Rothiemurchus Forest

Thursday 4th June 2009

In view of the poor state of the weather and of my right leg I decided that on this walk I would not go up any mountains, but I would rest my leg with an easy and relaxing walk. I was going to stay in Aviemore that night, just seven miles by road from the Cairngorm Youth Hostel, but I decided that I would make it a little more interesting by walking through the Rothiemurchus Forest along cycle tracks. To start I walked around Loch Morlich through the lovely Glenmore Forest Park for the last time (on this visit). The attempts here to create a natural, wild environment have created some enchanting walks that have been a pleasure to do, especially at the end of long and tiring mountain walks. Even though the paths are heavily manufactured the gorgeous surroundings more than make up for it, though there is a danger of the area beginning to look more like a park than a natural, wild environment.

On the other side of Loch Morlich things quickly deteriorated as I joined a wide forest road through a dense 'timber factory' woodland. There are no redeeming qualities to this bleak artificial type of woodland, so I was quite satisfied to see that large sections of the wood are in the process of being felled. I hope they are going to be replaced by a more natural scots pine forest that has room to breathe. An example of exactly what I mean presented itself when I left the factory and entered Rothiemurchus Forest. The walk through this native woodland was an utter delight and a joy for this wood is a living, breathing entity full of life with much for me to see as I walked through it. I often walk through woodland at home (I live near Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire), but this is a fine example of a woodland at its most beautiful.
After a couple of hours of enjoyable, relaxing walking I reached the picturesque Loch an Eilein where a picnic site and information point was located. After lunch I walked along a track onto a road that took me all the way into the town of Aviemore. Arriving at the station I noticed there was a steam train in the platform for the Strathspey Railway. Since it was just about to leave I purchased a ticket and hopped onboard the train for the 9½ miles trip along the preserved railway. As the son of an avid train enthusiast I was practically brought up on trains so I was quite thrilled merely with being on a train pulled by a steam engine, but the highlight was the sight of the Cairngorm Mountains in the distance and the Lairig Ghru clearly in view dividing the mountains in two.

Generally the Cairngorm National Park contains a lot of very dull, grass-topped mountains, but around Cairn Gorm itself there are some fabulous mountains that didn’t deserve to be neglected for as long as they have been. Despite the problems I’d had with my leg I really enjoyed my few days' walking in the Cairngorm Mountains. This day was a nice, lovely walk, but despite my aching leg I was longing to be at the top of a mountain as that's where I am happiest. Looking back, I don’t think I had fully recovered from the problems I had encountered on the Pennine Way at Easter with my excesses of the last week merely aggravating an old injury. After this gentle walk I had another easy day following on a long-planned off-day while I travelled through the City of Inverness to Glen Shiel, the site of my walking holiday of last year.

Cairn Gorm

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

After my over-exertions of the previous couple of days I didn't want to do much walking this day so I merely walked up the sixth highest mountain in Britain. My right leg had been aching so much I’d even contemplated not going for any walk, but I didn’t want to leave the Cairngorm Mountains without at least one more walk into some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in Britain. I had originally planned to go up Ben Macdui, the second highest mountain in Britain on this day, but instead I opted for this relatively easy walk. The weather was also a lot cooler than it had been earlier in the week with low cloud and even a bit of rain at the beginning. I started late after a small lie-in going up to the Ryvoan Pass by a wonderful little path that I remembered from last time through the Glenmore Forest Park. This is not the main path, but is a narrow path that twists and turns around the trees above the pass, working with the natural landscape rather than bulldozing through it before descending steeply down to the pass. On the other side of the pass I followed my route of Monday down to the River Nethy where I turned off the main path and walked up the deserted valley of Strath Nethy.

This was a long, varied walk that was boggy at first, but later as the valley narrowed became deliciously rocky. When I eventually reached the end of the valley at ‘The Saddle’ stupendous views were revealed across Loch Avon and towards the cliffs that surround its western end. I came here four years ago on a wet day when I had also originally planned on going up Ben Macdui. One day I will complete this walk to Ben Macdui via Loch Avon, but this time I was defeated not only by the poor weather but by my own body. After lunch I climbed the steep never ending western slopes of ‘The Saddle,’ more than 400 metres all the way up to the summit of Cairn Gorm. The summit has a grand conical cairn, a weather station and a close line of piles of stones that lead all the way up to the summit from the mountain centre far below, but the greatest attraction of the top was the view across the Cairngorm Mountains.
Spurning the despoliation in Coire Cas from the Cairngorm Mountain Centre I headed west down the steep stony slope to the top of the Fiacaill a’ Choire Chais ridge. The view across the northern corries was awesome coupled with the sublime backdrop of Ben Macdui beyond partly covered in snow, and completely covered under cloud. The poor weather of the morning had lifted slightly to let me see this amazing view of the Cairngorm Mountains but Ben Macdui remained resolutely under cloud. Despite the temptation to venture as I had done four years ago onto the wondrous mountain plateau towards Ben Macdui I descended the ridge keeping my eyes on the gorgeous Coire an t-Sneachda to my left and away from the mess of the ski slopes in Coire Cas to my right. Whilst keeping to the top of the ridge all the way down I had a thoroughly delightful walk down with the great views over Loch Morlich always before me.

