Country diary: After all the false summits comes the real one | Merryn Glover

Creag Dhubh, the Monadhliath: We plough a route through the snowy tussocks, passing signs of hare and grouseWhen we leave the house at 9am, the sun is still hidden behind the Cairngorms and the sky is a luminous wash of palest blue, fading to cream at the edges. Above the hills, small drifts of cloud glow pink and gold. But we are headed the opposite way - to the older Monadhliath range, the Grey Hills.Not grey today though - they are cloaked in snow, and shining as they look towards the rising sun. The humpy camel's back of Creag Dhubh is our destination, a hill we have summited several times from the southern end but have always been foiled from the north. Any semblance of path disappears into undergrowth, bog or spills of rock. Continue reading...