In reply to Toreador:
Interesting, ta. Looks like the standard eastern six plus those western three is the easiest nine, while the route I did is the easiest ten – so combining the two, ie taking in Carn a’Gheoidh, Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn, is the easiest 11. It’s quite a long way from Tom Buidhe to Mayar (I did that last summer as part of a Glen Doll loop and it took just under 2hr to walk that stretch, although that included a stop on Finalty Hill), while extending out towards Lochnagar likewise adds time/effort if trying to return to a start-point.
The route I took for the ten was almost identical to the race route for the eight Munros covered by both routes, although the other way round and starting/ending at the northern road-crossing rather than the pass. Other than that, the only difference is that I split Tolmount and Tom Buidhe, taking in Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn between. Took me 32 mins from Tolmount to Fafernie, then ten mins to Cairn Bannoch and a further 28 mins to Broad Cairn, sticking to the crest en route. The quickest way back to Tom Buidhe is probably to reverse, then skirt the east side of Tolmount, but I took the cross-country option for a bit of sightseeing – this required 76 mins from Broad Cairn to Tom Buidhe. It’s quite squelchy in a couple of places in the dips on that section. Although I was only walking I was in Walshes, and at one point found myself hopping about on one leg as one of my shoes had been sucked right off by a particularly gluey bit of bog. It had been swallowed completely – couldn’t see it – but a bit of fishing and delving saw it retrieved.
I’ve noticed more than once that the stretch back to the pass from Creag Leacach is deceptively long, even though there’s not much height-loss. Re the final section (as I did it), the two western Munros took just under 100 mins from crossing the road at the pass to getting back to the car. About ten mins of this was spent lounging on the summits, as I was getting a bit puggled by this stage.