Creag Ghiubhais
Creag Ghiubhais, Aberdeenshire. Section 7.
Height – 486 metres. Map – OS Landranger 37 or 44.
Climbed - 22 January 2011. Time taken – 2.25 hours.
Distance – 3.5 kilometres. Ascent – 250 metres.
Trip Report Details:
The start of this walk was Littlemill, a hamlet on the South Deeside Road, west of Ballater. There was some off road parking west of the bridge over the Girnock Burn.
I set off along the track on the west side of this burn and once beyond a few houses I left it and headed through the trees. I soon came to a deer fence which was a bit more difficult to cross than normal as it included a couple of strands of barbed wire. However if I had gone further along the track I could have used a wicket gate in the deer fence.
Beyond the deer fence there was lots of deep heather, interspersed with boulders, to work my way through but with a bit of effort I was soon on the east ridge of Creag Ghiubhais. The summit didn’t appear far away and there was a faint trace of a path or animal trail. I came to some rocks many covered in ice which gave me a few problems as I searched out some dry stone.
There were several small areas of rock to cross as well as patches of hard packed snow before the tree covered summit was reached. I found a cairn but wasn’t sure if it was the true summit so continued further west and found a second but smaller cairn set amongst the trees. Due to the trees it wasn’t possible to tell the highest point so I returned to the large cairn where I had some lunch. I found a couple of plastic containers concealed in the cairn, one contained a signed piece of paper from members of the 47th Culter BBs (Aberdeen).
To avoid the icy rock the return was slightly to the south of the ascent route but this descent became rather steep so I cut back and rejoined the east ridge at the lowest section of rock. Lower down I used the wicket gate to negotiate the deer fence.
Photos taken on walk.