Glen Lyon Munros

North of Loch Tay an unclassified road heads westwards from picturesque Fortingall with its thatched cottages near Aberfeldy. This road travels along the length of Glen Lyon end ends at Loch Lyon.

On this road around 7km from Fortingall is the hamlet of Invervar, where there is a car-park just downhill from the red phone-box. There is room for around 8 cars. If there's no space left, head west a bit further along the road.

From the car-park, head back up to the road, turn left and walk past some houses to where a sign on the right hand side of the road points the way up to the hills initially following alongside wall. The worn route goes around a dovecot, to join up with a rough track.

Go through a gate in a deer fence and head up through felled forestry and rhodedendrons. At the end of the forest it's onto a track and out to open hillside.

Walk a few metres up the track and look for a faint path off right heading directly up the western shoulder of Meall na Aighean. Follow this path over grass, then as it makes a way through heather.

At one point, the path splits - don't take the left fork as this is a direct descent route from Carn Mairg (described in 'Escape routes'). Keep heading directly uphill on the crest. The heather becomes more stunted higher up and the south-west summit of Meall nan Aighean can be bypassed.

A faint path continues eastwards over Meall nan Aighean's grassy plateau to its rocky main summit . On older maps, you may find Meall nan Aighean refered to as Creag Mhor - the name belongs to a minor top to the south-east.

From Meall nan Aighean return towards the dip between its two summits, then head off right (north-west). An obvious path develops and picked up heading northwards towards Carn Mairg.

The path crosses a wide grassy bealach and aims for the col between Carn Mairg and its nearby minor summit of Meall Liath. At this bealach turn westwards and head for the boulders below Carn Mairg's summit.

Clamber up boulders and reach Carn Mairg's summit with its two cairns.

From Carn Mairg, navigation is pretty straightforward for a fair distance - it's more or less a case of following a line of fence-posts !

From the summit of Carn Mairg, head north-west and pick up the line of posts. Keeping to the left of the line of posts as they continue north-west, the ground is grass-covered and easy underfoot and a path can be followed. The path turns westwards and further on patches of bouldery ground are crossed.

Over the flat top of Meall a'Bharr , the path and posts then take a sharp turn north-west. Around 500m further on, the path turns westwards and drops though heather covered ground to eventually arrive at the foot of Meall Garbh after passing a lochan . Follow the path westwards and uphill bypassing Meall Garbh's minor south-east top.

Meall Garbh's summit cairn is reached - it is made entirely of old iron posts ! Decent views from here with the southern aspect of Schiehallion given a fine show.

Leave Meall Garbh following the fence-posts. As the posts start to turn north-west , leave them and follow the faint path to the bealach Leave Meall Garbh following the fence-posts initially westwards.

After dropping around 50m, the line of posts changes direction and turns north-west , leave them at this point and drop south-west following a faint path to the bealach below the minor top of An Sgorr .

At the bealach, there's a choice - two paths contour around the north-west side of An Sgorr and another heads over it. Either way, all paths eventually lead to the bealach west of An Sgorr and below Carn Gorm. There's a broken line of rusty posts heading up to from Invervar Burn to this point.

Heading up the northern shoulder of Carn Gorm, the line of posts disappears abruptly, but a faint path is followed onwards to Carn Gorm's summit .

On Carn Gorm's summit, two cairns sit on the crest, of which the northerly one has a trig point, now broken from its base. Both summits offer little in the way of shelter against north-westerly winds.

From Carn Gorm's summit, continue following the path as it makes a way down the mountain's south-east shoulder. The path is a hill-runner's delight !

After dropping around 500m, the edge of forestry above Invervar is reached , just before which ground begins to become quite sodden. Walk north-east tracing the forest bounderay then drop to a shoogly bridge over Invervar Burn.

Cross the bridge and follow an old track downhill. The track improves with height lost and reaches the gap in the forest earlier, from where retrace your steps back to Invervar.

Direct descent (or ascent) from Carn Mairg

From the summit of Carn Mairg , turn south-south-west and clamber down some bouldery ground. Reach grassy ground below, then descend over heather to drop down to a hut by the Allt Coire a'Chearcaill. From here, a good path travels downwards to meet up with the path used to head up Meall nan Aighenan.

Direct ascent (or descent) to Meall Garbh

From Invervar, head up on the track through the forest to the bridge over Invervar Burn. Keeping to the northern side of Invervar Burn and you'll come to an old corrugated hut, from where the track becomes fainter. The path continues onwards north-west to the base of An Sgorr , from where continue north-west on pathless ground to gain the col between An Sgorr and Meall Garbh.

More commonly ascended on its own from Innerwick, the nearby Corbett of Beinn Dearg can instead be tagged on to day bagging the Glen Lyon Munros. Although the start and end points of such a day are a few kilometres apart, there is only 200m of additional ascent.

This route begins from just west of the forest of Camusvrachan, where a track heads up over farmland into the trees. Following this track leads through the forest and up to open heathery hillside .

Simply hike uphill to the summit of Beinn Dearg with its fine views south onto the Lawers group.

To progress to Carn Gorm, just drop north, then north east to the col at the top of Dubh Choirein , from where it is a steep trudge up to the north-west arm of Carn Gorm.