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Lochnagar & Callater Munros

A group of five Munros forming a high-level circuit around Loch Muick. The highest peak is Cac Carn Beag, which looks down into the dark coire of Lochnagar below, which is a favourite winter climbing area. The other summits are less characterful, but many discoveries are made when roaming over them, including wildlife, waterfalls and plane-wreckage.

Main route summary

Walking for some of the way is on fine paths, but be prepared for rough terrain heading up Lochnagar and on Broad Cairn and have your navigational wits about you when the mist is down.

Avoid doing this route in an anti-clockwise direction when a strong north-easterly is blowing as fighting against the wind funnelling up from Loch Muick can be soul-destroying !

Munros	Lochnagar (Cac Carn Beag) (1155m, Munro 20) Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach (1110m, Munro 42) Carn an t-Sagairt Mor (1047m, Munro 84)< Cairn Bannoch (1012m, Munro 117) Broad Cairn (998m, Munro 142)

Corbetts	Conachcraig* (865m, Corbett) * see alternative routes below

Ascent	1280m (4,200ft)
Distance	26km (16m)
Time	walk : 8:30hr* run : 3hr *Naismith's rule : 4km/h distance + 600m/h ascent
Start/finish	Spittal of Glenmuick (grid ref : N0310852)

Profile

View profile of the main route

Maps

OS
Landranger 44

OS
Explorer OL53

Harvey
Mountain Map

Harvey
Superwalker Map

Which map to choose ?

Downloads

GPX file of this route

KML file of this route

Terrain

easy

difficult

Navigation

easy

testing

Effort

stroll

long day

Scenery

stunning

Meanings

Lochnagar : 'little hill of laughter or noise'
Cac Carn Beag : 'pass of the small cairn'
Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach : 'hill of the beautiful corrie'
Carn an t-Sagairt Mor : 'big hill of the priest'
Cairn Bannoch : 'peaked hill'
Broad Cairn : 'broad cairn'
Conachcraig : 'combination of rocks'

Route detail & map »

Getting there

Get to Ballater, which is on the A93, 60km west of Aberdeen and 75km north of Perth. From there, follow the road down Glen Muick for 13km to it's end, where there are a couple of large car-parks. You'll need to pay (£3 at time of last visit), but the money collected goes towards pathwork via the Cairngorms Outdoor Access Trust. In summer the car-parks can be full.

Lochnagar

From the car-park, head over the bridge, past the ranger's hut to a junction in the tracks - turn right.
Continue to the houses, then on a marked path, head around them and into a forest.
Meet up with the track again and follow it uphill, around the base of the Corbett Conachcraig to the highest point on the bealach between Glen Muick and Glen Gelder.
A cairn marks the start of the path heading west towards Lochnagar. This path has seen lots of work over recent years and is easy to follow up to the bealach between Lochnagar and Meikle Pap. If you're top-bagging, then a brief detour will take in this little top with its fine views of Lochnagar's northern coire.
The path continues from the bealach to Lochnagar's eastern crest. Once on the crest, the ground eases and the route ahead on the path is obvious. Further on, the path veers off left - stick to the fainter path on the edge of the coire - it heads up more directly and has fine views into the coire below.
Up steep bouldery ground for a bit, then continue over fairly flat artic ground to a large cairn on Cac Carn Mor. In mist, this might be mistaken for the summit, however Lochnagar's summit is Cac Carn Beag, which is 500m to the north. A well-worn path connects the two cairns and a short scramble is needed to attain the viewfinder with its excellent expansive views.

Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach

Return towards the large cairn on Cac Carn Mor, but before reaching it, look for a path heading off right (south-west).
There's another path nearby marked with cairns and heading south-east, don't take this as it will take you directly down to Loch Muick (see Alternative routes).
Keep to the path heading south-west dropping to a wide (and sometimes wet) bealach.
The path starts to climb up and there's steep ground dropping off to the right (north). As the path starts to pull away from this edge, veer off the path and start to bear slightly more left (south-west) onto more level wet ground.
A faint path can be traced to follow to the small cairn on Carn a'Choire Bhoidheach. After Lochnagar, this is a fairly dull Munro summit and the views are not that great either, due to the hill's bulk.

Carn an t-Sagairt Mor

West next ! After initially dropping down a brief patch of fairly steep ground with occasional boulders, the gradient easies and a path following a burn heading south-west is met.
Follow this path and cross the burn a bit further on.
Now on the other side, the path contours to meet a line of old iron fence-posts aiming up to the bealach between Carn an t-Sagairt Beag and Carn an t-Sagairt Mor.
In mist, these posts can be used as a guide to get up Carn an t-Sagairt Mor, otherwise just head uphill over wet and heathery ground towards Carn an t-Sagairt Mor's crest.
On the way, you should encounter some scattered plane wreckage, including a large section of wing. These pieces are the remains of a Canberra jet that crashed into the hill in 1956 (more info Air Crash Sites Scotland).
The summit has two cairns and excellent views.

Cairn Bannoch

There's very little ascent left ! From Carn an t-Sagairt Mor's southern cairn and on a faint path, head south-east downhill. The path becomes more obvious further down as the boulders are left behind and more gentle, grass covered ground is reached.
Cross the wide bealach, meeting up with folk coming in on the path from Auchallater.
The last few metres of climb up to Cairn Bannoch's summit require a bit of clambering over some large boulders.

Broad Cairn

From Cairn Bannoch, head south-east and up the bump marked 991m on the OS map. Downhill, south-east on a faint path over grassy ground to reach the unusual bealach with three summits radiating out from it.
A quick jog over more flat ground and one more last clamber up bouldery ground to Broad Cairn's summit. Good views, particularly down Loch Muick to Mount Keen.

Down to Loch Muick and return

Aim east next, down some bouldery ground, which can be tricky particularly for tired legs ! You'll see a track coming in from the right, join this and follow it down to the pony shed 1km below.
You've a choice next - if the weather's poor, take the fine path heading directly down to Loch Muick and get out of the wind.
If the weather is fine, keep on the high track for 3km and take in the views for longer.
Both of these options meet around half along Loch Muick, from where 4km of a quick jog will get you back to the car-park.

Photos of route »

Alternative routes »

Conachcraig
Often by-passed, this little hill is just a short detour from the main Lochnagar path.

In from Braemar and up Glen Callater
A 5km bike in from Auchallater, followed by paths to gain Carn an t-Sagairt Mor first.

Lochnagar via a spectacular waterfall
A fine path heading from Loch Muick directly up to Lochnagar's summit cairns.

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Lochnagar & Callater Munros

Main route summary

Route detail & map »

Photos of route »

Alternative routes »

Other hill routes nearby »

Accommodation & food »

Forecasts & other useful info »

Guided days on these mountains »

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