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THE CATERAN TRAIL
Day 1 Good Friday Bridge of Cally to Spittal of Glen Shee
Yes, I know! The Cateran Trail starts in Blairgowrie but Katie had the brilliant idea of starting in Bridge of Cally to avoid having to walk in and out of Blairgowrie at the start and finish. We parked in a lay-by on the north side of Bridge of Cally. This may not have been the best idea – of which more later. We picked up the Trail just past the hotel.
- start at Bridge of Cally
The first section is on forest tracks but the views are fairly open to the west, across farm land to the hills in the distance with a smattering of snow on them.
After a while the dense forestry gives way to scattered woodlands and there were plenty of opportunities to get all soppy over the newborn lambs.
Towards Kirkmichael the going gets a bit boggy. Kirkmichael is a very small, sleepy little place and not to be relied on for supplies. We pressed on to Enochdhu (an even smaller place), through more forestry and then out onto open moorlands on our way to Spittal of Glenshee. We stopped at the Upper Lunch Hut (although it was well past lunchtime) and then went over An Lairig, the highest part of the route at just over 700m. There was a fair amount of snow on the track in places. The climb is very gradual, followed by a steeper descent towards Glen Shee. We found a good place to camp close to the burn
and soon had the soup on, followed by curry and rice, chocolate cake and a mug of hot chocolate. It started to rain.
Day 2 Easter Saturday Spittal of Glen Shee to a camp site about 4k to the south of Kirkton of Glen Isla (NO232576)
It was still raining in the morning and the cloud was well down. No sign of the Spittal of Glen Shee or anything else for that matter. We were quite late getting away (about 9am!) – perhaps we were reluctant to emerge from our sleeping bags into the clouds. It was very cold taking the tent down but we warmed our hands in hot water in the Ladies at the hotel which very kindly allows itinerant campers to use the toilets. There was a blazing log fire in the bar and we were tempted to linger. Progress was rather slow over the next section which was quite rough underfoot. As always when you are burdened with camping gear and you feel you aren’t getting anywhere we were overtaken by people in shorts running past – rather demoralising. Passing Glenshee Lodge Outdoor Centre we were able to pick up the pace a bit but had still only reached Dalnaglar Castle by lunchtime – well, first lunch anyway. After that you have to walk along the road for about 4k to Forter where there is a splendid castle.
Mount Blair was up on the right in a cloud – it didn’t look very inviting. After Forter a track goes uphill around Auchintaple Loch
before heading over to Loch Shanora. The Cateran Trail is generally well waymarked but in a bog to the north of the aforementioned loch the waymarking disappears. Why is it that when you really need a bit of direction there isn’t any but when you are walking along a road where there is no choice at all the way is well signposted? At this point we had a few words and then stomped along in silence for a while before stopping by the loch for some chocolate which in my experience always does the trick in a crisis. No further problems were encountered as we dropped down to Kirkton of Glenisla, another pleasant village. To pick up the trail again you have to walk west out of the village past the hotel and a children’s playground (public toilets here). Ignore the information board in the car park which indicates that you have gone wrong and should have crossed the river just past the hotel. Carry on a bit further where you will see a Cateran Trail signpost indicating the way over a bridge. And then, rather unfortunately for this stage in the day, the path goes quite steeply uphill. Once at the top however the track levels out and there are good views over the river. Passing a few farms we came to a camping spot that we had identified from the map. Soup, followed by chilli con carne and fruit cake and custard.
Day 3 Easter Sunday Back to Bridge of Cally
The forecast for Easter Sunday was for rain so we were determined to finish the Trail and get home if we had a wet tent and lots of wet waterproofs. In the event it was the warmest, sunniest day of the weekend! But we made an earlier start and were in Alyth in time for a coffee. One of the websites we looked at said that people doing the Cateran Trail spend on average about £40 a day. The £3.80 that we spent on coffee was our total for the whole 3 days so I don’t feel we made much of a contribution to the economy of the area. To be fair, unless you are staying in hotels or B and Bs there isn’t a lot to spend money on really. We had a quick snack (and a Cadbury’s Crème Egg in honour of the day!) and made a friend.
Going over the Hill of Alyth was very pleasant. The sun was shining, there was a wonderful smell of gorse in the air, the skylarks were singing.
At the other side of the hill the Trail departs from that depicted on the OS map and goes off through Bamff: in fact we were almost back to where we had been much earlier in the day (at Ardormie). There were then a few more kms along a minor road past a fishing pond. It was at this point that we spotted someone else wearing a rucksack a bit further down the road. This was the first walker we had seen since we had set out from Bridge of Cally! As the road does a sharp left we carried straight on between trees for about 3km to emerge at Cloquat. The road then winds down through Netherton (red squirrel spotted outside the church) and back to the car.
On arriving home there was a message on the answer phone from Tayside police. Someone had reported that the car had been parked at Bridge of Cally for two days and would I phone to confirm that it wasn’t stolen/we were OK. I expect there is always a risk of this happening if you leave a car for a few days to go off walking.
Forgot to mention that there are loads of huge ladder stiles on this trail - a bit of a trial when you have a heavy rucksack.
- Yet another stile