I’d recently been undergoing a reconstruction of my Munro log, trying to find records to marry up the 120-something hills I thought I’d bagged versus what the reality might’ve looked like. When I’d started ticking off Munros, I’d used a website called Scottish Hills as my main means of recording, but sadly it’s now been defunct for a few years and my hill records gone with it, so I built up a hellish bit of Excel and started filling in details wherever I could. Meall nan Tarmachan was one of the hills that I was absolutely certain I’d done, but I could find no record at all of having done it. I’d texted my pal that I was sure I’d done it with and he could find no record of us having done it either, and his only suggestion was that I nip back up the road and re-bag it just to make sure.
The previous day to this activation, my plan was to go and join the GM/ES activity day around Glenshee, but I’d wimped out on looking at the weather forecast. Thankfully, Wednesday the 9th of September had a very pleasant looking forecast - a wee bit of gentle breeze and some broken cloud cover. I made the decision to go and get one of my missing Munros back, and add eight points to my SOTA tally while I was at it by picking GM/CS-015 Meall nan Tarmachan as my objective for the day.
The drive up from Glasgow was a wee bit tedious - Google had decided it’d be faster to avoid the motorway by Stirling at that time in the morning (sounded sensible), but instead I got stuck behind every truck, tractor and leisurely tourist on the way up the smaller back roads instead. Meall nan Tarmachan’s one of a couple of hills in this area that take advantage of a really useful high-altitude car park, with the National Trust for Scotland’s Ben Lawers car park getting you to about 400m asl and giving you a good head start on the way up the hill. There’s a wee spot you can park in for free a wee bit further up the road, but I thought £4 for the day was a reasonable donation for the good car park on offer.
The climb up to Meall nan Tarmachan’s a fairly straightforward one - there’s a well-made path that takes you west at first to gain a ridge, then turns sharply north to a wee top at 923m. From there, there’s a short drop and a ladder stile over a deer fence, before the path starts to climb more steeply towards the summit itself.
I was on the summit in just under an hour and ten minutes. After giving the cairn a wee pat, I got the Slim G up on the fibreglass pole and plugged into the trusty FT-270, got my wee foam mat out, and started getting the QSOs going. I was just a wee bit out of sync with @M3ZCB Caroline and @M1MAJ Martyn who were both on their way up GM/SS-037 Hart Fell, but a wee bit too early for a S2S. Just as things were drying up, I managed to catch @G4OUD Tony on G/LD-003 Helvellyn for a surprise S2S, so that I at least managed to register one for the day.
Nine QSOs made in just under half an hour was enough to keep me pretty happy, even managing one on 70cm with @GM4COX Jack. The 2m Slim G isn’t really supposed to do 70cm (there’s a separate “dual band” version), but I’ve actually managed to have some reasonably decent luck using it for UHF. It’s always worth having the FT-65 handy for these sorts of things because it weighs basically nothing and it’s dead dead easy to get set up in a hurry.
As many will tell you, the summit of Meall nan Tarmachan isn’t actually the highlight of the day, it’s really just the first step on the way towards the fun stuff. Although I’d done the box ticking by bagging the Munro and getting the SOTA points, the real joy here is the traverse along the Tarmachan ridge, a fun walk over the three subsidiary tops of Meall Garbh, Beinn nan Eachan and Creag na Caillich.
Sure enough, I was absolutely certain I’d been on this hill before, I remembered the fun wee scrambles and ridgey bits in perfect clarity. On my previous outing, I’d dropped down into the corrie just after Beinn nan Eachan and skipped Creag na Caillich, but this time I decided I’d go right the way out and experience the full thing.
I was glad I did decide to take a wee bit more time - as well as enjoying the ridge walk and wee scrambly bits, I managed to catch a couple of bonus chaser QSOs too - @MM0VPM Alan was out on the west coast on GM/WS-006 Sgùrr nan Ceathreamhnan, and I managed to catch @M3ZCB Caroline as she and @M1MAJ Martyn made the summit of GM/SS-037 Hart Fell (again with bonus 70cm just making it through as well).
Eventually with all the ridge-based fun had, there was nothing else to do but drop into a small boggy patch before catching the hydro-electric access track back to the car park. It can feel like a bit of a boring yomp at points, but a wee bit of ultra-shuffling made it pass a wee bit quicker, especially as it was generally flat or gently downhill most of the way.
If you’re having a look at this hill, yes it’s definitely one of the easier ways to just bag a Munro and knock off eight SOTA points, but it’d be rude not to go and take in the ridge while you’re at it.
SOTAData log: https://www.sotadata.org.uk/en/logs/activation/1290431
Strava activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/20104704346
There seems to be a lot more traffic and walkers on the summits now that when I started SOTA nearly 20 years back.
