
Brown Cow Hill from Corgarff Castle
Hillwalking route up Brown Cow Hill from near Cock Bridge
Fine estate tracks lead to a delightful hillwalk on wide crests above Corgarff with fine views to Ben Avon to the west and Morven to the east.
Route outline
Corbetts | ||||
Ascent | 600m (1960ft) | |||
Distance | 19km (12m) | |||
Time | 5:45hr | |||
Start/finish | Corgarff Castle car-park Grid Ref : NJ254090 | |||
Terrain |
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Nav |
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Effort |
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Scenery |
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Brown Cow Hill may not be the most exciting of Corbetts, but given decent weather, this delightful circular route over the hill and its neighbouring humps can be enjoyed either at a relaxed pace giving fine views or as a short hill-running route.
Starting from Corgarff Castle south of Tomintoul, decent private roads and estate tracks follow the River Don to its upper reaches and the lower slopes of Brown Cow Hill. Higher up, faint paths can be picked out tracing a route over the hills and humps with most of the wide crests being grass-covered. Only Meikle Geal Charn has much in the way of a rocky summit.
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Route description
1. Getting to Corgarff Castle

Corgarff Castle
Corgarff Castle sits by the A939 around halfway between Ballater and Tomintoul in the Eastern Highlands.
Corgarff Castle with its unusual star-shaped protective wall sits on a mound overlooking Cock Bridge and the River Don. Below the castle there is a car-parking area, from where this route begins.
2. Carn Oighreag

Track heading up Carn Oighreag
Leave the car-park and head west along the private road following the River Don. You'll pass a house (unoccupied on my last visit), then around 500m further on, you'll see a track heading uphill on your left .
Head up the track, which starts by aiming south-east. After climbing 50m or so, the track turns south-west climbing the broad northern shoulder of Carn Oighreag.
Upon nearing the summit, the track pulls slightly away from the crest, but returns and continues to the top Carn Oighreag from where a fine view of Morven is given.
3. Brown Cow Hill

Ben Avon from Brown Cow Hill's summit
On Carn Oighreag the track continues south-east and not in the direction of Brown Cow Hill, so leave it and head southwards. Dropping downhill over heather clad terrain, reach the wide col between Carn Oighreag and Brown Cow Hill .
Above the col a faint path can be traced leading up through stunted heather on the hillside ahead. Follow this, generally aiming in a south then south-west direction and, as height is gained, terrain becomes easier underfoot.
The ground levels somewhat and a small cairn marking the eastern summit of Brown Cow Hill is reached. The highest summit on the crest is just under 1km to the west
, with delightful grass-cover crest between.
4. Meikle Geal Charn

Route down from Cairn Sawvie
The western summit on Brown Cow Hill, Cairn Sawvie, is around 1km westwards. The ground cover between these summits is a tad more heathery though a worn line slightly to the north of the crest aims close to Cairn Sawvie's top. I followed this, then took a short detour southwards to touch the small cairn marking the summit .
From just north of Cairn Sawvie, signs of ATV tracks can be followed north-east to the col below Meikle Geal Charn. From this col, faint paths attempt to avoid some of the soggy ground on the hillside ahead, before converging for the final pull onto Meikle Geal Charn's rocky summit - this is a fine point to take in the superb views over Glen Builg towards Ben Avon.
5. Return

Inchmore below Brown Cow Hill
I'll admit making a slight error here - I should have continued north-west to the col below Little Geal Charn and descended from there. Alas, from Meikle Geal Charn I descended due north, aiming directly for the track in the glen below - although this was shorter, the ground underfoot was hard-going, lumpy with hidden boulders and holes.
Once on the track, concentration can be relaxed as progress is made downhill. The old building at Inchmore is met from where a final view back up Brown Cow Hill can be taken in before joining the track by the River Don to return to Corgarff passing the farm buildings at Delnadamph
on the way.
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Weather forecasts »
Regional | MWIS - Cairngorms and Monadhliath |
Peak specific | Mountain Forecast.com Met Office YR.no |
Seasonal | SAIS - Northern Cairngorms Midge forecast |
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