This hill is a far outlier of the Cairngorms but not a remote outlier, for it lies only a mile north of the road which leads from Braemar to Linn of Quoich via Linn of Dee. Our starting point was decided by where we could park on this road near the 352m spot height. We went up directly from this point, finding what seemed like tracks amongst the jumble of snow, heather, boulders and a scattering of scots pines inclining always westwards. In this way we avoided the east top with its substantial cairn, but passed over several other cairned bumps before the true summit which sported two large cairns. In mist it could have been confusing but we were not in the mist. In fact it seemed a perfect day for a 2000ft summit since the higher hills were veiled in cloud. The bulk of Morrone was obvious eastwards but the radio mast on the summit could not be seen, while to the north there was little hint of the high tops of the Cairngorms.

At the top we saw some old but definitely human footprints in the snow and wondered if Elsie-bagging was becoming fashionable. Not wanting to turn the walk into a pure peak-bagging exercise we continued north-eastwards to join the track, which was particularly conspicuous in the snow and took us wallowing through the forest into Glen Quoich. As we descended the rather icy track, we remembered the long day many years before when we had used it to approach Beinn a' Bhuird and its assorted tops. Today we made a special point of leaving the main track and keeping close to the river to see the Linn of Quoich and the Punch Bowl, which were looking particularly impressive edged with ice and icicles.

Incidentally, this was the first time I brought the pocket computer on the trip so that I can write up the mountains while they are still fresh in my mind.