayar summit selfie

From here, the views to further mountains were wonderful.

The walk on to Driesh was straightforward and (fortunately!) didn't involve too much loss of height or too much climb!

Looking back from the path up Driesh.
Mayar on the left, slanting descent path on right-hand-side

There was a shelter around the trig point at the top of Driesh. Photos were taken, and we sheltered from the breeze for drinks and snacks.

Driesh summit pictures

The descent to the Glendoll Forest was relatively gentle but there was a moment of doubt when we popped out of the forest where the map told us that there should have been more of it! Fortunately, a look around told us that much of the forest had been felled- for some time- and the recently updated map didn't reflect this!

Dropping down to Glendoll Forest

The map showed this area as forested!

We completed the walk in 5½ hours or so- well within book time and much better, when the various lunch/snack breaks are taken into consideration, but it was a fantastic, leisurely walk with great company.

9.7 miles with 880m ascent.


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