At the bottom of the ridge I went into the mountain centre to use their facilities before descending the wonderful Allt Mor Trail all the way down to the youth hostel. I really enjoyed this walk as the mountain scenery at the top was simply divine. The approach along Strath Nethy may have been long but it was quiet and clear of the crowds that often plague the top of Cairn Gorm. This was a good little walk, which was just what I needed after rather pushing myself recently. This was a walk in great mountain scenery that I have sadly ignored for four years. Cairn Gorm itself is not a particularly great mountain as it’s too scarred by the ski runs in Coire Cas, but the other northern corries of Cairn Gorm and the eastern corries of Ben Macdui more than make up for it. It’s tragic that it had taken me so long to return to this area, so I hope it will not take me so long to return again.

Cairn Toul and Braeriach

Tuesday 2nd June 2009

This was the third day running that I had done a long, exhausting walk and this time over the third, fourth and fifth highest mountains in Britain. By the end of this twelve-hour marathon I was really tired and hungry, and my right leg was beginning to ache. The last three days were taking their toil on me; in fact the heavy rucksack of the day before had probably done most of the damage and I should have rested on this day but I didn’t want to do that. I attempted to do this walk four years ago and turned back due to bad weather, so I wasn’t about to let a little strain stop me when the weather was so good. I started first thing in the morning and walked up the wonderful Allt Mor Trail that I remembered with such affection from when I was last there. The path climbs through a wonderful wooded valley that has been totally given over to nature with absolutely divine results. The walk was just a sheer joy, and an extremely relaxing way to start and end a walk.

Leaving the sylvan valley behind I crossed the heather-clad moorland below the Cairn Gorm corries and headed into the Chalamain Gap, a boulder-filled ravine that I found quite fun to pass through. Descending from the gap I dropped into the awesome Lairig Ghru, a deep pass through the Cairngorm Mountains that is quite simply one of the most amazing places in Scotland and deserving of its legendary reputation. Slowly, I climbed through the pass to almost three thousand feet, but the sheer sides of the cutting either side rose to mountains that are more than four thousand feet high. Reaching the summit of the pass was just as satisfying as reaching the top of a mountain, while the sight of the long descent that I would need to make all the way through the Lairig Ghru was particularly galling. The views down the other side of the pass were awe-inspiring as some of the highest mountains in Britain soared above me on either side while I followed the infant River Dee down to the Corrour Bothy.
From the small hut at the foot of Coire Odhar I climbed the relentlessly steep corrie to the bealach at the top and veering left I continued up to the stony top of the Munro, Devil's Point (Bod an Deamhain), where I had lunch. After all my effort going through the Lairig Ghru and then climbing the corrie, I was glad of the rest while gazing out over the stunning views across Glen Dee and the Cairngorm Mountains behind me which were quite spectacular from this prominent peak. Returning to the bealach I climbed the steep, tiring hillside opposite and eventually reached the south top of Cairn Toul, Stob Coire an t-Saighdeir. Rounding the top of the corrie, where I had incredible views down into the Lairig Ghru and across to the awesome mass of Ben MacDui, I reached the top of the Munro, Cairn Toul, the fourth highest mountain in Britain. A simple down and up brought me to my third Munro of the day, the Angel’s Peak (Sgor an Lochain Uaine), the fifth highest mountain in Britain. Until recently this wasn’t considered as a separate mountain, but in 1997 the SMC decided to award the Angel’s Peak with Munro status, and deservedly so as it is just as noble a peak as the slightly higher Cairn Toul.

After a descent to a saddle I climbed onto the fabulous plateau that summits at Braeriach. This spooky plateau is over four thousand feet high which makes for a unique environment with very little vegetation, patches of snow, and just a few landmarks such as the cairns on Carn na Criche and the Einich Cairn. Through patchy clouds I rounded the plateau on ground that was like walking on a beach, following the cairns around and up to the top of Braeriach, the third highest mountain in Britain, and a spectacular mountain in any weather. Stupefying cliffs beside the summit look across the enormous corrie of An Garbh Choire to the Angel’s Peak and Cairn Toul, though I could hardly see them through gaps in the clouds. This is a wonderful place that I visited four years ago but ventured no further due to bad weather. Despite the encroaching cloud as I approached Braeriach I had been lucky with the weather this time. It is curious that it had taken me four years to return to Braeriach when I have been back to Scotland many times since, but the mountains of the west coast of Scotland draw my attention better than the Cairngorm Mountains. These mountains west of the Lairig Ghru though are far too good to have been ignored for so long.

