IN THE KING'S STEPS.

For the November walk we gathered at the Maggot car park in Nairn.

Sorry, it just felt and looked like November, it really was flaming June.

We had a bit of standing around in the biting cold waiting for - yes, you've guessed it, Agnes. Ironically, she thought she was early, being well ahead of the supposed start time of 1100. In fact she was late for the real start time of 1030!

It was suggested that we buy her a clock that was fixed one hour ahead of the real time, so that she might never be late again!

The Maggot does not relate, as I mistakenly thought, to the site of a previous town dump. The Maggot is actually Gaelic in origin and derives from Magh for a plain or flat area. It was this flatness that led to it being used by fishermen dragging their boats up above high tide for repair works to be carried out.  Prior to the Telford harbour being built, the river acted as the harbour and boats were moored quite far up along the banks.

As for Nairn, the name was originally attached to the river only. It is of very ancient pre-Celtic origin and is not Gaelic. It was common for places to be named after the rivers that they sat beside.

The girls huddled together in the cold waiting for Agnes, thankful they were not old fishermen's wives. It was expected that they would carry the fishermen on their backs out to the boats to save them  getting wet. Some traditions should still be carried on today, I think!

Good things come to those who wait. Agnes was here and we could get moving and warmed up.

Off we trudged towards the beach, hunched up against the cold winds of a Highland June.

Passing by a couple of Goosanders on the river. These are remarkable in that they have colonised Scotland from Scandinavia, first arriving and breeding in 1871 and then not getting to England until 1941. They cause frequent problems for game fishing interests due to their love of eating young salmon and trout.

The tide was well out. It had been very high when we arrived, but it went out while we were waiting for Agnes.

Soon we were walking along the largely deserted East beach towards some very threatening skies.

Offshore it looks like a gaggle of wind turbine stacks are anchored. In fact, the turbine stacks are on board a heavy lifting vessel called the Fan Zhou 10. This Chinese boat is anchored there after an 8 day journey from Las Palmas.

Footprints in the sand.

A little further along is another Chinese heavy load carrier vessel - the Zhi Yuan Kou.

Looking back towards Nairn. Where is everybody?

Who knows? It looks like they have abandoned their possessions on the beach and walked into the water.

Some of our intrepid group decide to investigate. Quite what they intended to do is anyone's guess. In the event, they passed the problem to another couple who would be walking back that way in an hours time, but before the tide came in. It wasn't back packs belonging to Reggie Perrin and John Stonehouse, but inflatable body boards, so chances are the owners would be back for them some time.

Marram Grass. This is the most common vegetation on the first line of sand dunes away from most beaches in Britain. It is remarkably good at stabilising blowing sand despite not being particularly hardy in saline conditions. It is also suitable for use as thatch for the roofs of buildings. Therein lies the demise of the village of Culbin. The overuse of marram to thatch buildings all over Scotland was outlawed by the Scottish Parliament in 1695. After years of harvesting all round the coast, dunes became destabilised and farmland, buildings and whole villages were lost to the encroaching sands. The village of Culbin was lost almost overnight in 1694 during a huge storm. The area became an empty wasteland until the Forestry Commission planted scrub and marram to stabilise the dunes before planting up the forest we see today.

Not only was marram commonly used as thatching material, it was used to make ropes in the Uists. There was a hugely important horse culture in the Western Isles before the second world war and nearly all tack was made from marram, as was the thatch for houses. Tractors eventually killed off the horse culture and the bridles, while corrugated iron killed off the thatch. The tradition of weaving grasses remained alive in the hands of Angus MacPhee from Iochdar. He had been called up as a mounted Lovat Scout at the outbreak of the Second World War along with large numbers of other young men from the Islands. He never served, having had some sort of mental health crisis and ultimately ending up in Craig Dunain. What he did there was to remember his island experience and he started to make huge numbers of artefacts from grasses, leaves, flowers and the like. He clearly did not think they had a value and he actively destroyed or had others destroy these works of art. Only a few things remain, from when his talent was finally recognised in 1977. He eventually was released from Craig Dunain and died in 1997 in Uist. His story is fascinating and is set out in a book by Roger Hutchison called The Silent Weaver. Maureen lent it to me and I am happy to pass it to anyone who wants to read it.

