Ben Macdui from the Cairn Gorm Car Park

Ben Macdui is the second-highest mountain in Britain at 1,309m, a broad summit on the southern edge of the Cairngorm plateau above the Lairig Ghru pass. Walkhighlands notes it is said to be haunted by An Fear Liath Mòr, the wraith-like Old Grey Man of the Cairngorms. The northern approaches, including the ground this route crosses, are managed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, which took on the wider Cairngorm estate in 2008, and by RSPB Scotland.

The walk starts at the Cairngorm Mountain car park at Coire Cas, where a charge applies, and heads below the cliffs of the northern corries rather than up the more direct but steeper Fiacaill a’ Choire Cas ridge. Paths cross the wide ridge of Miadan Creag an Leth-choin, skirt boggy ground and contour the western flank of Cairn Lochan high above the Lairig Ghru, before crossing stony, featureless tundra to Ben Macdui’s summit, marked by a massive cairn and trig point with a view indicator. The return crosses the headwaters of the Feith Buidhe, the scene of a 1971 tragedy in which six young people died in a blizzard while being led by an instructor, a reminder of how quickly this plateau can turn serious even on a route with a clear path in summer.

From the bealach below Cairn Lochan the route climbs the second Munro, Cairn Gorm, at 1,245m, before descending the Sròn an Aonaich path, nicknamed Windy Ridge, past the Ptarmigan station to the car park. Walkhighlands gives the full round as 17.5km and 932m of ascent, six to eight hours. It suits a fit walker confident navigating featureless, exposed ground; it does not suit anyone without good map and compass skills, since the plateau between the two summits has few landmarks. For the same view of the plateau’s edge without the walk, the Cairngorm Mountain Funicular climbs from the same car park to the Ptarmigan building at 1,087m, though a standard ticket does not allow a walk onto the open hill from the top.