Hurrying down the northern ridge of Braeriach I eventually reached the Lairig Ghru again where I stopped for a rest, a drink, and some Kendal Mint Cake before, re-energised, I climbed back up through the Chalamain Gap and across the moor to the top of the Allt Mor Trail. The wonderful walk back through the woodland was marred by fatigue and hunger, but despite the ending this was still a fabulous, if long, walk over some quite sensational mountains.

Braemar to Loch Morlich

Monday 1st June 2009

This was a really difficult walk even though I never went up any mountains. I had to get to the Cairngorm Youth Hostel on the other side of the Cairngorm Mountains, which is a journey that even in a car would take two hours, but walking it took me all day. First thing I had to do was walk along the road from Braemar to the end of the road at the Linn of Dee, which is a distance of 6 miles, fortunately soon after leaving Braemar a couple who had been staying in the hostel stopped their car and offered me a lift. With my distance to be walked slightly reduced, after thanking the couple, I set off away from the Linn of Dee on a wide track beside the Lui Water. This walk was made much more tiring by a heavy rucksack that I had loaded up with food while in Braemar, so as I slogged up Glen Lui towards Derry Lodge in the hot, sunny weather I weighed significantly more than usual. I spent the whole walk on good paths that should have made the walk a little easier than it could have been so it should have been quite an enjoyable, relaxing walk, if only I hadn’t put so much heavy food in my rucksack. From Derry Lodge I toiled up to the top of Glen Derry where I left the Ben Macdui path that climbs into Coire Etchachan, where I could see the great mountain scenery of the tops near Ben Macdui, the second highest mountain in Britain.
Climbing out of Glen Derry I went over the pass of Lairig an Laoigh on a climb that really wore me out with my heavy burden on a path that hadn’t been heavily manufactured (yet). As I continued from the top of the pass the weather began to cool as broken cloud started to cover the sun, which was quite a blessing as that usually makes things a little more pleasant for walking. Eventually I came to the Fords of Avon, which is a crossing over a river that at that time was not easy to cross due to the late spring spate. I tried walking upstream but that yielded no better places so after getting half way across I just decided to go for it and wade across the river. Unfortunately I’d not picked the best place to try that and ended up knee deep, almost falling into the water. It would have been better it I had tried to cross at the ford where the river was probably not as deep. With wet feet and trousers I stopped outside the Fords of Avon refuge and had my lunch. The area around the Fords of Avon is really delightful as it’s a wide open area surrounded by mountains with no sign of civilization. It was a wonderful place to just sit and gaze at the unblemished beauty of the mountain scenery.

After eating lunch my trousers had dried slightly but my socks would never dry until I could take them off. Moving away from the fords I climbed over the moorland into the Corrie of the Barns, soon climbing out of the valley and onto the open moorland on the eastern side of Bynack More. After walking along the bottom of valleys for most of the day it was a strange to now have wide open moorland to my right, even if I still had the steep slopes of Bynack More to my left. This moorland crossing began to feel like I was in the Pennines of England rather than the Cairngorms of Scotland, but I suppose there are similarities. Certainly they are much more similar in terrain than the Scotland of the West Coast where the mountains are much more rugged. Continuing across the moor I climbed once more to the highest point of the day on Bynack More's northern ridge, at a height of almost 800m. Before long I was descending steeply down into picturesque Strath Nethy where I crossed the tree-clad moor to the Ryvoan Pass.

By now I was in agony with the rucksack feeling heavier and heavier, digging into my hips and shoulders. I couldn’t help wondering how it would feel if I always carried this much extra weight around with me. My legs, and particularly my ankles and feet, were really feeling the strain of having to keep all that weight up, but I suppose it’s not quite the same as even though I was carrying a lot of weight I was still quite fit, which wouldn’t be the case of someone who was naturally carrying all that weight, and they wouldn't be able to walk from Braemar to Loch Morlich. Somehow I managed to struggle on through the gap past the beautiful green lake of An Lochan Uaine, and through the woodland of Glenmore Forest Park, gritting my teeth whenever I had to go uphill, even if only for a short distance. I look back on this walk now with a loathing and resolve to not do such a walk again with a heavy rucksack. It took me a long time to get over the effects of this walk, and it could so easily have ruined the holiday, but this should have been a good walk, if only I hadn’t attempted to carry so much on my back.

