Ben Vrackie - a magic Corbett

Ben Vrackie is stated as a  Corbett Hill  (2759 ft - 841m ) , what means  classified in Scotland as a mountain below 3000 feet . Nonetheless , this is a peak which is worth climbing for its location over Pitlochry and the route to the top is intresting and well maintained , as all paths around Pitlochry are in good condition .
This is a 4 hrs walk  up and down , pretty moderate . The only difficulty seems to be the final ascent above Loch a Coire , which is steep and it took me 40 min to get the summit . Not so bad , considering the fact that a path over the Loch was covered with snow .


On the first saturday of November , it was a perfect day for hillwalking , so I was glad I had decided to come there . Warm and windless day , anyway in Pitlochry the weather conditions were ideal , with sunshine over the Autumn landscape .

In Pitlochry I got off the bus from Edinburgh at 'Fisher's' Hotel and immediately followed the little stream Moulin Burn , as it was the shortest way to get on Ben Vrackie path . There was beginning of walking paths down the main street , but following the stream was a quicker option .  On the way I passed by the Craigvrack Hotel and still following the stream I reached Moulin Village . 

In Moulin I found  the proper path to Ben Vrackie , just behind the Moulin Hotel . A bit before the hotel stood the Moulin Kirk , surronded by an old parish cemetery . There is the Moulin and Pitlochry Heritage Centre inside the church , but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to stop there. Nowadays a village on the edge of Pitlochry , once in ancient times Moulin was a Pictish capital and later the Royal Burgh , now is overshadowed by Pitlochry .

Passing by the old Moulin Brewery I followed the asphalt road as signs indicated and soon I got to a large fenced field , with a monolithic stone sticking out of the ground , called ' Dane's Stone ' . At that point the path led me up the hill , all the time along the stream , and after a couple of minutes I reached the edge of the wood . There is a car park for motorized walkers and the trail goes further on through a dense forest , but the path was very convenience to walk .

After emerging out of the forest , which took me no more than 20 minutes , I found myself on the vast moorland and the snowy peak of Ben Vrackie stood out in the background . It seemed to be very distant to reach .

At the point where the path was splitting up , the view down the slopes was fabulous , with River Tummel and Pilochry furher down .The Autumn was in full swing .
After a short break , I left the Bealach Path which turned left to Killiecrankie and continued climbing up toward Ben Vrackie.

After I left the wooden gate behind, the scenery  started to change , the higher I advanced the more snow around me was .

At last I walked on the layer of snow and the massif of Ben Vrackie emerged much bigger .















After no more then 50 minutes I reached Loch a' Coire , upland lake nicely stretched between slopes of Ben Vrackie and Meall na Aodainn Moire. Despite a thin layer of snow around , it was still warm and no wind , people descending down whom I passed by were glad too . But the slopes where I was heading to , looked more snowy . One man told me that's only 40 min to ascent the top - just be careful - he remarked . But I would be a bit surprised later on , however .

Loch a' Coire from the north bank ,where the path steeply started to climb the rocky walls of Ben Vrackie .

The higher I climbed the colder it got , and somewhere at the half of the slope I entered a blizzard , the visibility was very poor . From sunshine and autumn heater moorland I got into the arctic landscape , nearly . I was afraid that  I was going to be blown off the top in these conditions. The last hikers I passed by, seemed to confirm my fear , as they were struggling down and hoped to get quickly back to more bearable weather .

And after getting the very top ( it took me 40 minutes indeed ) I was surprised again . The sunshine sneaked through the clouds and the peak looked brightly , the snow was sparkling in the sharp light . Although it was really cold , the wind stopped .But there was no chance for views from the top .  As I looked around , I could only see white mist and blizzard . Anyway , I had to hurry up to catch the bus , down in Pitlochry . Having taken a couple of pictures ( mainly snow ) , I hit the road back to civilization .

 When I  finally  descended enough below the line of stormy clouds , I could see the larger panorama stretching over and far away the Loch a' Coire .

As I got to the Loch , the way back was an easy cake again . Only when I turned back I could remained to myself that a bit earlier I had experienced a different climate zone .

Ben Vrackie in full glory again .....

.....and back on the way to Moulin .

I got to Pitlochry well before the arrival of my bus , so I had some time to look around . The resort at a peak of tourist season  is a bustling place, but now it wasn't too busy . There were still some visitors  strolling the main High Street , but after the weekend the town certainly will be quiet .                                               

I stood by a noticeboard and it seemed that during the summer there were many interesting events in the area , like music concerts in Pitlochry's amphiteatre . Now the only intresting thing I noticed was an advert " Squirrel alert " . The autors of this allert pointed out that the gray squirrels ,  a serious danger to the population of the native red squirrel , had been spotted in the area . So in order to stop the invasion of aggressive gray squirrels , everybody who had noticed this animal , was asked to give precise details  on a special website .
Sadly , that is true , in the south  Scotland the grey species has pushed the red one away . At last aggressors have got into Highlands too .
Fingers crossed , anyway .