Always go back down the way you came up. Same rule as every walk on here, and it matters more especially when you’re in the bigger hills — and more so when you’re on your own.

Mount Keen is a Munro of 939 metres at the top of Glen Esk in Angus, and it’s Scotland’s most easterly one. It’s my first Munro since building the app.

This one was a change of plan. The weather chased us off the hill we’d meant to do, and as it turned out we picked a stunning day for it. Just me and Chase today.

Getting parked

An early start, this one. I set off from Elgin at roughly 6:15am and arrived just after 9, so the day starts long before the walking does. The app took me to the doorstep. The car park is at Invermark, right at the end of Glen Esk — and it really is the end, the dead-end signs aren’t kidding. The road runs out and the hills take over.

There’s a good-sized gravel car park either side of the road, and just after nine on a Saturday there was a motorhome, a couple of cars and that was it.

The gravel car park at Invermark, a motorhome and a couple of cars in it

The end of the road at Invermark, dead-end signs either side and the information shelter on the left

Before you set off, it’s worth a minute at the Welcome to the Moor board by the entrance. This is a working estate, and the board carries its deer stalking information — the shooting and stalking days run from August into November, so right through autumn — along with notices about keeping dogs on a lead around livestock, and a poster about adder bites in dogs. If you’ve got a dog with you like I had, that board is for you.

The Welcome to the Moor board in its stone shelter, with the stalking and livestock notices

Onto the track

From the car park, head down the dead-end road until you see the signs on your right. There’s a proper signpost — Glen Clova off one way, and The Mounth public path the other, with the Queen’s Well marked at 2 miles and Mount Keen at 5. And in case you doubted it, there’s an old hand-painted wooden sign by the stone wall saying the same thing: Mount Keen and Queen’s Well, that way.

The signpost against a blue sky — Glen Clova one way, the Mounth path with Queen's Well and Mount Keen the other

The old hand-painted wooden sign by the stone wall, pointing to Mount Keen and Queen's Well

A bit further on you reach a long metal gate across the track — strictly no vehicles beyond this point — hung with the estate’s notices: the stalking information again, dogs on leads around wildlife, lambing in spring, no fires.

The long metal gate across the track, hung with the estate's notices

Past the gate, take the track straight in front of you — the one heading off to the right takes you in amongst the sheep. Chase was out in front showing the way.

Chase on the track ahead, marking the straight-on route past the wooden gate and the bins

To the next gate

From here it’s a straightforward walk to the next gate, the path stony underfoot and easy enough to follow with the glen rising on both sides.

Chase on the stony path, the glen opening up ahead

The next gate across the path, wooden fencing either side of it

Through Glen Mark

From here it was just a case of soaking in the scenery. The river running alongside the track is the Water of Mark — it comes down the length of the glen and meets the Water of Lee back at Invermark, and between them they become the River North Esk. The track follows the water on a good flat surface, with the heather still holding some colour and the glen slowly narrowing ahead of you.

The path through the heather, the glen walls rising either side

Chase at the edge of the Water of Mark, the track running on up the glen

The Water of Mark below the crags, pines along the far bank

A bend in the Water of Mark, the water bright blue in the sun

The Queen’s Well

About 40 minutes of walking brings you to the Queen’s Well, and you’ll see it long before you reach it — a granite crown standing on its own in the middle of the glen, with nothing else around it for company.

The track up the glen, the Queen's Well a dot in the distance below the hills

The history is on the plaque. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stopped here on 20 September 1861, on their way over the Mounth from Balmoral, and drank from the well — the monument was built to mark the visit. The plaque ends with “the year of Her Majesty’s great sorrow”. Albert died that December, less than three months after the two of them stood here.

The Queen's Well, a granite crown topped with a cross, Chase standing beside it

The well itself is still there under the crown, a stone basin with a worn inscription running round the rim. It’s a strange thing to come across in the middle of nowhere, and worth the stop.

