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.