M54 | 1090 m. | 3576 ft.
Translation: Obscure
Pronuncation: bie-nack moar

We had started the 2013 hiking season in Scotland on a dry and sunny afternoon with one short four hour hike in the Drumochter hills (Meall Chuaich) during a break in the trip from Edinburgh to Aviemore. That had been almost as pleasant as the excellent evening in the Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore and the good restful night in the B&B close by.

Today the weather was definitely on the very murky side of things. So after breakfast and a short drive to Glenmore Lodge Frank and I set off from the end of the road towards Lochain Uaine in drizzle and intermittent rain. The going was extremely easy only the Scottish Breakfast and yesterday’s pints giving me some heartburn initially. Oh well, those inevitable ingredients of a good hiker’s daily fare are not always good for you. Never mind.

At Lochain Uaine we were quite amazed at the green colour of the Lochan’s water which as the books tell us people thought stemmed from the fairies washing their clothes there. A few hundred metres past the Lochan we turned right up the hillside heading for Bynack Stable. Since drizzle and mist enshrouded us no great views could be had so we focussed on making progress. This was rewarded with a speedy arrival at the footbridge over the nascent River Nethy which carried quite a bit of water. Over the bridge and up the excellently engineered path on Bynack More’s north ridge we went. This was a steady plod characterized by gaining metres and ticking off contour lines very nicely.

Then the path levelled off around the 800m contour and we took a branch leading away from the main path to the right. Soon the terrain became a little steeper and the path entered a more rocky terrain where lingering snowfields hid the path for stretches of 50 or 100 metres. But route finding was no difficulty even in the mist since tracks had been laid in the snow by other hikers. When the steepest section of the climb was over we continued along either the crest of the ridge or on traces of track to the right of it always looking out for the summit cairn. Well we almost missed it, but only almost. At the summit cairn we rested for a while enjoying the perfect view showing absolutely nothing at all. Ach, what a dreich day!

Understandably we did not go looking for the tors further along the ridge but retraced our steps all the way back to Glenmore Lodge on exactly the same path, track and Landover track as on the way out. Again the most interesting view of the return leg of the hike was Lochan Uaine. On our way back from summit to parking we met a few other hillwalkers who all had had the same idea as us: Tick of a Munro which has an excellent path to 200m below the summit so you don’t get lost. At Glenmore Lodge dropped our stuff into the boot of the car, drove off to Aviemore to do our shopping and then headed for Braemar where our beautiful and already well-known cottage waited for us. A pity the weather did not allow us to see much more than the path below our feet. But that’s the way it is sometimes.

 


Description Bynack More is the north-eastern outpost of the main Cairngorms massif, separated from Cairn Gorm by Strath Nethy and from the other central Cairngorms by the deep trench of Loch Avon. It is rather isolated and in views from the north in the Abernethy Forest it appears as pointed hill. On the south ridge a few hundred metres from the summit there are some prominent granite tors, the Barns of Bynack. The right of way following an old drove road from Abernethy to the Dee through the Lairig an Laoigh goes over the eastern shoulder of Bynack More, and gives a long but easy route to the mountain from Glenmore Lodge.A more interesting route starts from the carpark at the foot of Coire na Ciste on the north side of Cairn Gorm. Climb up the broad ridge on the east of the corrie and cross the ridge 0,5 kilometre north of the summit of Cairn Gorm. Descend south-east to the col at the head of Strath Nethy called The Saddle and climb the long easy-angled ridge to A' Choinneach. Descend north-east across the wide col leading to Bynack More, reaching the south ridge nears the Barns, a short distance from the summit. Descend north-west along the ridge over Bynack Beg, cross the stream in Strath Nethy and climb over the north ridge of Cairn Gorm to return to the Coire na Ciste carpark.