Out of Glen Einich and into Glen Feshie

Monday 30th May 2016

When I got up at the start of this day the clouds were down low around the head of Glen Einich in the Cairngorms Mountains and it seemed like they would never lift which made my planned walk up Coire Dhondail onto the vast upland plateau of Braeriach seem like a waste of time. I had walked into Glen Einich the previous morning in good weather only to find rain in the afternoon. With no sign of the cloud lifting anytime soon, I packed up my tent and started to head down the wide landrover track out of the valley even though I had seen a weather forecast that said there would be clear views from the tops of the mountains, but I wasn’t prepared to wait for the clouds to lift. Of course, the clouds did lift and by the afternoon I would have had clear views and by then I was gutted that I hadn’t stayed. The grey overcast start to the day didn’t last and by lunchtime the weather was gorgeous and sunny once more, but because I am impatient, by the time I was back at Loch an Eilein the weather was good. Sadly I spent the rest of the day regretting my decision to leave Glen Einich and I couldn’t help thinking about the day I could have spent on the plateau that encircles An Garbh Choire and houses some of the highest mountains in Scotland.

Instead I was walking back along the track beside Am Beanaidh under overcast skies through a peat moor until the valley closed in and trees began to appear. Eventually I reached the point where a footpath branches off the track to follow a divine route closer to the river while the landrover track takes a higher route. Since I’d taken the footpath the previous day I thought I’d now take the higher route, however even though it was better underfoot I think it would have been better for me to retrace my steps as the views on the footpath had been beautiful. After plunging into the Rothiemurchus Forest, I eventually reached Loch an Eilein where I turned left onto the loch circular path following the south-eastern shore as far as the stream from Loch Gamhna. At that point there is a path marked as “Path Not Maintained”, which I took heading south away from Loch an Eilein, past Loch Gamhna and into the Invereshie and Inshriach National Nature Reserve.

I soon found myself walking in a wonderfully natural and wild woodland terrain: a remnant of the ancient Caledonian Forest. With the sun shining brightly as I walked through this delightful landscape, I was enjoying myself and almost succeeded in keeping out of my mind the thought that I could have been at the top of a mountain at that moment. The crossing of the burn, the Allt Coire Follais, was such a delightful spot I decided to have my lunch there before setting off once more along the slender path that heads past an old timber shooting bothy and a boggy wetland before plunging into a dreary conifer plantation. The contrast between the broad range of plants in the reserve and the monoculture of the timber factory was startling and depressing, whose wide forest roads brought me through the plantation and finally ended beside a road at Feshiebridge.

I had planned on starting this holiday by walking through Glen Feshie, but changed my plans due to good weather the previous morning. Now I resumed my original plan, despite losing a day venturing up Glen Einich, along the road into Glen Feshie with the woodlands and mountains of the nature reserve on my left and more extensive plantations across the River Feshie to my right. I had heard a lot of good things about Glen Feshie and was looking forward to seeing this valley for myself, but first I had to walk past miles of conifer plantations until I eventually reached the southern end of the road and of the nature reserve. I had noticed on the map that at this point there wasn’t a bridge over the Allt Fhearnagan, but there was one further upstream inside a wood. Therefore, once I left the road I dragged my heavy rucksack up the hillside into the wood and followed a thin path to the noisy cascades of the burn, but no sign of a bridge.

To see the foaming stream was compensation for the climb and I was easily able to cross lower down and make my way back down the hill on a slender path that was a blessing after the wide tracks and roads that I had previously been walking upon during my holiday until this point. This brought me to the simple ford that I should have taken that would have brought me into the Glenfeshie Estate and from there a good, well-made path led me up the valley. It was now a joy to walk through this amazing valley where nature has been given a little free rein to create a landscape that is both beautiful and striking. The manufactured path took me effortlessly past the Pony’s Bridge, which is now the only bridge in Glen Feshie still standing, as far as the Allt Garbhlach burn. Steps lead down towards the stream and then stop on the edge of a steep drop above to a wide array of stones thrown down by the tumult of the burn. The Lake District grabbed all the headlines for the heavy rain last winter, but Scotland was almost as badly hit and this was my first sign of the devastation. Carefully I made my way down to, across the stream and back up the eroded bank beyond to resume my walk along what had been an easy path.

