Stob Poite Coire Ardair

Stob Poite Coire Ardair is a 1,054-metre Munro in the Scottish Highlands. It stands above Loch Laggan and Glen Spean, about twenty kilometres west of Dalwhinnie and twenty kilometres northeast of Spean Bridge. The mountain’s Gaelic name means ‘peak of the corrie’s kettle’. Its summit lies on a narrow ridge that stretches northeast from a dramatic col called The Window. The ridge falls steeply on the south side but slopes more gently northward into the valley of the River Spey. The mountain is part of Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve, which covers nearly four thousand hectares. Since 1986 the reserve has protected the rich flora and fauna shaped by the last ice age around eighteen thousand years ago. The ridge often holds snowfields into summer, and its vegetation resembles northern tundra with mosses and grasses. Geologists recognise the rocks here as part of the Dalradian Supergroup, folded and intruded by granite during the Caledonian mountain-building period. Walkers usually start from a small settlement called Aberarder on the A86. A common round route links Stob Poite Coire Ardair with Càrn Liath and Creag Meagaidh in a horseshoe around Coire Ardair. The path climbs into the corrie and then follows either the south ridge of Càrn Liath or the southeast ridge of Creag Meagaidh to reach The Window. From there a short ascent along the summit ridge leads to the highest point, with steep cliffs on one side and gentler slopes on the other.