In the early summer of  2016 I had visited upper Glen Lyon and climbed Stuc an Lochain. I had intended also to climb Meall Buidhe on the opposite side of Loch am Daimh as well but, in the end, decided that I really hadn't got enough time to do this as well. In addition Stuc an Lochain had proved a little tougher to climb than I'd expected! So in September 2016 having another chance to visit Scotland for a weekend I decided to combine the round of Mayar and Driesh on the Saturday with Meall Buidhe on the Sunday.

This did mean a 70 mile drive from Kirriemuir, including 20 miles or so of single track roads, so it wasn't until just before eleven that I set off from the parking area near the Giorra Dam up this access track. The map on the information board gives useful access information during the stalking season - basically keep to the main ascent routes.

The morning was pleasantly bright, although clouds were capping several of the higher summits nearby. The slopes to the left of the dam are Stuc an Lochain.

A path leaves the hydro road at this cairn. There are actually two tracks both with cairns. The second one is a little further on and will be seen at the end of this description.

There's a fairly clear path all the way up onto the ridge  although in places it's boggy and is easy to loose.

Looking west up Loch am Diamh with what I believe are the Corbetts  Sron a' Choire Chnapanich and Meall Buidhe in the distance. Yes, there are two hills with the same name just five miles apart!

Looking back down the slopes towards the dam.

The track continues across the rather wet hillside...

....with occasional stonier sections.

Seen across the dam and beyond Glen Lyon is the Munro Meall Ghaordaidh.

The track heads towards the slight col between Meall a'Phuill on the right and the south ridge of Meall Buidhe.

To get to the col there is an area of peat hags to cross, which will no doubt be awful in really wet weather.

The track joins the very clear ridge path between  Meall a'Phuill and Meall Buidhe at this cairn. There's another mile to the summit, which is not in view yet.....

...but the hard work is over as the path heads towards the first summit at 917m.

By now the weather was deterioating rapidly with very strong winds and rain in the air. It was ime to battle the wind and, with some difficulty, put on the waterproofs .

The first summit has a cairn but the actual summit...

....is a long way ahead (in the centre of the photo) with the dip between Meall Buidhe (932m) and Garbh Meall (912m) beyond it.

Clouds were sweeping across the broad ridge and clearly I wasn't going to have any summit views.

There's another cairn by the track and finally...

...the summit shelter comes into view. The climb had taken a few minutes over two hours.

On the way back down the hill there was that delightful moment when you drop below the clouds and have a view again....

There appear to be several tracks on the lower slopes of the hill because I emerged on to the hydro road at a small cairn a hundred or so metres west of the track shown at the beginning of this report. There seemed to be little advantage in this second approach over the first.

Meall Buidhe is clearly one of the easier Munros to climb but a pleasant enough one for a short walk.