Glen Feshie to Braemar

Wednesday 1st June 2016

I knew that this was going to be a long walk, so I got up early and set off from the Ruigh Aiteachain Bothy in beautiful Glen Feshie before half seven in the morning. It was a very misty start to the day with low cloud that gradually lifted to reveal another amazing day in the Cairngorm Mountains. I made my way along the track through delightful Glen Feshie to the river where I found extensive evidence of the destruction brought about by the heavy rain over the winter. Whole trees were lying, uprooted, in the middle of the bed of stones scoured bare through the valley floor by the savagery of the river. However, rather than detracting from the beauty of the valley, I thought it added to the wildness of the area and made it even more appealing for me. The footpath that I was walking upon was washed away in places and I had to take several tricky diversionary routes up the hillside, but even this just made the walk more of an adventure and exciting as I headed up the valley while on the other side I could see views of the Slochd Mor track coming down off the hills.

A short distance further up the valley I walked into a magical wood with the delightful white flowers of wood anemones growing either side of the path and many other woodland flowers adding to the wonder. This was a lovely place, but I couldn’t linger and I had to keep going up the valley where more delights awaited me as the trees gradually thinned and I took a narrow path that climbed above the valley floor while the landrover track descended to and across the river. This narrow path goes through more wonderful woodland that at one time must have covered most of Scotland, but is now sadly restricted to oases such as Glen Feshie. Hopefully this natural woodland will spread up the valley and eventually join up with the manmade plantations in Glen Dee. I still had a long way to go until I got there, so with the sun now shining warmly under clear blue skies I made my way up the heather covered valley. The river glistened spectacularly in the sun and proved strongly enticing despite the vast distance I still had to travel.

As soon as I put my hand in the water all thoughts of a refreshing dip were banished from my mind by the coldness of the water, so I kept going along the increasingly boggy path until I eventually reached the fragile-looking Eidart Bridge across the River Eidart near to a splendid waterfall. The River Feshie swings one hundred and eighty degrees beyond its junction with the River Eidart as it heads back west towards its source in the Gaick Forest. I continued east following a faint, boggy path across the watershed until at exactly twelve noon, and with the ruins of Geldie Lodge in sight, I stopped beside a large rock and had my lunch. A track that comes down from Geldie Lodge provided me with considerably easier walking so that I was now able to relax and enjoy the walk in gorgeous weather beside the Geldie Burn. Eventually I passed the ruined Red House and joined the track that I had walked upon three years ago on my way from Braemar to Glen Tilt so that I was now retracing my steps along the valley to White Bridge (which isn’t white) in Glen Dee.

A walk past the abandoned townships in Glen Dee brought me to the road at Linn of Dee where I decided to follow the road on the northern side of the valley past Mar Lodge towards Braemar. When I reached the end of the road, at Linn of Quoich, I found that the heavy rains that had caused so much destruction in Glen Feshie had washed away the bridge and there was no way for me to get across to East Quoich. I had planned to continue along the north shore all the way to Invercauld Bridge, or ideally to cross the River Dee opposite Braemar on a bridge that I’d once heard was going to be built (it’s not). With no other alternative I turned around and headed back towards Linn of Dee despite having already been walking for nine hours. Fortunately I didn’t have to walk all the way back as I was able to take a track through woodland near Mar Lodge to the magnificent Victoria Bridge that crosses high above the River Dee.

On the two previous occasions that I have been in this area I have started walking from Braemar to Linn of Dee with the aim of crossing the river over Victoria Bridge and on both occasions was offered a lift to Linn of Dee by kind motorists. With no such luck this time and with aching feet that were suffering from blisters, partly because of the road walking, I staggered all the way into Braemar finally ending this mammoth walk that took me eleven hours. The floods that had made Glen Feshie so spectacular had later forced a change to my plans onto the busy road to the south of the River Dee that I had been trying to avoid. The weather had continued to be amazing all day without a cloud in the sky and added to my enjoyment of the walk, but by the time I reached Linn of Dee the rest of the walk was pure torture. Glen Feshie is an amazing place and I wish that I had spent more time there, but the day deteriorated as the many hours passed until towards the end I was almost crawling along on all fours.