AT THE HEART OF THINGS
NOT ALL adventures go to plan. Allowing for the unexpected is literally the definition of an adventure, so that’s just fine by me. But hill days filled with sun, fun and big horizons without any equivalently proportioned dramas are also very much allowed… and so this is a simple tale of a weekend outing where everything just clicked into place.
Alongside its mountain brothers and sisters, Ben Alder lies right at the heart of the Central Highlands. The range is also poised between two topographies, with a pleasing mix of Cairngorm-like plateaus and the airier ridges of the west coast. The whole area was deemed worthy of protection in WH Murray’s historic survey Highland Landscape, commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland and published in 1962, yet strangely failed to secure NSA (National Scenic Area) status.
Luckily, Ben Alder is a long way from the road, which keeps at least some of the trappings of modern life at bay. And yet it’s eminently doable by train from the Central Belt over a long weekend, especially if you shorten the approach by cycling in from Dalwhinnie. Our planned route wove a line around three of the finest, easier mountaineering ridges in Scotland via a
