Most of the route is hiked off-path on grass, and some through heather.
Parking along road B970.
Start the hike by crossing this gate.
| Ord Ban from B970 Ord Ban |
| Estimated net time | 1 hour | ||
| Difficulty |
No difficulties, except a high fence that
needs to be climbed. There is also a low barbed fence that must be
passed. Most of the route is hiked off-path on grass, and some through heather. |
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| Drinking water | No access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (May 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for one or two cars around trail head. | ||
| Start height | 225 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 215 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 2.2 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Aviemore village centre drive south on road B9152 a little more than 600 metres from the Cairngorm Hotel to the roundabout. Turn left here onto road B970, signed for Coylumbridge and Cairngorms. After 1.1 km turn right, continuing on road B970, signed for Insh. Drive 2.2 km and notice a gate on your left hand side just after a right bend. Drive another 60 metres and park on the left hand side of the road.
Start your hike by walking back to the gate you passed. Climb the gate and head south towards the the summit of Ord Ban, aiming a little left of the cliff below the summit. After you have crossed the fields you need to climb a low barbed fence. Proceed uphill in easy terrain until you reach a high fence. This fence is best climbed where one of the fence pales is a big log. Once this fence has been climbed continue to the summit, where you will find a concrete cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
On this Sunday morning, day #3 of our Scotland week-end 2010, I decided to do a short hike immediately after breakfast, while the other guys were making up their mind whether to play golf or go hiking. Ord Ban was a short drive from Aviemore, and also looked like being a short hike.
After messing around a little around trail head in order to find somewhere to park I got on my way around 10:00. The direction to hike was obvious, but I got a little questioning when I got to the high (deer?) fence half-way up the hill. After some looking around I found a solid fence pale (a cut-off tree) which I found to be a safe place to climb the fence. From here it was easy walking up the steep grassy slopes, before the last few tens of metres with thick heather.
I was a bit surprised to find a trigonometric point at the summit and a couple
of good paths going down the other side, which unfortunately where not marked on
my map. After taking photos I headed back to the hotel, where Hans Erik and
Håvard had decided that yesterday's hike to Ben Macdui was sufficient hiking and
instead wanted to play golf. I went to Tesco to stack up for a longer hike in
the afternoon.
Photos 23.05.2010