Lochnagar

Sunday 31st May 2009

On the first walk of my fortnight's holiday in Scotland I climbed up the Royal Munro, Lochnagar, situated on the Queen’s estate of Balmoral. The weather for this walk was really hot without a cloud in the sky all day, which just made the day even more exhausting. However, it was the long distances and the pathless moorland crossing that made this a really tough walk. I started in Braemar walking over a low hill at the foot of the dramatic cliffs of ‘Lion’s Face’ on a great woodland path before dropping back down onto and along the road to Invercauld Bridge. Only now could the walk described by Ralph Storer in his excellent book, "100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains", begin. I climbed through the lovely Ballochbuie Forest along excellent tracks until I reached a metal bridge over the stream, Garbh Allt, above stunning falls. From here the path seemed to disappear so I decided to descend the hillside in the hope of picking up a path.

This was a mistake and eventually I turned around and headed back up the steep hillside while trying to get a signal on my GPS, but failing because of the tree-cover. When I finally did get a signal I discovered that I shouldn't have crossed the stream, so with no hope of finding the bridge again I continued heading uphill through deep heather until utterly worn out I crossed the stream again (this time without the aid of a bridge) and finally reached the track that I never should have left. Hot and exhausted I collapsed onto the ground beside the path, and only once I had recovered did I continue up the track beside the Feindallacher Burn, eventually leaving the wood behind and venturing out onto the open moorland. Once clear of the last tree I reluctantly left the path, and crossed the stream once again to make my way wearily across the bleak, heather-covered moorland. The only compensation on my tiring trudge was the sight of Lochnagar far ahead of me slowly getting ever closer as I approached.

After a long weary climb through the heather I reached the picturesque lake of Sandy Loch in its majestic mountain setting with the western cliffs of Lochnagar behind. While collapsed on a rock near the loch I had my lunch and gazed out over the inspiring scenery. After a lengthy stop I crossed the stream that issued from the loch and made my way towards a notable peak in the impressive surround of cliffs, the Stuic. A steep rocky ridge climbs up to the top, the Stuic Buttress, and this was what I was aiming for as I trudged up the steep slope until I reached the foot of the buttress and began to scramble up it. This was an exhilarating climb, sometimes scary, but great fun all the way until, with great satisfaction, I reached the top. All my weariness of earlier in the day was now a distant memory as I surveyed the awesome scenery across the Dee Valley and nearer to hand across the grass topped hills of the White Mounth. It was great to be at the top of a mountain in good weather as it seems like it’s been a long time.

Just behind the Stuic is a boring Munro, Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach, that doesn't really deserve the honour; if only the Stuic was twenty metres higher as that would have been a much more fitting Munro. Since it was so close I walked across the grassy terrain to the summit cairn before returning to the path that runs along the top of the cliffs. My main objective of the day was at the end of the path up a steep rock and grass slope through markedly different terrain to the grassy plain of Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach. On reaching the top of Cac Carn Mòr I touched the top of the summit cairn before walking over to the awesome cliffs that surround the Corrie of Lochnagar. Following the edge around the corrie and having a good look down the vertiginous cliffs I made my way to the Munro, Cac Carn Beag, the highest point on Lochnagar.

The views across the Dee valley to the Cairngorm Mountains were simply stupendous, as were the cliffs that bound the northern edge of this awesome mountain in a territory of otherwise boring grassy hills. Reluctantly I left the summit of the Munro and descended by the western ridge boulder-hopping down the steep boulder-strewn hillside. I thoroughly enjoyed myself during that pathless descent but eventually returned to Sandy Loch where I had to walk back across the vast, boggy moorland that I had ascended. The crossing was easier in descent but it was still a long time before I reached the track beside the Feinballacher Burn. Following the track down through the wood I saw where I’d gone wrong on ascent and decided that the guide book was out of date, but I still shouldn’t have wasted so much energy before I realised I had gone wrong.

Coming back onto the road I had a long weary walk back to Braemar that included walking up to and across the Lion’s Face, and down the other side. There may be better ways up Lochnagar, but they would have been really popular with manufactured paths throughout. On this route I didn’t see another soul until I was almost at the top so I think this really was a good way up an awesome mountain though there were several negative points to the walk. The long moorland climb was wearying in the hot weather, but since I didn’t have a car this was the only to do it from Braemar. Getting lost early on didn't help, but the main problem was that the most interesting part of the walk was a long time in coming and was over far too quickly. Lochnagar is a fabulous mountain; I just wish the ascent hadn't taken me so long.