The Capel Mounth and the Lochnagar Path

Sunday 2nd June 2013

On the second day of my weekend trip to Glen Doll I woke up in a tent near the Angus Glens Ranger Base to bright sunshine as another wonderful day dawned. I am very new to staying in a tent having previously shunned tents in favour of Youth Hostels, but since the hostel in Glen Doll was closed a few years ago I had no choice but bring a tent, and I was finding it an interesting experience. On this morning I was particularly surprised at how wet was my tent. It hadn’t rained, in fact the clear skies of the previous evening had continued right through into the morning, and yet my tent was covered in droplets of water both inside and out. Presumably the outside water was dew and the inside was condensation, but I wanted to get going as quickly as possible … would I have to wait a couple of hours before packing up the tent until it’s dried out? There seemed to be more to staying in a tent than I’d realised.

Leaving my camp site near the Angus Glens Ranger Base I set off beside the River South Esk along one of the waymarked trails in the wood before crossing the river and taking a very old path that slants diagonally up the side of the valley. This is the start of the Capel Mounth Path that runs from the Spittal of Glenmuick to Glen Clova and the Braes of Angus. The range of hills to the south of the River Dee is often referred to as the Mounth and this was a route over the Mounth to the hospital and chapel that used to be in Glen Muick. My Harvey Map calls this path the Capel Road and it seemed to me a good route out of Glen Doll, but I was reluctant to leave. As the path zigzagged up the hillside I was constantly looking back down the valley and into the small side valley of Glen Doll where the northern crags of the Munros, Mayar and Driesh, were taunting me with what I was missing. I hadn’t left myself enough time to explore Glen Doll and I was particularly gutted to have missed out on visiting the stunning Corrie Fee.

I had been over-ambitious in my plans for this weekend and failed to achieve my goals in visiting Glen Doll, but at least I now had an excuse to return. After climbing many zigzags I crossed a heather-clad moor under the overcast skies that had quickly developed. The terrain around me was rather dull, but my eye was attracted elsewhere to the unmistakable top of Lochnagar across the valley northwards. The crags at the end of Glen Clova and in Glen Muick below Creag an Dubh-loch also arrested my eye, but my attention always ended up on dark Lochnagar. The Capel Mounth Path undulates across the moorland before slowly descending above Loch Muick to the Spittal of Glenmuick. Glen Doll is a dramatic, steep-sided, craggy valley whereas Glen Muick has gentler sides with a flat bottom. The more serene surroundings befits a valley in the Royal Balmoral Estate.

After looking around the ranger base at the Spittal of Glenmuick I had my lunch and then set off on the Lochnagar Path. The Munro had been filling my thoughts all morning and now I was heading towards this striking mountain on probably the easiest and most popular route to the top. After a cloudy morning the weather had gradually improved so that by the time I reached the start of the climb it was really sunny and warm. My great trail through the Cairngorms bypasses the top of Lochnagar, as it bypasses all the mountain tops, but it comes very close and as I neared the turning off the track I was very tempted to take the path and go up to the top of Lochnagar. The weather was fantastic and I had enough time, so there really was no reason not to pay a visit to dark Lochnagar. Except that I went up Lochnagar four years ago from the other side and I wouldn’t have gained anything from going to the top now; the weather had been just as good four years ago.

Ultimately my heavy, uncomfortable rucksack had the final say and I continued to trudge along the dreadful track that was just a river of stones. It was very awkward and tiring to try and climb the hill over those loose stones and I noticed many people walking alongside rather than on them. The warm sun and tiring path sealed my fate as I spurned Lochnagar’s delights and continued over the top of the pass and across the vast moorland opposite slowly descending into Deeside. After the pass the track was much improved as the river of stones disappeared, but my attention was elsewhere as now the northern corries of Lochnagar slowly came into view with every step. My original plan had been to start the weekend at Balmoral and climb this way, but that would have been excruciating for me who hates long ascents, but this long descent in glorious weather was a delight all the way into the woodland above Balmoral. The heather moor held little interest for me, but the distant views of the snow-clad Cairngorm Mountains and the flatter tops of Beinn a’ Bhuird and Ben Avon drew my eyes upwards.

This descent seemed to take forever, but eventually I entered the wood and at a junction took the left turn as that seemed to be the one going downhill. I had failed to bring a map of the area around Balmoral so I hoped the route down would be straightforward, but it wasn’t. After a long walk beyond the turning I eventually reached the West Lodge of Balmoral and no sign of the main road or the village of Crathie. Eventually I realised that I had gone the wrong way so disconsolately I trudged painfully back up through the wood to the junction where I’d turned left, and took the right turn over a low hill and was soon descending into Easter Balmoral not far from the Royal Lochnagar Distillery. By now it was too late to visit the distillery so I hurried down to the main road in the village of Crathie and waited for a bus back to Braemar. Despite the good weather this was not a great walk. My exertions of the past few days were beginning to take their toll on me. I probably should have taken a rest day, but instead I had spent two days walking through the Mounth and failed to explore Glen Doll, or Lochnagar, or the distillery because I was too tired and didn’t have enough time.

