GLAND WOE

If you were paying attention you will have noticed that we did not go away as normal in November. We went away in December instead. Essentially we combined our away weekend from November with our usual December Christmas lunch to give us a December 2 dinner away weekend at Ledgowan Lodge Hotel in Achnasheen. This was something of a departure for us all, but especially for me. I remember hearing about proposed Environmental Improvements at Achnasheen many years ago and thinking to myself that this could only involve bulldozers and grass seed.

That was a bit harsh on my part, especially as the journey to and beyond Achnasheen to our first walk site was absolutely stunning.

We arrived at Loch Maree and the water was like a mirror, reflecting the fabulous mountains on the other side. It was not what you might expect at the beginning of December. It really was breathtaking.

Is there a car park with a better view?

Loch Ma-ruibhe, in Gaelic, is thought to derive its name from Saint Mael Ruba, who was the second best known of the early Irish Monks and Saints after Saint Columba. He lived from 642 until 722 and founded a monastery at Applecross. Loch Maree has a number of large islands within its waters and one of these contains a chapel, graveyard, holy well and holy tree all thought to relate to a hermitage of St Mael Ruba.

The Loch itself is the largest north of Loch Ness and the fourth largest in Scotland. One of the islands in the Loch is famous for being the only island in Britain that contains a loch that also contains an island. So, if you consider that Britain is an island that contains Loch Maree, that contains an island, that contains a loch that also contains an island, you will have lost the will to live trying to figure it out.

Among many feeders of the Loch is this fine waterfall, which doesn't appear to have a name.

Ignoring the fine scenery, Mac and Pam prepare for the first walk of the weekend, the Woodland Walk.

This, being the Christmas walk, Maureen has a big tub of sweeties to choose from. She doesn't seem too chuffed that Pam is actually going to take a second sweetie. Either that or she has one of the toffees stuck in her teeth.

Soon we are on our way up by the side of Allt na h-Airighe, the burn of the Shieling. So, no doubt, livestock were taken along this route to reach summer grazing some centuries ago.

Red Moss. Who knew there was such a thing. I thought this might just be ordinary green moss turning red in the autumn/winter, but, no. It seems it is likely to be Sphagnum fuscum, a type of Sphagnum moss related to the stuff that is everywhere in my lawn. It is relatively common throughout the northern hemisphere.

Looking back to Loch Maree.

The Lonesome Pine.

Kind of green slimy stuff that Maureen wanted me to photograph.

Maureen and Janet about to be eaten by the giant wooden crocodile. They seem remarkably happy with their impending doom.

Standing around a plinth that used to have a viewpoint marker on it.

Here is the plinth. It is arranged, says the guide leaflet, to represent a model of how rocks are layered in the mountains nearby.

Looking west towards Poolewe, with some stray branches sneaking into the photo on the left.

Onwards and downwards.

This is apparently Pine Marten poo - after a pretty heavy night on the old Rowan Berries.

It left a few behind.

Mac was a fount of knowledge on this walk, due largely to his ability to read the guide leaflet. His audience was spellbound. Well they couldn't get away.

Robin enjoying the walk.

I did actually take a photo of this view without the grey bits in it, but I think the greyness adds to the mood. I am not sure who the grey bits belong to, but it could be almost any one of us.

More Pine Marten poo.

Crazy paving, crazy people.

A bridge photo.

Robin, being less than complimentary about my less than complimentary remark about these not being the kind of people I would want to share a bridge photo with.

Back at the car park, the information shelter needs a haircut.

The view from our lunch spot at the car park.

The view from the posh seats.

Sharon looking like the girl from the film "Don't Look Now". 

After lunch it was back to the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve Interpretive Centre for our second walk of the day.

Moisture on the trees in the car park of the Beinne Eighe National Nature Reserve Visitor Centre. This was to be the start of our second walk of the weekend. It was also the 150th walk since the Dinosaurs first walked the earth.

Sue and Charlie joined us here.

