UKH

I haven't seen anyone mention the area of Munros near to Culra bothy recently. Things are not as in the guidebook.

Firstly, as has probably been mentioned before, the gates allowing passage across the railway line near Dalwhinnie station have been locked for a couple of years. Now access is only available via the underpass under the line further southeast.

I think that people are likely starting to park just on the near side of the underpass, down the lane which runs from near the filling station. This would seem to be a logical place to park in the circumstances.

The other change I've noted is that there are now two new bridges on the causeway running on the periphery of Lock Patack. There is no longer a chain based bridge.

The causeway has obviously been re-gravelled recently, and this has not bedded down. Thus I found it hard getting traction with my old hybrid (imagine an old gravel bike (ironically)) bike, and had to assume where the tracks of four wheeled vehicles have compacted the gravel a little.

Then there is the subject of getting rid of the asbestos hut structure....

I think that a new bothy needs to be built first, then the old one can be removed for safe disposal....

Rob

I can't comment on the access as I haven't been in since 2020, when the railway crossing was still open.

That's a shame about the old bridge. If there are two bridges I'm not sure what the problem is with crossing the stream, not that it was ever much of a problem. There is an alternative track a little to south which will take you a bit more directly to Culra anyway, without the need for fording rivers.

Demolishing the bothy would be a very expensive business because of the asbestos so don't hold your breath. Are you volunteering to build a new one? Personally I'm happy carrying in a tent. Not everywhere has to have a bothy, but that's just me.

Very good.

People have been quietly parking by the underpass for decades, I know I have. It’s generally only been the visit once guidebook followers using the crossing (and the locals doing a circular). The wire bridge was damaged in a flood a couple of years ago. 

I agree with the sentiment that the bothy shouldn’t be replaced.

With regard to parking by the underpass it’s possible for a handful of cars, with consideration. If this area was lost due to inconsiderate parking it would seriously inconvenience another group of outdoor users as well as walkers.

There is no problem crossing the stream. I never said there was. The bridges take care of all that.

I've been in on the south side on my bike in the past, and it's a much damper footed ride at times. Having now been by the causeway of Loch Patack, I love the nature of that route at that point.

I would be happy to contribute to a fund to help pay for getting the asbestos problem dealt with.

I would prefer a bothy, as it saves carrying a tent, and just this week going in on my bike for a day without a tent has resulted in my back being somewhat affected, and with more weight and cycling uphill, my back would be worse. If I had more free time/time off work, then I would have time to walk in, but I currently am only getting a 2-3 days off at a time (if you can find me a locum I'll be happy to go away for longer). So I have to put up with quick dashes to the north.

Forgive me if this suggestion is a bit grannies and eggs but have you considered bike luggage so you can carry the tent and other kit on the bike rather than on your back? I ride into the hills now and then with a tent, stove, 3 days food etc and carry most of it on the bike. Sleeping bag goes on the handlebars, poles strapped to the downtube, stove, gas and food in a frame bag and tent in the seatpack. Cycling with a big heavy pack on is murder, especially on rough ground. 

Have a look at Alpkit or Lomo, both of them do good kit for reasonable prices.

If not doing technical riding and staying mostly on estate tracks, I use a single wheeled trailer. Pack rucksack, dump in trailer with straps uppermost.

In the event you need to negotiate a wire bridge, or other obstacle, unhitch trailer and shoulder sac with trailer attached.

Get to destination, pull sac from trailer and walk uphill, no repack faffing required.

I don't know who owns the area but having got to know how people do things in the highlands and knowing just how isolated that place is, I would predict "removed for safe disposal" will be actually be "carefully buried in a pit 20 metres away by excavator one evening in the winter when nobody is about to see". Out there, if you cover it with a metre of soft peat, it won't be seen again till the great melting after the next ice age.

If it's National Trust or John Muir or someone, I assume they'll actually do it correctly though.

I think it's still owned by the troubled Tetrapak heirs.

Edit: totally forgot to reply to your email. Will do later today.

Culra is on Ben Alder estate, owned by Argo Invest Overseas, and the Hanbury family (according to Who Owns Scotland). 
 

tetrapak bunch are over the hill at Corrour. 

Ah, thanks.

To add (just remembered) - behind the trust, afaik Ben Alder is owned by a v wealthy Swiss financier; Urs Schwarzenbach

There are well-advanced plans for the removal of the existing bothy by licensed contractors (in line with legislation) and for a new bothy to be built on the site by the MBA. Agreement had been reached between the estate owners and the MBA and it had been hoped to start work this year, but legal problems have arisen re the lease which means work cannot start until this issue is resolved.

Looked like the car park at the rail crossing had been recently expanded when i was there last year- before the closure presumably? I noticed quite a few people hopping over the fence- some with bikes..

Last year I parked at the crossing and cycled round to the underpass and had a day doing the two Leachas ridges on Ben Alder. Was feeling a wee bit under the weather with what I thought was a bad summer cold (had been testing for Covid with negative results up until that point). I had to dig deep for the cycle back out (for me a bike is only a means to an end, the quicker I can dump it in the heather and start hoofin the better).....tested positive for Covid when I got back home. Looking along Loch Ericht from the summit of Ben Alder, aching from head to foot with a throat like sandpaper, for the first time in ma nelly puff the thought briefly crossed my mind "Jeezo, I hope I can make it back tae ma motor." 

