Walks | North-East
Mount Battock
Start: Small car park beside phone box at Millden Lodge, approx 7 miles up the Glen Esk road
Description: A straight forward walk up the most easterly Corbett
OS Map: #44, Ballater & Glen Clova
Multimap: Online Map
Take the small road that leads up Glen Esk, and follow its winding path for about 7 miles until you reach Millden Lodge. Watch out for a phone box on the right and park in the area next to it. Follow the adjacent road up past the mill and farm buildings. Follow the sign towards a small house, and go through the gate to the right and follow the track marks across the field towards the trees.
From here follow the track above a burn, and then as it drops down, cross the burn using any of the footbridges, and climb up the track again on the far side. Follow the track up across gently climbing moorland, and turn left at the next gate towards a couple of desolate looking trees. Before reaching the trees go through the next gate on the right and follow the track up over a small hill towards Allrey. Watch out for the ancient field system in the heather to your right - the marks of the cultivated area are still quite obvious.
The track curves around the hillside - watch out for deer on the higher slopes - and begins to offer good views back down Glen Esk and towards the coast between Montrose and Dundee. The track then drops down to the burn again, and this time the crossing is by rocks, with no bridge here. Climb steeply past a Pony shed and up onto the wide summit ridge. The track becomes more grassy but continues to wind it's way up to the summit of first Wester Cairn, and then shortly after onto Mount Battock itself. This should take around 2 - 2.5 hours to climb, and allow around 1.5 hours for the downhill return.
An alternative to this route is to make a circuit of the surrounding smaller hills such as Hill of Saughs, Bennygray and Hill of 'Een, though tracks aren't quite as good on these hills.