Cairngorms

Cairngorms

The Cairngorms form a large unpopulated region with a sub-arctic plateau at its core.  Its one of the wildest and most dramatic landscapes in Britain, and you are going to have to walk to experience it, so get your virtual boots on and lets go explore...

Leaving the train at Kingussie it seems early, but the local children are at school, and some are even playing what I think is Shinty, or else running around with odd shaped hockey sticks and a ball.  Passing the busy main road it is soon just us and nature, and this view of the ruins of Ruthven Barracks on a mound, with the foothills of the Cairngorms for backdrop.

Ruthven Barracks

The road curves round avoiding the mountains, but we head off on a track that leads us to rounded peaks and into Glen Feshie.  There is a bridge to cross, its a bit wonky, and if you borrow my time machine you can cross it (I understand its since been washed away by the river in spate). It was still sound to cross on foot at the time.  The other side leads to a meadow of long grass and well spaced majestic Scots Pines.

Bridge across the Feshie

We get to stay the night at the bothy.  A night in a bothy is quite an experience, and just what kind of experience you get is heavily influenced by whether you can get a nice warming fire going in what would otherwise be a cold and slightly damp stone shell.  If all goes well, as it does for us, we have a night of spitting logs, and flickering flames dancing around the fireplace.  A camping stove meal followed by a dram or two and friendly chat and eventually a cosy night wrapped up warm in our sleeping bags.  We awake a little stiff, but with a roar of the camping stoves we soon have a steaming mug of tea and a bowl of porridge.

Glen Feshie painted in oil by Richard Paul

Breakfast is followed with a trip to the loo (one of the few bothies to have one), which consists of an outbuilding with a metal chair perched over a hole.  It has a loo seat in place of the normal seat, and the whole thing is flushed by means of a bucket, filled from the nearby burn.


Outside the landscape is even more beautiful, with the lone pines casting longs shadows across the grass.  Its hard to pull ourselves away from this paradise, but the journey must continue.  There are several routes out.  The one across the river runs through the gap in the peaks past a stand of foxgloves to climb high over a pass.  Another takes you up onto the high plateau, but we choose the route that runs directly upstream.

We carry on up river Glen Feshie, past the last of the trees, where it narrows for a while before emerging to a vast grassy plain and another river.  We could follow this river across this, but there is no path and its a boggy trudge even if you stick to the relatively dry bank.  That way leads to a pair of remote peaks and the delights of the Tarf Hotel - another bothy.  But instead, we stick to the path, which joins others to form a track leading past this spot on the upper reaches of the River Dee.
River Dee
The combined tracks lead us to Linn of Dee, which is quite a stunning waterfall under a stone bridge and a great spot for a picnic.  After that we take a detour along the road and up Glen Ey.  We pass a large boulder - an erratic left behind from the ice age and a patch of grass that looks good for an overnight wild camp.  But just a bit further, at the end of the track is an even better pitch.  We setup for a relaxed afternoon and an evening under the stars.  Meanwhile the superfit head off to bag the group of peaks that surround the spot.
Glen Ey

After a camping breakfast we head out the glen and to the road.  Its quite a walk round, but luckily there is a short cut past the impressive Mar lodge, which was until recently the centre of a grand shooting estate.  Across the road a track takes us up Glen Derry, through more remnants of the once great Caledonian forest.  The trees eventually thin to give a majestic view of the route ahead.  Somewhere nestled in a side glen is our bothy for the night, but first the superfit are out to grab a couple more peaks.

Glen Derry

After another night in a bothy, half the party opt to climb the pink granite slopes of Beinn Mheadhoin to explore the 'barns' on its summit, whilst the rest walk around the base to meet up along the shores of Loch Avon.  This is a rather foreboding place with a giant stone you can sleep under, and towering mountains squeezed tight around it.  The easy way out is a steep climb by a burn that takes you all the way to the summit of Cairngorm, but the weather has turned and it can get get quite exposed up there when that happens.  So we take the safe route along what seems like an endless Strath (narrow valley) that eventually leads us to Ryvoan Bothy.  From here its just a short walk back to civilisation, but we opt for one last night in a bothy, and then tackling what now seems like a low ridge walk to the North, though its still quite a climb.


After a long walk on gravel tracks through the pine forest we eventually reach Aviemore, and for a well earned hearty meal, a pint, a hot bath and the most comfortable bed - which after so many nights in tents and bothies could be any bed.  But just when we think we've seen it all we wake to a Spring coating of snow.

We are not really equipped for snow, but our 4 season boots manage the climb up to the Cairngorm plateau.  Our target is the summit of the rang - Ben Macdui, but its hard going as with each step the snow nearly holds our weight, before we posthole down again, making each step an uphill struggle.  We leave behind deep prints with a minty blue glow in their shadow.

All seems fine until the next morning to eyes that hurt to move. A glance in the mirror reveals red eyeballs, a face full of sores, and split and bleeding lips.  Had we auditioned for a zombie movie? Nope, this is a mild case of snow blindness that with drops, passes in a few days.  The skin heals and eventually (3 weeks later) the lips do too.  Time to continue the tour...

Cairn Toul / Angels Peak
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