Weekend in Braemar September 2003 - Photo Gallery
Walking with the Linlithgow Ramblers again, will they make me join the club if I share their walks too often?
After months of walking in tee shirt and shorts it looks like summer has finally ended, it is 4 degrees and raining in Braemar although it had stopped raining by the time we reached the car park at Linn of Dee. We set off northwards through the trees to join the wide track signposted to Glen Lui on our way to Derry Lodge. The plain wide track surrounded by conifer plantations ends at a footbridge where you cross Lui Water to enter the beautiful Glen Lui.
The plan was to walk to Derry Lodge and head up the hill from there, but somehow the carefully worked out plan was abandoned as we passed a likely looking path. The path soon disappeared as we walked northwards through the heather towards the summit of Meall an Lundain. The climb isn't too steep and the views are getting better all the time as the clouds and mist start to clear. By the time we reached the summit cairn I felt that it was warm enough to change into shorts, not a view shared by my companions.
Another carefully worked out plan to follow the watershed was abandoned as we descended steeply down the heathery slope northwards. Our reward for the steep descent was an even steeper climb through pathless heather up the slopes of Beinn Bhreac. This was the hardest work of the day, stepping through long heather up a very steep slope, relief came eventually when the heather wasn't quite as long higher up the still steep slope. As the gradient eased the heather gave way to a more bouldery climb and as we got close to the summit we found the path.
The rounded top of Beinn Bhreac is crowned by rocks and a fairly large cairn as often happens where plenty of raw material exists. What a contrast in the weather, it was cold and windy at the top and rain was blowing in from the mass of bad weather in the east. To the west, Ben Macdui, Derry Cairngorm and their friends were bathed in bright sunshine. It is a short walk over to the slightly lower (by 4 metres) second top of Beinn Bhreac but in that time we began to leave the bad weather behind.
Descending in a northerly direction down the easy slopes to cross the Moine Bhealaidh, I don't know any Gaelic but one of those words must mean a boggy swamp. As it happens the ground was dry enough to walk without trouble but after rain it must be a desperately difficult crossing over spongy wet ground. The easy walk was much further than it looked but the sun was shining and it was warm and the colours of Beinn a' Chaorainn were wonderfully gold and green.
We first headed towards the lower top of Beinn a' Chaorainn, the suffix Bheag gives it a separate name to the Munro summit. By the time we reached the top the sky was brilliantly blue decorated with fluffy white clouds. The views north were tremendous with Bynack More overlooking the streams of Glen Avon. While we were there we met another two friends, not a complete surprise because we had half expected them to meet us at the start of the walk. Nevertheless these are big mountains and we couldn't have arranged to meet them there.
Then we headed west, boulder hopping downwards towards the small lochan nestling between the two tops of Beinn a' Chaorainn, the lochan looked much more attractive close up than from up above. The climb up to the main top of Beinn a' Chaorainn is over bouldery grass, ideal cover for the two Ptarmigan that Frances somehow noticed. The two birds would have been impossible to see if you didn't know they were there, even in flight they were difficult to see.
The summit was again a wonderful warm and sunny place and the steep descent gave us views of the impressive steep sides of Beinn Mheadhoin and Derry Cairngorm. The valley around the head of Glen Derry was another wonderful green and gold tablecloth sprinkled with sparkling streams and pools.
Finally the walk out, about seven miles along the extremely charming Glen Derry in warm sunshine, is this really the highlands at the end of September? At 6 o'clock we lay in the sun being attacked by midges for a quarter of an hour until the sun went behind the hill and it got colder very quickly.
The walk ended at 7 o'clock back at the car park, about 16 miles in just under 10 hours.
Sunday morning was even colder, 3 degrees, but at least the skies were clear. We drove down from Braemar stopping by the side of the road a couple of miles away from Spittal of Glenshee at the foot of Ben Gulabin.
There is a gate leading onto a good track which climbs steeply enough for a second day's walk until it flattens out and the walking is easy in the sunshine. There is a smaller track on the right heading straight up the hillside, it rises steeply and the peaty ground is quite eroded for a while. As the gradient eases the path is less obvious through the short heather, the hillside on the right is covered in heather, no longer in bloom. We saw there a colony of hares basking in the sunshine, there were dozens of eyes watching us as we made the final easy climb to the summit.
After wandering over the large green top of this Corbett to get the extensive views all round we retraced our steps for an easy walk down. After two and a half hours we were back down and sat in the sun for lunch although it was becoming cooler by the minute. Then the long drive home through every possible variation of sunshine and rain.
Andy Wallace 20th & 21st September 2003