The boulder fields of Scheihallion

Today was day 1 of a 3 day activity break in glorious Perthshire & Tayside. The weather forecast for today was reasonable, high cloud, minimal rain and warmish. Tomorrow was to be rain & Thursday similar to today. I had two walks and a cycle trip planned but all of it was weather dependant. So today's choice was to walk Scheihallion for my first time on the hill. This has got to be one of Scotland's best known hills, lots of people know the name but can they spell it? It's name means the fairy hill of the Caledonians.

The profile of Scheihallion with Loch Kinardochy

Now that the decision had been made I decided to drive straight to the hill. During the journey from Ayrshire the weather was fabulous, blue with lightly clouded skies, until I reached Aberfeldy where rather dark grey full clouds sat ominously around the direction I was heading. A quick stop for a bacon roll & coffee, plus more importantly loo stop and the final 20 minutes to the Braes of Foss car park. A bonus for me was that as you turn into the drive to the car park you pass Loch Kinardochy. This is a water that belongs to the Pitlochry Angling club. I had been meaning to fish it sometime so now I know exactly what it looks like for future reference.
When I arrived there were half a dozen or so cars already parked up. No people around so they were all already on the climb. I didn't think that I would have the hill to myself and so it proved. At the car park I was surprised to find toilets on site and they were in working order, noted for the future. There is a charge of £2 for using the car park but today the machine was covered up, just broken, or broken into?
A quick change and some sun tan lotion applied, ever the optimist, a good look at the hill then off I went. It shows up well from the car park and indeed for most of the walk. There is a small description board where you can pick up a good leaflet about East Scheihallion.

At least on this walk there is not the usual forestry pine tree plantation to walk through to start your walk. After the gate you immediately join a good path which you can see clearly ahead of you. The path zig-zags up the hill, you are putting in a bit of effort quickly as most of the height gain is made during this stretch. One advantage of this is that you are getting good views as you climb plus the opportunity to stop and look back and get your breathing back under control. As I neared the top of this stretch I was surprised at my heart beat thumping away, not as fit as I thought or just going up to quickly. I met another walker, Ian from Buckie, and after a chat we agreed to buddy up which made the walk more enjoyable as we had a good crack.

Looking back towards Loch Tummel

At the top of this section the views are tremendous back down to Loch Tummel and soon Loch Rannoch would come into view. This caused me some surprise as I had mistook Loch Tummel for Loch Tay and couldn't understand why I could not see Ben Lawers. Later a check of the compass and the map confirmed I had lost my sense of direction and the range of Ben Lawers was actually prominent over to our left, great views all round. The walk had taken about 45 minutes to this spot which I was pleased with and I thought less than an hour to the summit, wrong. My research showed that the height of Scheihallion (Munro) climbed was actually less than the Merrick (Corbett) which I climbed the other week.

The terrain changing as you near the plateau

Because of what I had learned when I researched the walk beforehand I was prepared for a very rocky, stoney climb to the summit. What I hadn't realised was how much of the walk was this boulder field. It must stretch about half of the walk distance.
The path has now disappeared and there is no obvious route, just a case of picking your way through and mostly on the rocks. There are some spots of grass but these don't last for long. Our pace slowed considerably as it would be very easy to twist an ankle or worse. I didn't want to exercise the mountain rescue teams today. Caution was the order of the day particularly as some of the stones moved underfoot, not clever when your other foot is not on stable ground either. At times hands were necessary to get round some of these obstacles.

The boulder fields, summit to the right

You can see the hill clearly ahead of you, the plateau is expansive. We chose to go up right of centre which not the best option. Coming back we came down the other side which had a bit more grass and made walking a touch easier. Top tip if you go up stick as far left as you can without falling off.

Glen Mor below, Ben Lawers in distance

The views are still superb, that is when you can take your eyes off the rocks you are trying to clamber over. I don't think I have ever spent so often on a hill stopping to pick out a line of walking. We met another couple coming down who told us that the cloud was covering a lifting on the summit. Soon we could see the summit, coming from our direction it involved a bit of scrambling but we were finally there. Two ravens suddenly appeared above us, looking for our lunch scraps I presume.
The views were good but not as clear as I hoped particularly over Rannoch Moor. This is the direction that the wind and cloud was coming from. 

View from summit towards Rannoch Moor

A few photos were taken, texts to the loved ones and a brief rest for some grub then back down. Thankfully the cloud did not descend to our level. There were now a few more people on the summit and more could be seen coming up. 

Probably we passed about 20 people today, a popular hill indeed.
As mentioned the descent was slightly easier but still great care was taken to avoid any accidents. Lots of opportunities were taken to take in the views.
I can't remember a descent taking me longer than the ascent, a sign of the caution or just getting old.
A few wheatears and meadow pipits but little else seen today. The board suggested hares, grouse etc but not today.
Just as we neared the carpark I felt something not right with my right boot. The sole had started to come away, thank god it didn't happen on the boulder fields!! These were nice comfortable boots but they don't owe me anything. A trip to the shops required if the weather stays as forecast.
All in all a very enjoyable walk, time taken 4 hours 30 minutes which included our stops.