The Glas Maol 4 - what a great hike!
Starting from a large layby car park just past Glenshee Ski Centre, this 4 munro multi-bag loop starts with a relatively steep first ascent followed by a gentle mountain top walk to the summits.
We left a fairly sunny Edinburgh on the Friday afternoon and, in typical scottish weather fashion, the sky got greyer and cloudier the further North we went. By the time we got to Glenshee we could barely see the car infront!
Thankfully i'd saved our wild camp spot in map.me as not only was the visibility so poor we couldn't have seen it, the turning for the layby itself is hard to spot coming from the direction of Glenshee. You can read about the wild camp here but for now - on to the munros!The layby is the start point for the Glas Maol 4 and has enough room for maybe 20 cars. On a clear day you have a pretty beautiful view out across the moor and to the summit of Càrn an Tuirc (CT). The walk starts by following the river with a very gentle incline before you get to the foot of CT. From here its just solid ascent up to the top - the majority of it is grassy, however as you get closer to the summit it turns to loose rock that was quite slippy went we went up, so take care!
#Dogs at munros pic...
After CT's summit you start the big loop round to the right. Skirting the edge of the open ridge, you have a slight incline to get to Cairn of Claise (CC). Of all the munros we did on this hike, CC probably felt the most underwhelming - it did just feel like a bit of a hill!
A quick photo and a snack break later we set off for Glas Maol (GM). On your left you'll see a pretty impressive looking outcrop of mountain which unfortunately the route didnt take us along, but worth a slight detour to view! Then on your right you'll pass one of the big ski lifts before starting the final hill-like climb up to GM.
GM is marked with a wind shelter and a trig point - we didnt stop for long as there was a couple eating in the shelter that Spencer was slightly tooo interested in.
Back at the layby the car park was FULL so got ourselves into the car quickly and drove off to find a place to camp for the night!
Walk stats:
Distance - 19.13km
Time - 5h 01m
Elevation climb - 1,039m