Creag Meagaidh from Aberarder

Creag Meagaidh is the high point of a massif above Loch Laggan that Walkhighlands calls a bare plateau fringed by some of the grandest cliffs in Scotland, and it gives the summit as 1,128m; Wikipedia lists the hill as a Munro. NatureScot manages the surrounding national nature reserve, nearly 4,000 hectares by its own count, for the dotterel that breed on the plateau and the alpine speedwell and tufted saxifrage in the corries. Walkhighlands records that the reserve was set up in 1986 to stop a plan to plant conifers on heavily grazed, treeless ground, and that the policy since has been to remove sheep and cull red deer rather than fence. It calls the approach controversial, since neighbouring sporting estates said their deer were straying into the reserve, and the regeneration a success.

The Walkhighlands circuit leaves the Aberarder car park on an excellent footpath to the whitewashed former farm that is now part of the reserve, then climbs on pitched stone through regenerating birchwoods; after around 1.5km a stone-pitched branch leaves to the right for Càrn Liath, the first Munro at 1,006m. A ridge runs west, past a trench-like bealach, to Stob Poite Coire Àrdair at 1,053m, and then drops to the Window, the col between that top and Creag Meagaidh itself. Mad Meg’s cairn on the plateau is not the summit, Walkhighlands notes; the true cairn lies further west. The way down is the steep, stony, eroded east side of the Window to the lochan, beneath cliffs Walkhighlands says are regarded as one of the best ice-climbing arenas in Scotland, and then the north bank of the Allt Coire Àrdair, through a remnant of ancient forest.

The circuit is 21km with 1,080m of ascent, timed by Walkhighlands at eight to ten hours, and its terrain note warns that the plateau can be difficult to navigate in poor visibility, with precipices nearby. NatureScot asks visitors for a map, a compass and experience of mountain walking. Three Munros and the corrie in one day suit a fit walker; the circuit does not suit anyone short of ten hours or unpractised in navigation. For those readers Walkhighlands has a separate walk to the lochan alone, 12km with 430m of ascent, and Ben Lawers puts a Munro on a built path.