The stone basin of the well, water still in it, the worn inscription round the rim

The plaque recording Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's visit to the well on 20 September 1861

The foot of the plaque — the year of Her Majesty's great sorrow

The lodge

Keep going past the well and you come to a lodge sitting on its own at the foot of the hill, a drystone wall round it and a green door on it. It’s the last building you’ll pass all day, and the route goes up behind it.

The lodge at the foot of the hill, drystone wall round it and a green door

Just after the lodge there are two burn crossings close together — one on stepping stones, one over an old metal ford — and this is where the climb starts. The track’s straightforward though, and you can see it winding up the hillside ahead of you.

It’s locked up, by the way — two lads were having a look around it when I passed, and they’d already checked.

Chase at the stepping stones over the burn, the path climbing beyond

Chase crossing the old metal ford over the burn

The climb

The path climbs steadily away from the burn, good gravel the whole way, and it’s worth a pause every ten minutes or so to look back and take in the view. The lodge shrinks away below you, and the whole of Glen Mark opens out behind — the river winding back the way you came, the hills stacked up either side of it.

Looking back down the track to the lodge and the pines, the glen behind

Looking back from higher up, the burn below and the glen running away behind

The path cut along the hillside above the burn, the glen far below

Higher up, the ground eases off onto open moor and you get your first proper sense of how high you’ve come.

The track levelling onto the open moor, the sun breaking through over the glen

Honest opinion: the climb was easy enough for me, but I train, so that might not be the case for a beginner. I’d still recommend this as a first Munro for anyone starting out — the track is good the whole way and there’s nothing to catch you out.

Across the moor

There are a couple of cairns to pass on the way up, including this one off to the right of the path. By now Mount Keen itself is ahead of you — a dark cone sitting out on the moor, with the summit path visible going up the side of it, so you can see exactly where you’re heading long before you get there.

A cairn beside the path, the summit cone of Mount Keen behind it

The track across the moor, the summit path visible in the distance

And the view back down the glen just keeps getting bigger.

Looking back down over the moor into Glen Mark, the sun catching the track

The crossroads

About 50 minutes from the lodge you get to the final climb up to the summit. You’ll see a cairn on your left and a crossroads in front of you — there’s no sign, but it’s obvious where to go, and it’s straight up from here.

The crossroads on the moor — no sign, but the way on is obvious

The summit cone of Mount Keen straight ahead, the path going up the side of it — and Chase's nose in the corner

The top

It’s about 30 minutes from the crossroads to the top, and it’s all views from here. The summit is a heap of granite boulders with the trig point sitting in the middle of them, and on a day like we got you can see the sea shining away on the horizon in one direction and hill after hill in every other.

The view from the summit over the moors, the sea catching the light on the horizon

Looking out over the lowlands from the top, blue sky above

The sun over the hills from the summit rocks, the sea beyond

The view from the top with a faint rainbow out over the hills

The granite tor on the summit, the country spread out behind it

Looking inland from the top, hill after hill to the horizon

The summit boulders and the glens running away below

Pink granite boulders on the summit, the moors stretching out beyond

No summit photo of Chase this time — there were a lot of rocks around the trig point, it was very windy, and he wouldn’t settle. So you’ll have to make do with me.

The way back

We stopped at the top for about 15 minutes and had a bite to eat, then headed back down the way we came up — same rule as always. The views you climbed past in the morning are all still there waiting for you on the way down.

Worth knowing

It’s about 17 kilometres there and back, and the times through this post are my own pace — the app reckons 6 to 7 hours for this one, so take what you need. There’s nothing out there after the car park: the lodge is the last building you’ll pass and it’s locked, so carry what you’ll want for the day. It was very windy on the top even on a clear day, so bring a layer for the summit whatever the forecast says. And this is a working estate — the stalking season runs from August into November, so have a look at the board by the car park before you set off.

Another star on the map

That’s Mount Keen done — my first Munro since building the app, and another star on the map. Some days you get the view. This was one of those days.