WHALE OF A TIME AT AUCHMITHIE
AT 1713 ft. West Lomond is the highest point in Fife. The Monday Walkers were up there a fortnight since.
The starting point, Craigmead car park, is a mile or so from Falkland. This pretty village is worth a visit in summer if only to see their display of hanging baskets which is something to behold.
I went round the Palace there a few years ago. Within the grounds is a Real Tennis court dating from 1539. Real Tennis ("Real" being a corruption of the word "Royal") is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis derives. This court at Falkland was featured in the film "The French Lieutenant's Woman."
The track up West Lomond is short and sharp; the views from the summit being your reward. To the north you look over the villages of Strathmiglo and Auchtermuchty to the Firth of Tay and the Sidlaws while to the south- east lie the towns of Markinch and Glenrothes with the Fife coast beyond.
We descended by a fairly steep track but another way off can take you into the secluded ravine of Glen Dale which I visited many years ago.
This is the location, hazardous of access as I recall, of John Knox's Pulpit where local people who believed in the Reformation would secretly congregate. Legend has it that an angel with a drawn sword appeared on top of the pulpit, protecting the minister who spoke within.
We continued the walk over moorland and stile, passing plantations and arriving eventually at Harperleas Reservoir which supplies part of Fife's water. Crossing the dam and passing nearby ruins we picked up the landrover track that took us back to Craigmead. Not a long walk but, given the nature of the terrain, one full of interest. (OS Landranger Sheet 58).
A last minute change of plan, due to an unserviceable minibus, took us to Arbroath for a ramble along Seaton Cliffs to Auchmithie; seven miles there and back.
The red sandstone cliffs are as spectacular as any on the east coast gouged out, as they are, into a multitude of inlets, caverns and arches. The haunt of smugglers, the names continue to fascinate: Forbidden Cave, Gaylet Pot, Deil's Head and Needle E'e.
In the skirt of woodland at Dickmont's Den we came across lesser celandines in bloom. These small, yellow and glossy flowers sparkle among carpets of dark green heart-shaped leaves; heralds of the Spring.
Nearing Auchmithie on the sands of Castlesea Bay and some eighty feet below our track we spotted the corpse of a whale; as dramatic a sight as we've seen in a long time. Some of my companions had read in the local press recently that the creature had beached itself and expired.
The consensus was that we were looking at a Minke Whale. Through binoculars we were able to determine that it was some twenty feet in length, brown of skin with collections of barnacles attached and with characteristic fin and fluke.
There was a narrow and steep path down from the cliffs and, had time permitted, I guess we'd have gone for a closer look.
Increasingly, it appears that some whales become disorientated and beach themselves despite the best human efforts to coax them back out to sea and safety again; almost, it seems, they have a death wish. You wonder what's going on here.
After turning at Auchmithie cloud appeared and by the time we had got back to Arbroath Promenade the breaking waves were sending spray swirling across the road. (OS Landranger Sheet 54).
Finally, an interesting quotation I came across the other day:"The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose." (Charles Dickens).
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Weather for Brechin
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 3 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
