Above: Càrn a'Ghille Chearr from the Tomintoul Distillery
Càrn a'Ghille Chearr
GrahamsCàrn a'Ghille Chearr
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Other hillsNone
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BothiesNone
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Distance/Ascent12km 500m
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Time taken4h 20 minutes
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NotesGood car park at the start.
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11 August 2025
This is the second of the Cromdale Grahams, both in terms of height and the order in which I did them. I had climbed Creagan a' Chaise almost exactly a year earlier [minus 3 days] with the elder of my two sons. This one was done with my younger son, Peter.
These can be combined via the long and broad boggy ridge that connects them. I am glad that I did them separately, partly as I am getting older and enjoy slightly shorter days on the hills, but mainly as I now associate each of the hills with each of my sons. It seems appropriate that the slightly lower hill was done with my younger son.
I had done a bit of walking with him before:
Ben Bhraggie
Beinn a'Mheadhoin
Càrn a' Chaochain
These can be combined via the long and broad boggy ridge that connects them. I am glad that I did them separately, partly as I am getting older and enjoy slightly shorter days on the hills, but mainly as I now associate each of the hills with each of my sons. It seems appropriate that the slightly lower hill was done with my younger son.
I had done a bit of walking with him before:
Ben Bhraggie
Beinn a'Mheadhoin
Càrn a' Chaochain
All three involved slightly less ascent, but Ben Bhraggie is steeper, Beinn a'Mheadhoin would have been easy had we returned by the route of ascent and for Càrn a' Chaochain, I headed up the hill before reaching the path, taking him up very strenuous terrain, with lots of nasty, biting insects. For this one, I anticipated something gentler, with a track leading much of the way up the hill. This turned out to be the perfect hill for Peter. I want to give him a life-long love of the hills and not put him off for life.
Peter has a very enquiring mind. While on Beinn a'Mheadhoin, he asked the question "Why are mountains so cold when they are closer to the sun?". I had to think about this. I am a scientist but not a physicist or Geographer. As a teacher, I gave him a partial answer, so that he could take the next step in formulating a hypothesis. "I know that when particles have heat, they vibrate and the more heat they have, the more they vibrate or in the case of a fluid, move. High up a mountain, there are fewer air particles so they cannot store so much heat energy". He continued to think about this and formed his own alternative hypothesis. I know that it is very, very cold in space, so the colder to space you are, the colder it is." I was impressed by this sort of thinking. "Well, I think I am right is saying that where there is no matter, there cannot be heat. Space must be close to absolute zero."
On this hill, he raised the question again, "Dad, what is your philosophy about why mountains are so cold". Having had time to think about it a little bit more, hopefully I was better able to articulate an explanation.
"The air contains particles called atoms and molecules. At higher altitudes, the air is thinner. That is, the air particles are more spread out. Each particle is moving due to the heat energy that it has. The fewer air particles, the less heat energy they can collectively retain, so the higher you go, the colder it gets."
High up the track, we saw a leveret. It seemed healthy but did not run off. Instead, it chose to crouch and try to hide in the heather. I got so close, that it allowed me to take a half-decent photograph, even with the limitation of a 40mm lens. When I tried to get nearer still, it ran off.
When, the summit trig point came into view, Peter did not want to continue. It still seemed a long way off. However, with my bagging mentality, turning back was not an option. As we got closer, I said "I'll race you to the top!" As Peter stepped up the pace, I slowed down to take my camera out of its case and photograph him powering himself ahead.
The weather was fine for most of the ascent. On reaching the broad ridge, I could see showers to the north, and was hoping that they would miss us. It was not to be! The only shower that hit us, coincided with reaching the summit trig point. I sat Peter down on the leeward side of the trig point and gave him a sandwich to eat, while I set up the tripod for a summit photograph.
We did not stay long. I asked Peter if he could slowly head back down the path, while I ran over to the cairn to the east. "I'll catch you up!" The distance to the cairn took just a few minutes and visibility was good enough not to worry about losing him. The cairn did looked like it was at about the same height, but on reaching it and looking back, the trig point is clearly higher though probably by less than 10 metres.
I caught Peter up. The rain was clearing and the sun was trying to break though. Peter was in good spirits and chatty, talking about various "YouTubers" and some of the videos he had watched, including one about the "death zone" on Everest. It is good to see that some of the things that he watches have some educational value.
On this hill, he raised the question again, "Dad, what is your philosophy about why mountains are so cold". Having had time to think about it a little bit more, hopefully I was better able to articulate an explanation.
"The air contains particles called atoms and molecules. At higher altitudes, the air is thinner. That is, the air particles are more spread out. Each particle is moving due to the heat energy that it has. The fewer air particles, the less heat energy they can collectively retain, so the higher you go, the colder it gets."
High up the track, we saw a leveret. It seemed healthy but did not run off. Instead, it chose to crouch and try to hide in the heather. I got so close, that it allowed me to take a half-decent photograph, even with the limitation of a 40mm lens. When I tried to get nearer still, it ran off.
When, the summit trig point came into view, Peter did not want to continue. It still seemed a long way off. However, with my bagging mentality, turning back was not an option. As we got closer, I said "I'll race you to the top!" As Peter stepped up the pace, I slowed down to take my camera out of its case and photograph him powering himself ahead.
The weather was fine for most of the ascent. On reaching the broad ridge, I could see showers to the north, and was hoping that they would miss us. It was not to be! The only shower that hit us, coincided with reaching the summit trig point. I sat Peter down on the leeward side of the trig point and gave him a sandwich to eat, while I set up the tripod for a summit photograph.
We did not stay long. I asked Peter if he could slowly head back down the path, while I ran over to the cairn to the east. "I'll catch you up!" The distance to the cairn took just a few minutes and visibility was good enough not to worry about losing him. The cairn did looked like it was at about the same height, but on reaching it and looking back, the trig point is clearly higher though probably by less than 10 metres.
I caught Peter up. The rain was clearing and the sun was trying to break though. Peter was in good spirits and chatty, talking about various "YouTubers" and some of the videos he had watched, including one about the "death zone" on Everest. It is good to see that some of the things that he watches have some educational value.
As we passed the Tomintoul distillery, I asked Peter if he wanted to tour the distillery. He replied "yes". I was a little surprised as the plan was to go swimming in Inverness on the way home. I think it was what he had been looking forward to most of all. Sadly, he could not join the tour as this distillery has a minimum age of 15 for the tours. The young lady told us that we were welcome to take a look at the shop. Peter had lots of enquiring questions for her!
The bottle of whisky was in the Guinnes Book of Records. This is a 150.3 litre bottle and weighs more than 180kg. I believe this has now been surpassed by something called THE INTREPID containing whisky from the Macallan distillery.
The bottle of whisky was in the Guinnes Book of Records. This is a 150.3 litre bottle and weighs more than 180kg. I believe this has now been surpassed by something called THE INTREPID containing whisky from the Macallan distillery.
