Bachnagairn beckoned us
"APRIL is the cruellest month . . . .Stirring dull roots with spring rain.." (T. S. Eliot)
Well, one thing's for sure, the poet wasn't writing about this year. I've seen folk watering their gardens already and heard some opine that nowadays April is the new May. Makes you wonder what this month has in store.
It's a while since we we've been to Glen Doll but that's where we were recently for a walk to Bachnagairn. Starting from the car park beside the South Esk this is a seven and half mile round trip up to the Roy Tait Bridge; built by his friends in memory of a climber who died on Loch Nagar.
The route follows the line of the river along tracks and rocky paths. At the turning point you are probably at about 1000 ft but the climb is so gradual as to be barely noticeable although boulders and stones litter the path so you have to pay attention on the upper reaches.
We lunched in the sunshine on the northern borders of Angus near to the picturesque Bachnagairn Falls which drop sixty feet through precipitous rocks on the steep slopes of Broad Cairn.
Carved out by the ice into its characteristic "U" shape with glacial litter strewn about its hillsides Glen Doll is a splendid example of how the Ice Age fashioned Scotland's scenery giving it its own rugged beauty.
Alpine plants flourish in the area and it is home to the golden eagle. Of all the sights of the spring re-awakening it is the larch tree coming into leaf that charms. The foliage is of a fresh and startling green contrasting somewhat with the tones of its more sombre evergreen neighbours.
During the last war there were many aircraft accidents in our mountains. Records show that a Fairey Albacore was lost up here in 1941. The Albacore was a single-engined, carrier-borne bi-plane torpedo bomber with a crew of three. It was used mainly by the Fleet Air Arm.
Quite what it was doing in this location is a bit of a puzzle; training flight perhaps?
The Eastern Cairngorms Access Project has sympathetically improved access routes and bridges around these glens over the last few years. They are proving a great boon to those who go into the hills. This agency deserves our gratitude.
We arrived back at the same time as a group of Dundee College students, out in the glen as a part of an educational qualification. Good on them. (OS Landranger Sheet 44).
The following Monday by contrast we were on a ramble from Careston Kirk to Tannadice and back; a walk somewhat shortened in my case as I had to be home early.
There is an ancient legend about one, Jock Barfut, who came from Careston. Jock, so the story goes, rashly cut a stick from a celebrated Spanish Chestnut which grew in the policies of Careston Castle.
The laird, known locally as the "Tiger Earl", had him hanged for this misdeed. Thereupon, strange to say, the tree withered and died and afterwards Jock's ghost was said to walk the road between Careston and Finavon.
No spooks today however, just the spring sight of geans in blossom and the heady scent of vanilla given off by the massed whins along the way. Someone spotted a red squirrel.
We had been joined for the day by Bobbie from the US (Virginia). Previously a Brechin lass she is on holiday here visiting her mother. I think she enjoyed this outing, as we all did, along a track which follows both parts of an ancient drove road and the old Brechin to Forfar railway line which closed in 1952. (OS Landranger Sheet 44).
Bill and I made one of our periodic forays up Mt. Keen last Friday; just to keep the legs working. The warmest day of the year further south, there was a slight breeze on the summit but nothing to speak of.
We got close to a pair of ptarmigan scooting along the path in front of us. Wildlife is emboldened in you're on your own. You see things that you would otherwise miss.
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Weather for Brechin
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