More devastation awaited me, which required my climbing the wooded bank to get way from the River Feshie itself that had washed away the path that had dared to be too close to the river. Rather than detracting from my enjoyment of Glen Feshie, this evidence of the savagery of nature, untamed by man, added to its appeal. The weather continued to be amazing all afternoon and was still good after I reached the Ruigh Aiteachan Bothy and helped me to fall in love with this adorable place, despite the mice. I spent a gorgeous evening without a cloud in the sky sitting outside the bothy reading a book while being serenaded by a friendly chaffinch. However, the thought of what this evening could have been like if I’d stayed in Glen Einich still plagued my mind. I was gutted that I had left Glen Einich, but the gorgeous valley of Glen Feshie and the fantastic weather had gone some way to compensating for what I’d missed.

Into Glen Einich

Sunday 29th May 2016

I often plan my Scotland holiday a long time in advance, spending a lot of the previous year going through the details of the following year’s holiday. So, even before I went to the Outer Hebrides last year I was planning this year’s trip to the West Highlands, where I would walk between Fort William and Glen Shiel climbing the mountains in the area. I spent many hours planning that holiday and then when I came to booking my train up to Scotland I found that the West Coast mainline was shut for engineering work over this weekend and I would be unable to get to Glasgow in time to catch the crucial lunchtime train up the West Highland line. Meanwhile I’d already started to plan another holiday in Scotland, for later in the year or possibly the following, around the Cairngorm Mountains and Speyside. When the West Highlands plan started to unravel I turned to the Cairngorm Mountains as my destination for this year’s holiday, despite the year's planning that had already gone into the West Highlands.

So it was that I caught a train up the East Coast mainline to Edinburgh and from there I caught a train to Aviemore. The weather was fantastic and sunny for the journey up and this continued the following day when I set off from Aviemore. I was last in the Cairngorm Mountains three years ago when I followed a long distance walk that I had created myself and called, rather pompously, my Great Trail through the Cairngorms. I had no intention of doing the full walk again but I started on the same route as I made my way along roads to Blackpark and along a track to the beautiful lake of Loch an Eilein. There were a number of mountains that I’d intended on climbing three years ago but had failed to do, mainly because of wintry conditions on the peaks, and I had originally planned on climbing those mountains on this holiday, but then I had alternative ideas that meant I wasn’t able to achieve those aims.

I had heard a lot of good things about Glen Feshie so I thought it would be a good idea to walk through that valley on my way to Ben Macdui, but the weather was so good during my walk to Loch an Eilein I instead headed to Lochan Dѐo and from there I turned right onto the path that leads into Glen Einich. The weather was really hot and there were justifiably many people around Loch an Eilein, but after I’d turned towards Glen Einich the crowds became scarcer. The path passes through gorgeous pine woodland and it was a pleasure to slowly walk up the landrover track with the heavy rucksack on my back almost unnoticeable. A narrower path would have been more enjoyable than the wide, straight landrover track and eventually just such a path appeared, when the track began to climb more steeply, a narrow path heading towards the beautifully wooded banks of Am Beanaidh, the river that flows out of Glen Einich. Besides the path that I was on there was no sign of civilisation and the landscape near the river seemed delightfully wild and untamed.

All too soon the path left the woodland and rejoined the landrover track slowly climbing beside the river through the heather moor of Glen Einich. Ahead the steep crags of Sgor Gaoith opposite the alpine upland plateau of Braeriach attracted my eye, but no matter how long I walked I never seemed to get any closer to the end of the valley. Eventually, after many hours, Loch Eilein appeared at the head of the valley and I was finally able to take off my rucksack, sit beside the lake and eat my lunch. Several options were now open to me: I could take the steep path up Coire Dhondail onto the Braeriach plateau or I could try and follow the faint Ross’s Path below the awesome buttresses of Sgor Gaoith. Either way I wanted to shed my heavy rucksack first, so I made my way a short distance along the shore of Loch Einich and set up my tent, and as I was doing that it started to rain so once my tent was set up I just got into it and listened to the Monaco Grand Prix on the radio.

It was a good race and I rather enjoyed listening to it miles away from the nearest road, in the middle of Cairngorm Mountains, surrounded by awesome crags and some of the highest mountains in Britain. I got out of the tent after the race had finished, but it was still raining and despite walking part way round the loch to see how clear Ross’s Path was (it was virtually non-existent), I didn’t really go very far, except for a bit of a wander. I wasn’t really bothered by how this day had ended, even though I had gone up Glen Einich specifically because the weather was good, only to find poor weather. Even in bad weather my surroundings were spectacular and I thought Loch Einich was a good place to be stuck for the night. The rain stopped late afternoon and I was able to have my dinner sitting beside the loch while taking in the awesome mountain scenery and feeling happy about the walk I had done this day.