Although it was our 150th walk, it was also a first in that we were guided by someone who knew what it was we were actually looking at. Stuart, our guide worked at the NNR for Scottish Natural Heritage. Beinn Eighe was actually the first National Nature Reserve in Britain and it was bought at the knockdown price of £4000 in the 1950s.

Stuart took us along the Pine Cone walk near the Visitor Centre, pointing out that the woodland was not natural, but had, in fact, been planted in an attempt to regenerate the natural Scots Pine forest that used to exist here.

This was less than successful, but the woodland structure is now being altered by SNH to more closely resemble a natural state. Of course, there is a longstanding philosophical argument as to whether such action is doomed to failure as the action is in itself man made and in any event there is no part of the world that is unmodified by the actions of man, even if that relates only to the effects of climate change.

As if to illustrate this there are some quite nice sculptures in this part of the woodland. These illustrate different trees, but one of these is a Sycamore, which is not native to Britain and is thought to have been introduced about 1500. It is very invasive and does not support the range of species that the tree does in those countries where it is native.

We soon gained a bit of height and some of our party had to resort to drugs to keep going. Well, actually, they were looking at the detail of the Cross-haired Heath, to distinguish it from other types of Heather. Stuart had provided the little magnifying glass needed for this.

Stuart pointing out to us where Dragonflies and Damsel Flies can be found during the summer months. The mist around the hills in the background gave rise to some nice views.

You can still see Stuart's finger in the bottom right of the picture.

Stuart was telling us about the Juniper growing at this point on the hill. Sue was less than impressed, feeling that the only good juniper was in a bottle of gin, preferably with tonic.

So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains

Where the spirits go now,

Over the hills where the spirits fly

I really don't know.

The words above the previous photo are, of course, taken from Led Zeppelin's Misty Mountain Hop on their 4th, untitled, album. If you didn't know that, where have you been hiding all of your life?

There were a few of these stones beside the path, marking various plants of interest. This one looks like Marsh Marigold to me. Obviously the plants are not obvious at this time of year. Perhaps we will need to come back in the summer.

Heading back to the car park.

Art imitating nature.

After expressing our thanks to Stuart for his informative and useful guide to our walk, it was into the cars and off to our base for the weekend, the Ledgowan Lodge Hotel at Achnasheen.

Achnasheen means Field of the Storms in Gaelic. There was no sign of any storm during our stay. The weather was absolutely stunning for the duration of the trip.

Ledgowan was built as a shooting lodge in 1904 for Major Ross, owner of the 8500 acre Lwedgowan Estate. The lodge apparently took 6 years to build, as it was more or less hand-built. As with many estates, the costs of maintenance were very high and it was sold to Lord Latymer, who was a principal of Coutts Bank, so he had a bob or two. The lodge was used as an officer's barracks during the Second World War, after which it lay empty until it was converted to an hotel 15 years later. At the same time it was separated from the estate.

The Christmas tree was lit up and showing through the windows, just to get us in the festive mood.

After a fine evening, with dinner and drinks it was up and off on our third walk by the shores of Loch Maree. Of course, " By the Shores of Loch Maree" was a song of the Alexander Brothers - not one in my collection as you might guess from the Misty Mountain Hop reference

By now Hugh had joined us for the walking and he and Pam were just checking the distance involved with Jimmy before they actually agreed to take part.

Before we got to the start of the walk, we stopped off at Victoria Falls for a short stroll that would not really count as a walk. And, no, we had not been transported to Africa, were still in Wester Ross and these were a different Victoria Falls. You can tell it wasn't a real walk as there is not a back pack in sight.

.Jimmy trying to find out if the felled tree was older than himself - yes it was, but not by much.

The Victoria Falls. These were named following a visit by Queen Victoria in 1877. The Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River were named for the same Queen by David Livingstone in 1855. These falls are probably better than the Zambezi, because Victoria was actually in Wester Ross.

Charlie's artistic long exposure at the falls. That's the sort of thing that can get you arrested.

The view from the falls towards Loch Maree, where our walk awaited.

After taking in the falls we were of to the walk. No sooner had we arrived than Dave thought he was something else. Well, the notice on the table said MAY BE HOT. I think it was referring to a barbecue stance.

