38. Bynack More (54) 15/08/2007

Having heard that the weather wasn't to be as good, we decided to aim for a slightly more pointy hill, since getting bemisted on a plateau didn't really appeal. It turned out that we had good conditions for the duration of the ascent and by 11am we were standing on the windswept summit just below the mist (if the hill had been 5m higher, we wouldn't have seen a thing). Bynack More is quite different from its neighbours (and is indeed thought to have predated the glaciation which shaped the bulk of the Cairngorms, according to local wisdom) and it has a rocky apex more akin to the hills of the west coast. This provided a bit of a steep climb towards the end, which was nice. Following a tip-off, we went to check out the Barns of Bynack (not to be confused with the Little Barns of Bynack), which were indeed impressive, and we pondered to ourselves over how these huge triple-decker sandwiches of rock could possibly have ended up halfway down the mountainside. After this, hoping to catch a glimpse down into Glen A'an, we went to the southern subsidiary top, but the mist was beginning to descend, so our view was impeded. After this is was but a hop, skip and a jump down the scree into the rather damp Strath Nethy, from where we trapsed north through the mud (getting more and more irritated with it) until we picked up our original path back to the Youth Hostel.

Approaching the summit
(needs to be rotated) The barns of Bynack