Meall Garbh

This bulky Munro in the Ben Lawers range offers effortless high-level walking along a broad, grassy ridge. While less dramatic than its neighbor An Stùc, it provides an exceptional vantage point for surveying the steep eastern crags of Ben Lawers and the long, blue reach of Loch Tay to the south.

• •The name is Gaelic, translating simply as 'Rough Round Hill'. While 'Meall' typically refers to a lumpy or shapeless hill, the 'Garbh' descriptor here likely refers to the stony nature of its upper slopes compared to the gentler grass found lower down in the glens.
• •It is almost always climbed as part of a circuit of the Ben Lawers range, positioned on the high ridge between the sharp, rocky peak of An Stùc to the west and the gentler Meall Greigh to the east.
• •The summit sits within a National Trust for Scotland National Nature Reserve, world-renowned among botanists for its rare arctic-alpine plants, which thrive here due to the lime-rich mica-schist rock.
• •From the cairn, you get a direct look down into the deep corrie of Lochan nan Cat, with the dramatic serrated skyline of the Tarmachan Ridge visible to the west beyond the mass of Ben Lawers.
• •Despite its impressive 1,123-metre stature, it often suffers the indignity of being treated as a mere transit point for walkers hurrying toward the more vertiginous scrambles of its neighbors.