Tolmount

Tolmount is a Munro standing 958 metres above sea level in the Grampian Mountains. Its Gaelic name An Dul Monadh means ‘hill of the glen’. The mountain sits on the Aberdeenshire–Angus border, twelve kilometres south-east of Braemar and fifteen kilometres south-west of Ballater. It rises on a broad plateau between the Cairnwell Pass to the west and the White Mounth range to the east. Lochnagar, the highest point of the White Mounth, overlooks the Tolmount from the north-east. The Tolmount is a grassy dome with a single steep, rocky face on its north-west side. This side drops into Glen Callater, a deep cleft cut into the plateau. Elsewhere the slopes rise only a few tens of metres above the surrounding moorland. A short broad ridge links the summit to the nearby 957-metre Munro Tom Buidhe to the south. To the west the plateau continues towards the 1 064-metre Cairn of Claise and other peaks near the Cairnwell Pass. One kilometre east of the summit the plateau falls away into the valley of the Burn of Fafernie, a headwater of the River South Esk. Walkers usually start from Auchallater on the A93 south of Braemar. From there the route follows Glen Callater and crosses Jock’s Road, an old drove road that crosses the plateau at the foot of the Tolmount. Another approach begins at Glendoll Lodge in Glen Clova, where the upper South Esk flows. From the Cairnwell Pass a third route crosses the Cairn of Claise and the same plateau. All approaches involve long approaches across remote moorland before the final climb to the summit.