Carn na Caim trail head by road A9.
Start of mountain road towards Carn na Caim.
| Carn na Caim from road
A9 Carn na Caim |
| Estimated net time | 3-4 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | Only stable access to running water is from the stream at the start of the mountain road. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage up to the long north-south plateau, and patchy at the summit (May 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars at lay-by (#87) next to road A9. | ||
| Start height | 395 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 630 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 12.9 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From where road A889 exits west from A9, between Kingussie and Pitlochry in the Scottish Highlands, drive 0.9 km (0.5 mi) south and park on the lay-by called "Layby 87".
Start your hike by walking 100 metres north along road A9, from the north end of the lay-by. Cross the road, then through a gate and onto a gravel road, and uphill under the power line. Approximately 350 metres from the gate a mountain road heads uphill. Follow this mountain road up to a junction at 895m and turn left. Walk another 220 metres and continue 1.5 km north-east and north on a much rougher mountain road. When the rough mountain road bears left, close to a 90° angle on the remainder of a fence, turn right (north-east) around the fence corner and follow the path north-east to the pile of stones at the summit.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
I was due to go home this Monday, after more than a week in Scotland, but managed to get a short-ish hike in before checking out of my Balavil Hotel in Newtonmore. It was a fairly windy morning, but no rain, and definitely better visibility than most of the other days during the last week. I had expected to meet other hikers since this was a Bank Holiday, but the only other living creatures I saw were a number of birds and lots of hares.
Back at the hotel I was too late for breakfast, so just showered, packed and grabbed a sandwich from the Coop next door. Then the drive to Aberdeen airport for the flight back home.