Walks | North-East
Glas Maol & Creag Leacach
Start: Glen Shee Ski Centre
Description: Relatively short walk up two Munro's firstly following ski equipment then a dry stone wall between the two summits. Creag Leacach is covered in sharp rocks, so good boots are essential. Complete walk takes around 3 - 4 hours.
OS Map: Explorer #387 Glen Shee & Braemar or
Landranger #43 Braemar, Blair Atholl
Multimap: Online Map
Starting from the Southern tip of the Glen Shee Ski Centre Car Park, climb the rough access track through the ski run equipment. Cross the first minor ridge, then pull up onto Meal Odhar by the track to the right of the ski tow.
Cross the flat col to the South-East then head directly up the steep slope ahead onto the flat summit of Glas Maol. A faint path keeps South-East across the summit to the Trig Pillar and Cairn/Shelter. Not the iron fence posts, these can be used to find the route to Creag Leacach to the South-West.
From Glas Maol, Creag Leacach sits along a wide ridge to the South-West. Keeping as high as possible (it's easy to get lulled down into Caenlochan Glen) keep an eye out for the fence posts and then a dry stone dyke, in pretty good condition for sitting along the top of a Munro! At about the lowest point, there is even a shelter built into the wall. Follow the wall over a couple of false summits, with steep drops developing to either side. The going becomes rocky - good soles are needed to deal with the sharper stones.
From the top the views are a "who's who" of the Eastern Highlands. To the North-East Glas Maol, the Mounth hills and Lochnagar. North the Cairngorm hills, West Cairnwell, Carn Aosda and Carn a'Gheoidh sit around the Ski Centre. South-West on a clear day there are plenty hills to pick out from Schiehallion as far as Ben Lomond.
To return, follow the wall back down to the col, and instead of climbing higher on Glas Maol, countour around the Western flanks at the same height, keeping an eye out for faint paths appearing. Eventually the paths merge and drop onto the col between Glas Maol and Meall Odhar, from where it's simply a case of following the ski equipment back to the car park.