Mammie and the Gairn Loop

[Gordon Ballantyne]

Jaikits on t'day - a balmy 9DegC at the house.....
H's parents were taking one of their brainy sons back to uni in Dundee, so we headed west with the "sun" behind us and the wind on the starboard quarter.........
Met GordonC at the Gairn Brig

A convoy of "shooters" negotiate the picturesque Gairn Brig.

MAMMIE

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The weather didn't look as good as when the weather committee selected friday for our dawg walk, earlier in the week.

Morven was wreathed in clouds as we drove out the Deeside road. Howeveron reaching the generous parkup at the end of the Mammie track, it seemed to be settling down. Mammie was a nice warm-up with the track taking us up to the comms mast and cairn. A rain shower caught us on the way down, but it wasn't very drookin', so we didn't have to don wetsuits

The Mammie comms mast

GAIRN LOOP
Cairnagour Hill, Mona Gowan, Tom Liath, Lary Hill

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This walk seemed to be a natural loop taking us back to our car parkup on the A939 by the burn that runs down into Glen Fenzie. There was a caravan already esconced in the generous roadside parkup with dogs inside. They went crazy at our arrival. The caravan seemed to have been there for a wee while as it had a wheel clamp on it. The vehicle parked alongside the caravan had previously skirmished with something, as it was sporting a dent on the side.
We braved the speeding traffic and walked a couple of hundred metres up the main road to the start of the track into Morven Lodge. Just a few metres up the track in a wee sideshoot amog the trees, we spotted a veritable Bee-opolis, where an apiarist had laid out all his/her hives for the late-summer ling heather honey production.

The heather honey bee colony

We left the bees to it and headed up past the ruins of Glenfenzie. Judging by the number of building outlines along the track, this must've been quite a big community in olden times. ( Pretty isolated though ). Lots of fragrant juniper replaced the ubiquitous gorse we'd experience in other areas. Passing through a gate, we moved some sheep on the other side, which Harvey refused to chase. ( good dog ! )
On up the glen and up the steep bit of Cairnagour to the sound of shooters banging away over on the S ridge of Scraulag to the W.

Top of Cairnagour

After pausing at the top, we followed the non-BWF across to Mona Gowan through the obligatory peat hag in the bealach. Great views across to Morven from MG. Crossed the fence to reach the hugh cairn. The threatening rain didn't materialise so we stopped for a piece.

GordonC in fine pose atop the Mona Gowan cairn

Morven behind the Mona Gowan cairn

As we set off for Tom Liath past the gate and fenceline, another of these "march " stanes was spotted. On one side it was inscribed with an "I" whilst on the other a "G". on the top was an "H" We guessed the I was for Invercauld, but had no idea what the others were.

GordonC inspects the G-H-I march stane near the top of Mona Gowan

Where we intersected the track that went down to Morven Lodge, there was a couple of shooting butts that looked for all the world like wartime like machine gun nests. Expected to be sprayed with rounds as we approached. Unfortunately, we'd left our grenades at home, so couldn't retaliate.......

The gun emplacement on the way down the ridge of Mona Gowan

At the bottom of the ridge we intersected the track that swooped over the bealach to Morven Lodge. We followed it for too long on the way up Tom Liath and had to heather-bash for a wee bit to get up Tom Liath. I'm sure taking the earlier more direct route had less heather, but we were too lazy to return to it ! There was a shooting butt near the top - but just a smidgin lower that some ground over to the N which GordonC quartered to establish the exact top.

GordonC wandering around the top of Tom Liath

The track down Mona Gowan from Tom Liath

It was a nice stroll along an ATV track over the tops of Tom Liath with good views down to tree-surrounded Morven lodge. We peeled off the track and took a more direct route down to the other track to Morven Lodge on our way to Lary Hill and had to plunge through some deepish heather. Thats what happens when you take "shortcuts"..

Harvey posing on Tom Liath with Morven Lodge below and Morven providing a backdrop.

There was a nice ATV track up Lary hill which was very accommodating, easing our passage to the top. On the way up, GC spotted an old fence post with a still-working gate latch on it, lying by the track - albeit a bit rusty !
We lounged behind the wee cairn, out of the chilly breeze for a while, soaking in the views and relishing the site of the purple-tinged countryside in all its glory. We appreciate how lucky we are to have this on our doorstep

The ATV track up Lary

The top of Lary Hill

Morven from Lary Hill

Retraced our steps back to the Morven Lodge track, then followed it down to Glenfenzie and past the beehives to the dogs in the caravan. Loads of bikers on the road whizzed by - apparently fairly enjoying themselves on the open roads up to Strathdon.
The dogs in the caravan were a bit quieter, as the occupant(s) didn't appear to be home. We guessed that it was someone up/down for the grouse beating.


Along to Aboyne for an ice-cream lolly reward, then the drive back, which I never tire of. - Deeside never disappoints !