Jock’s Road

Saturday 1st June 2013

Towards the end of the previous day's walk I had been feeling very tired and was considering having a rest day in Braemar, possibly spending the day visiting Balmoral and the Royal Lochnagar distillery. I spent much of the evening before this walk pouring over maps, talking to people in the hostel and trying to decide what to do. But in the end I went back to my original plan with the slight alteration of doing the walk in the opposite direction, starting with a climb along Jock’s Road, which is an ancient route between Glen Callater and Glen Doll that became the first officially recognised right-of-way in Scotland. I had planned a two day walk to Glen Doll with a return to Braemar Sunday evening, so I set off from the peaceful village of Braemar walking up Glen Clunie towards Glen Shee on a quiet road the opposite side of the valley to the main A93 road. After passing Braemar Golf Club, the highest eighteen hole golf course in Scotland at around 1,200 feet above sea level, I crossed the valley and the main road to the foot of Glen Callater. There began a long walk along a wide track through a  picturesque valley all the way to Lochcallater Lodge.

After passing the lodge the path improved tremendously into a meandering ribbon of delight through an unspoilt valley and was beautifully engineered with small stone bridges over the streams. Beyond Loch Callater the ground became slightly boggy, but the path always managed to find the driest route until eventually I reached the rugged, crag-surrounded end of the valley. Unfortunately this was where the excellent path disappeared, so to allow my frustration to subside I stopped and had my lunch, and was astonished at how long it had taken me to get to the end of Glen Callater when I considered that it was already lunchtime, even though I hadn’t left Braemar as early as I could have done. Glen Callater must be a deceptively long valley, and it must have maintained my interest all the way as I hadn’t realised how much time had passed. After lunch I tried to find my own way out of the valley following a faint semblance of a path, whenever I could find one, vaguely following the Allt an Droighnean up to the top of the corrie and around the snow drifts that guard the top.

Eventually I managed to reach the bleak hill-top moor of the Mounth not far from the top of the Munro Tolmount. I could have climbed to the top of this Munro, but this and all the other hills in this area are just grassy mounds with their only redeeming qualities being the crags at the top of the deep valleys that lead up to them, such as at the end of Glen Callater. I had no desire to do the pointless climb as I don’t believe Munro Bagging to be a worthwhile endeavour solely on its own. Assuming that my onward route across the featureless terrain along Jock’s Road would minimise ascent by keeping to the lowest point I headed to the col where a metal pole seemed to mark my route. Continuing in that direction I crossed the side of a hill with a big, empty valley on my left, but this didn’t match my map so I began to doubt that I was going the right way and got my GPS out. When it finally got a lock on enough satellites it told me that I was in completely the wrong location, between the Munros Tolmount and Tom Buidhe at the head of White Water, and heading in the wrong direction. The GPS had taken so long to get a lock I was by now a long way away from the col that I had mistakenly gone through past the pole that probably marked the county border rather than the path.

To add to my torment, the good weather that I had enjoyed all morning had slowly deteriorated and it now looked like it would rain as I turned around and headed back to the top of Glen Callater and onto the surprisingly clear path. Instead of taking the lowest route over the hills, the path climbs to the summit of the Munro Top of Crow Craigies; although maps seem to indicate that Jock’s Road passes to the north of the summit, the clearest route now goes straight up to the fine cairn at the summit. Just as it had looked like the weather was going to turn really bad the sun came out and I had a gloriously enjoyable walk down the long eastern ridge of Crow Craigies slowly veering towards the right into the valley of the White Water, known as Glen Doll. As I gradually descended into the valley the path got better and better with the terrain becoming craggier and craggier. The path narrowed into a deliciously sinuous delight weaving a well-maintained, meticulously designed course through the stunning scenery of Glen Doll.

Just beyond the tiny Lunkard Bothy is the Lunkard, an abrupt rampart of rock with a fantastic easy-to-reach viewpoint at the top that afforded me with an absolutely stunning view of the gorgeous valley with rugged crags and corries lining the southern side above a heavily forested valley. In the sunshine it was a wonderful sight, but dark clouds were already beginning to appear from behind me and the long-promised rain appeared before I returned to the main path and began a long, thrilling descent into Glen Doll. The rain failed to dampen my enthusiasm for this glorious path that was an absolute pleasure to walk along, whatever the weather and eventually I came blissfully into Glen Doll and plunged miserably into a dark, dingy conifer plantation. All my views of the glorious valley were now obscured by the trees and I was unable to see the stunning Corrie Fee or Corrie Sharroch.

Eventually I passed through the wood to the ranger station at the top of the road through Glen Clova. By now it was getting late so, rather than exploring the great little valley of Glen Doll, I found a spot to camp near the ranger station. When planning this walk I hadn’t realised how long it would take me to get to Glen Doll and the tragedy was that I had left myself with no time to explore this fantastic valley. I could have started another walk during the evening, doing the walk that I’d intended up Corrie Fee, but I was already tired and hungry, so I will have to return to Glen Doll another time to get a better appreciation of this truly stunning valley. Jock’s Road is a fabulous route over the hills, starting and ending in two great valleys that have some wonderful paths in them that were a joy to walk along.