Carn Mairg, Carn Gorm, Meall Garbh & Meall na Aighean
Maps 378E, 51; 12 Feb 2005 & 24 Aug 2008

Route: 1500m = 5070' ascent; 11¼ miles; 6-8 hrs

Route: Parking is marked by a phone box in Inverar (Glen Lyon) on the S side of the road, behind which is a small car park, 5yds down the "private road". The start of the walk is then a few yards west along the road towards the river. Perhaps go through gate at far side of white cottage, as indicated, or take the main valley track, but avoid the rightmost track to Inverar Lodge. When I was last there in October 2014 the track was probably a better choice as the signage for the path through the woods was inadequate. However, then the track up the valley had been ruined by work on a hydro scheme, creating stretches of very deep mud.
For some unexplained reason the local estate expects you to follow this route only in a clockwise direction, and the sign posts only worked in that direction when I was there. However, the anti-clockwise direction is probably more pleasant unless the prevailing wind is blowing because of the better path on the eastern end than the western end and because navigation in cloud on Meall na Aighean is also easier that way.
I have included all the three related Munro tops in this walk. Two of them are detours from the natural route round the Munros and can be omitted easily. However, one of these, namely the shapely An Sgorr, is well worth including. It adds a mere 70m of ascent over easy terrain and almost no distance whilst yielding a great view from its position at the head of a valley. There is a lower level path for those wishing to avoid this Top.
The route along the ridge follows boundary fence posts between Meall Garbh and Meall Liath.

Access: Sometimes there is deer shooting ("stalking" is a euphemism) in the valleys below this round but, despite the notices, this doesn't occur continuously, as is evidenced by comments posted on various blogs.
Judging from its website, the local North Chesthill Estate has a dislike for walkers and actively discourages them as much as possible because "Hill walking affects all wildlife, which is the heart of this estate's conservation and wildlife management business... The disturbance is creating great pressure on the deer herd and birdlife and is becoming unacceptable. Hill walkers are encouraged... to walk elsewhere." One wonders how much the shooting conserves or affects the wildlife! Obviously, the many stalkers (apparently out almost every day of the year) don't have nearly the same effect on the wildlife in the glens as the walkers up on the ridges.
Given reaction on the web, it is difficult to determine the reliability of any notices claiming shooting, or even just stalking, is going to occur on a particular day. It may occur on some days during the week covered by any notice, but almost certainly not all of them. The estate suggests alternative hills for the 6 months (August to January) of the year when deer or other shooting might take place. Most are quite a few miles away (see here) and this is unhelpful if you have left your intended route with friends, come hundreds of miles with specific maps to a glen with no connectivity and only want to tick off these particular Munros.
The estate does not invite you return on a Sunday when shooting is traditionally not done in Scotland. Indeed, it claims to use Sundays occasionally for its activities, and its weekly notice usually includes mention of activity every week on every day of the week. However, on 23rd July 2017 this weekly notice still referred to "stalking from Tuesday 13th September 2016" with no mention of when this "short period" would end. So up-to-date information may no longer be readily available for the would-be walker. But perhaps the estate has reformed? Clearly, this is an area of Scotland that has been inaccessible for months on end if you observe the requests on all the estate's notices – even if you have no commitments so that you are free to come on any day. It's not clear to me that a small, quiet, responsible party would cause any noticeable disturbance to shooting since most of the route is well-positioned out of sight of the valleys. Unfortunately, rights of access laws are unclear on this. It would be good to have a test case established in one of the few areas such as this where the spirit of the law is so clearly breached. Certainly, the estate needs to take a more sensible attitude to walkers (and a more responsible attitude to its paying shooters) by widely and clearly advertising a sufficent number of days for walking so that the two do not come into conflict. Obviously, if stalking and shooting is not taking place on a given day, walkers should be welcomed so that they don't come back on a day when estate activities might be disrupted. Currently, the pressure on walkers to avoid the area for so much of the year means that many are likely to ignore the estate notices after a succession of failed previous attempts at access. Judging from walkers' blogs, this is indeed the case. Indeed, as the estate's notices have been fairly unreliable in reporting whether shooting was actually taking place, many walkers will ignore them on the reasonable and correct assumption that there is a good probability that shooting will not occur.
The Mountaineering Council of Scotland has some strong words to say about the estate's behaviour. Other helpful discussions include, for example, one on WalkHighlands.

Weather (12/2/05) Cloud base at around 2500', very strong winds, frequent snow showers, drifting snow. Blizzards! Snow cover down to sea level, drifts up to 3', no firm snow underfoot. (Very slow times for 12/2/05 because of severe weather conditions, compass problems & darkness from 1800.)
Weather (24/8/08) Cloud base around 3000', some tops clear, stiff showers & some drizzle.