Reminds me of Beinn a' Chreachain with glandular fever.  I really believed it was the hill that was making me ill (this was when a teenager, and hills were big and scary like they are now).  I feared I was not fit enough for this activity.

Thank you for that more definite information.

I'm not sure if I'll wait until resolution of problems before going into that area again.

:-}

I will think of the loading of the bike, as an option. Thank you. The only problem in my particular case, is that I find that I have little time to pack prior to heading to Scotland, and the panniers etc would be another factor in the time taken. This is not a complaint, rather the business of me cogitating almost aloud.

It sounds a good scheme.

Alternative: wait, X years until the bothy is replaced.....How many?!!!.........

The rail-crossing closure is a Network Rail (or the Scottish equivalent?) issue, right, rather than something the Estate instigated?

Yes, the crossing was shut unexpectedly and unilaterally by Network Rail. The estate obviously still have private access but made it clear they disagreed and want it open for all (and they'd helped finance the carpark extension that was completed just before the closure).

Regarding the bothy rebuild if the replacement is up to the standard of the Red House it'll be a palatial five star experience!

THOSE WERE THE DAYS....

Don't know if this will get through, but if not, swipe and copy will get you to it.

https://deshannigan.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/a-blue-remembered-hill/

What a great article, Des, thank you for posting it. I had to get my old map out to see where the various events you mentioned took place. I only visited Alder once, in 1994 coming in from Laggan, on the stalking tracks and camping in the Bealach Beithe by the loch outflow. Even at that height the midges were a pain (but less so than by Culra). The next day we climbed Bheoil and Alder then moved camp a short way to Loch an Sgoir. Our last day was over the four Munros north of Bealach Dubh and back out to Laggan. Those really were the days and I know it's unlikely I'll ever go back to Ben Alder as time and health take their toll.

I spent 4 nights there at the start of what I see as my 'golden age' of hillwalking...energetic, enthusiastic, full of stamina and only just beginning to experience the big spaces and high places, enthralled by the wilderness, my dog Flint in his prime, the two of us knocking off hills nearly every weekend for several years. All a big adventure. Looking from the tops of those mountains at all those we'd been on and not yet on. 

Now Flint is gone and even Kelp is 8 and I'm due a serious heart operation anytime soon (its already overdue)*, the last few years blighted by Covid, Kelp's injuries and this year my heart. Hopefully, I'll be more back to normal next year and take Kelp into Benalder bothy. 

*Thus the tone of melancholic nostalgia!

Hope you get your heart Op soon buddy. I had a wee totally out of the blue ticker scare earlier this year. Between the New Year and Easter I did 18 Munros with a winter pack, suffering chest pains which eased after about an hour at the start of each day. I put it down to age (I turn 66 this year) and tight chest muscles. Long story short, after an emergency stay at the Forth Valley hospital over the Easter weekend I was told I had angina. 4 weeks later I had a stent fitted and told to take it easy and not to drive for 7 days....on day 8 I went furra wee walk along the Tarmachan Ridge to test the water. Since then I haven't looked back, walking and scrambling on my favourite Munros on a weekly basis. Currently in Glen Nevis, looking forward to a nice day oan the Ben the morra. Keep yer chin up, there is light at the end of the tunnel. 🙂

Thanks. I'm an impatient person. Makes for a bad patient! It'll be a few months before I'm back out afterwards as its gonna be a full sternotomy! And I'll be eager to ressume my bouldering and longboarding!

Good for you.66 is middle age these days! Mair power tae yer legs!

Tapadh leat mo charaid. Aye Ah'v nae probs wi ma pins oot oan the hill....getting in and oot of ma wee tent wi ma creaky knees, noo that's a different baw gemme aw the gither. 🙂

Really pleased you enjoyed the Culra/Alder piece. Great days they were. Very conflicting in later life at the thought of the killings. But the deer were suffering from over-population for sure and we focused on the older beasts and any that looked in a bad way.

When we eventually rocked our way back to Ben Alder lodge after our week-end jaunts into Newtonmore and Kingussie for the week’s ‘messages’, we rounded off with the session in the Ogilvy Arms and then a lock-in at the Grampian.  When we eventually rocked back in the early hours of the Sunday morning to Ben Alder Lodge , where we ghillies lived in a spacious bothy built of ‘crinkly tin’, I quite often headed up on foot to the Culra to sleep things off. Later on the Sunday I’d take the vestiges of a hangover up onto Ben Alder and on down to Loch Ericht and back along the shore to the lodge for a decent night's kip before work started again on the Monday.

 Those mountains really were the making of me, although a few years later I went fishing for a protracted fifteen years and the sea beat me into shape even more. Mountains and sea  - no better mentors. I’m in great sympathy with you over the attrition of ageing. No fun if you’ve lived a rewarding life beyond the everyday, but you’ll always have mountains at your back!