Another great view from a car park on the shores of the loch.

Off we go. The route we were taking was actually the old road to Poolewe.

Sharon decides to take direct action to get Susan to walk a bit faster.

Some interesting fungus on a notice board. This is actually Elf Hat Fungus and it is commonly found in much of the UK during December. You can see how it got the name.

A poor dead beetle. That only leaves Ringo and Paul.

The peak at the end of the loch is Slioch - Gaelic Sleaghach, meaning spear-like. Certainly, it is a stunning mountain and it stands alone a bit like a spear I guess. You will see a lot of Slioch in the following photos.

Even the blooming Gorse can't hide it.

One of the Loch Maree Islands.

It was a bit guttery here as there had been a considerable amount of timber extraction taking place recently.

Hopefully the previous owner of this hard hat was still about and felling trees somewhere else.

A panorama from above the loch.

Sharon and I fell a little behind watching some Black Throated Divers on the loch.

Either this has fallen of the rock face above or it is a glacial erratic, left behind when the glacier retreated at the end of the last Ice Age some 10000 years ago. If it is an erratic, then it has spent a long time balanced where it is.

Just keep following the poles.

Never look back they say, well it would have been a mistake not to today.

Looking forward was pretty good too.

Slioch

Onward and westwards we went. Actually we were going lunchward.

Lunchtime and the Smiths show off their latest purchase from one of these mail order catalogues that you get selling things like big slippers and handy spider catchers.

You don't often see tables being whipped out in a location like this.

Pam decides that standing is better than risking a soggy bottom.

Jimmy gives thanks for his Tuna sandwich.

After being suitably fortified, we head back to the cars. Having also just crossed the burn to sit down we have to immediately re-cross it to get back. 

So we head back towards Slioch.

The long March to the cars

We felt it would be impossible to walk by the lochside up in the air so we took a different route home for the last bit of the walk.

We detoured up to a forest track and Charlie took a photo of us all after about half an hour of fiddling with Jimmy's table to get the camera to sit still. So, here we all are with Slioch in the background.

The higher route gave us yet another fine view of Slioch.

Soon, the mud and tricky walking conditions were forgotten and we were back at the hotel.

It was Christmas dinner time, so we naturally posed on the stairs for a group photo. Don't we scrub up well?

Pre-dinner drinks.

After dinner and a good night's sleep, we were off for another walk - this time at Contin on the way home. We had walked to the View Rock before, but not from this starting point, so it was a bit different for most of us. It was a bit frosty, but very clear.

Dave was soon doing the teacher thing and shepherding his charges along the road.

View Rock is well named and that means going uphill to get the view, so here we are climbing up through the trees.

While everyone was striding out at some pace, I spent a few minutes in the peace of the trees and was rewarded by a flock of Long-Tailed Tits. You can see one in the bottom right of the photo. They didn't stay still for long.

It really was a beautiful day.

Not sure what this bird was. It didn't move much. It might have been a wood pigeon.

This guy looks like a poet to me - Longfellow, perhaps.

Looking back from the track to Loch Kinellan, home to Slavonian Grebes during the summer.

Getting close to the view.

Here we are, well worth the walk.

It looks cold and it was.

The short view rather than the long view - skeletal birch trunks.

The viewers.

On the way down.

We found a little Pixie hut with a little Pixie in it. If there had been more than one then I guess it would have been Pixie Lott.

The Pixie was less than elegant when it came to leaving home.

A strangely sculpted log poking out of a bog. One or two of us will have said that before now.

Isn't it annoying when dog owners pick it up and bag it, then throw the bags away?

The sign back at the car park. It might be true in our case, but not because we left litter.

Next stop was the Coul House Hotel for sandwiches and cakes. It was so good we booked rooms and food for next November!

Thanks to Jim and Jacque for all of the organisation and the weather, we all had a great time. Thanks also to Charlie for some of his photos and to everyone else for their company,
 Looking forward to Gairloch in May and Contin in November next year already.