The Little White Rose of Scotland, often called the Burnet Rose, is almost only found in coastal areas and is different from the pink Dog Rose, which we also saw on this walk. It is thought to be the source of the Jacobite white cockade. The hips have been used to make dyes used in kiltmaking.

Once away from the dunes, we came to the Minister's pool. Despite being close to the sea, it is a freshwater pool and is reputed to have been used for ice skating by a local minister. Sounds like a painting by Raeburn to me!

We walked along the edge between the pool and the forest for a little way.

Before too long we were in the forest proper. The forest is large and covers what was once the largest dune system in the UK. The planting was undertaken over 40 years from 1920 by the Forestry Commission and was designed to stabilise the shifting dune systems.

Once up on the crest of the old dunes, you could see that we were never really that far from the sea.

Nothing was going to stop us finding our way through the trees.

Not even confusing paths.

Well, actually, the confusing paths did stop us and make us turn back to where Susan had said we should have gone in the first place, if only Robin had listened, or even just taken the map out of the car. I expect she is still saying all that to him even now, despite his grovelling public apology to us all.

Which Sharon seemed to enjoy rather too much.

Luckily we had found the right route as this was, reportedly, the only place to sit down for lunch.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be the favourite lunch spot for some voracious mosquitoes.

There are actually between 10 and 30 species of mosquito in Scotland. Happily they don't carry malaria, but there is a caveat with that. Midges vastly outnumber mosquitoes in Scotland, but global warming is increasing the prevalence and range of the mosquitoes, so who knows what the future holds.

I, and a few others in the party, can say without doubt that the mosquitoes in Culbin can give you a very nasty bite!

There were some very large pine cones at or lunch spot. Not your average Scots Pine, but more likely Corsican Pine, which is often grown with Scots in Culbin, but also grown in place of Scots because of higher growth rates. Agnes asked if there was a difference between fir trees and pine trees.

Well, there's a can of worms.

Fir and Pine trees are, of course, conifers, meaning they bear cones which contain the seeds of the tree. The differences are more about the needles than the cones. Fir trees have lots of short needles along a stem. Pine trees have needles in clumps along a stem. They can have 2 to 8 needles in each clump depending on species. Scots Pine and Corsican Pine are both 2 needle pines. Pines are more widespread than firs and can grow in a wider range of climates than firs. Firs are almost exclusively cold and mountainous region trees. Pines can be bushes and grow as far as the sub tropics. Firs are the classic Christmas tree shaped conifers, while pines tend to be more open, like your classic granny pines.

Once a fir or a pine tree dies, you can be sure the insects and the woodpeckers will move in as soon as they can.

Once we escaped the mosquitoes, we came out onto the public road, but we were clearly expected to have been to the toilet in the woods.

In among the roadside blackthorn bushes were the scrambling leaves and flowers of Bittersweet, which is a member of the Nightshade family. The lovely little flowers will soon form berries which are mildly poisonous.

We passed lots of what us old planners would call horsiculture. Basically an excuse to try and get a house in the countryside. One of the horses has a fly blanket mimicking a zebra hide. the reason for that is that clegs and other flies hunt by sight rather than smell. The stripes are designed to confuse the clegs. Apparently it works.

On the road home.

We diverted off the road down to the Kingsteps car park to rejoin the path that would take us back to the Maggot. Kingsteps is named after a visit of King James VI in 1617 as part of his Jubilee tour 50 years after his coronation.

We also passed this two-faced chap.

Back on the path towards Nairn. Somewhat unfortunately, it doesn't allow for a view of the sea or the beach.

However, the sewage works is available to look at. I was once shown round this particular works. One of the remarkable sights was of the huge number of tomato plants. Apparently tomato seeds pass straight through the body and will grow nicely with decent fertiliser and a bit of warmth.

On through the caravan park, where you can buy a very nice tin box for 5 quid short of £190,000!

The price tag didn't stop some of them rushing up to have a look to see what you got for your money!

 From there it was but a short step to the car park.

Many thanks to Susan and Robin for the walk and the subsequent tea and cakes which some of us had to miss in order to be with our families for Father's Day.