PINING FOR ROTHIEMURCHUS

Pam and Hugh arrived promptly at the car park for the Coylumbridge Hotel, only to be greeted with a lot of tutting and wristwatch inspection from the assembled crowd. They obviously thought we were late, but Hugh clearly knows the value of punctuality, which, I have to say, I appreciate.

Pam did try to say that she thought he should have left 10 minutes earlier, but he gave her a left jab to the chin and we heard no more of that point of view.

It was time to go to walk on an egg.

A couple of cool chicks. Although, you might also think it looks a bit like pupils in a pair of bleary eyes.

It turns out they were, appropriately, dinosaur eggs, so we did a bit of posing with some big dinosaurs before we started.

They were a bit fearsome, but they seemed to recognise kindred spirits and none of us was eaten.

If only young Liam had been with us, he could have told us what type of dinosaur they were, when they lived, what they ate and so on.

It wasn't long before we were in the trees. Not a primeval forest, but one of only 35 remnants of the ancient temperate rainforest of Scotland - the Caledonian Forest. Once ice retreated from Britain, trees began to colonise the country across a land bridge that is now under the North Sea and the Straits of Dover. That forest covered the bulk of the country until about 5000BC when the climate became wetter and windier. This reduced the extent of rainforest markedly and human actions since about 2000BC further reduced the forest until it reached the present extent of less than 70 square miles. This unbroken chain of growth within the remnant areas makes the trees and the habitats unique in the world and ecologically distinct. We really were stepping back in time. Examination of old maps suggests that the extent of ancient forest is largely unchanged from 1600.

Not far past the camp site is this derelict cottage. This is marked on maps as Lairig Ghru Cottage. There is a story that the occupant realised it was on fire and, not having a phone, ran to the next nearest house, where he enquired after the health of the family, as any good Highlander would do. Only then did he ask them to phone the fire brigade. Astonishingly, this is not true. The real story is that it was the family from nearby whose house was on fire and they ran here to call the fire brigade. They actually did ask after the family, before sounding the emergency. All this attested by the grandchildren of old Edward and Granny who lived in the house.

The pinewood is full of standing dead granny pines. These are known as Granny Pines as they have seeded generations of new trees over the years they have stood in the forest. These trees can grow to 35 metres tall and can live for up to 700 years.

The dead trees are a hugely important habitat for insects and for the birds that eat them. 

Juniper is reasonably widespread in ancient pinewood, but much less common elsewhere. It is very slow growing and its presence is a good indicator of an ancient woodland. It was once much more widespread than it is now. Once upon a time Highlanders would harvest juniper berries, which are actually flesh covered cones, and take them to markets in Inverness and Aberdeen. From there they were exported to the huge Dutch gin business. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Juniper is that it is the most widespread of any woody shrub or tree in the world. It can be found on any land in all of the countries just south of the North Pole - it is circumpolar. It was probably more widespread once as remnant populations still exist in Africa.

These are the female cones, covered in a green waxy coat. These will turn purple black later in the year, birds will eat them and then pass the individual seeds for them to grow into new bushes. That is, unless, someone uses them to flavour venison or make gin!

This is typical pinewood, with an understorey of smaller trees and then ground cover of heather and much lower bushes.

It was nice, easy walking.

The path let us avoid the heather and any ticks that might have been lying in wait for us. Heather is a classic combination with pinewood and the soft tips of the plant are an important food for deer that live in the forest, especially during the winter months. It is hugely associated with Scotland. It is also integral to sport shooting, providing food and cover for game birds like Grouse. 

If deer are not eating heather in the woods, they will be eating the young shoots of almost anything else. Here they have had a go at the lead shoot of a young willow. Where grazing pressures are very high, it is not uncommon to find very old trees that have never managed to grow above the prevailing height of the heather.

Another plant to look out for is the Cowberry. The Cairngorms National Park is one of the best places to see them. They are smaller than Lingonberries, which are also red, but they can be told apart by the location - here they are much more likely to be Cowberries. They also have much blunter, more wedge shaped leaves and the fruits are smaller.

It isn't all natural here. There are signs of human intervention everywhere, including this nice stone dyke.

Despite the dire drought warnings elsewhere, there is still some crystal clear water to be found here.

As you now know, these pinewoods are important habitats. The range of lichens here is immense. These are Heather Rags, so called because they are found on old heather plants as well as the bark of Scots Pine. They are sensitive to sulphur dioxide and heavy metal pollution, so an abundance, such as we get here is indicative of good air quality.

Lichens are quite difficult to identify, but the green one here is, I think, commonly known as map lichen. The green shapes are said to resemble countries on a map. These lichens can also form round shapes and have a known rate of growth. This means that the age of the lichen can be determined by its size. Even more, this can then be used to estimate the age of geological events like glaciation!

More exciting and fascinating lichens to follow. If only I knew what they all were called.

Back on more familiar ground - blaeberries. Slightly early, to be worth trying to pick a basket full, but still delicious in ones and twos. Blaeberries are the European Blueberry and are related to the American version we can buy in Aldi or Tesco. They are not commercially grown because they are much more fragile. They are very closely related to Cowberries. They are a huge food source for insects, birds and mammals in the forest, especially the Capercaillie which is almost wholly reliant on the plant.

The Pinewood is full of mammals, but we didn't see any of them, but their tracks were everywhere. This is quite a big track, so probably deer, badger or fox. All these animals are habitual in the routes they take.

Capercaillie have a huge mortality from flying into deer fences. about a third of these birds in any area might fly into fences. It is thought that they fly low, under the tree canopy and around the trunks and, so, do not see unmarked fences. This fence has wooden droppers to make the structure more visible. You will also see brightly coloured plastic fences in some areas and these serve the same function.

Sweetie time!

Next stop - a stone memorial.

Helen Campbell Hughes was, indeed, killed by a flying bomb in London in 1944. She was, apparently, related to a branch of the Campbell family who had made vast fortunes growing and trading sugar in the West Indies. The Sugar Campbells were merchants from Glasgow and would appear to have owned many slaves and all that that entailed. Her father was the Bishop of Llandaff in Wales, so the link to the Sugar Campbells might be pretty tenuous. I have been unable to trace any further information about her, or what was her exact relationship to this area.

Next stop, a bridge. Not just any bridge, but the Cairngorm Club Iron Bridge.

The Cairngorm Club is a mountaineering club formed in 1889 and dedicated to improving access to the Cairngorms. The bridge was built in 1912 to ease access across the river called Am Beanaidh. The plaque on the bridge commemorating the opening refers to the river as Allt na Beinne Moire. It isn't a huge leap from Beinne to Beanaidh. Beinne meaning Ben or mountain. Beanaidh I cannot trace in my usual Gaelic dictionary, but I have seen it suggested that it translates as washerwoman. Moire complicates things. Is this just a misunderstanding of Mor, meaning big, which might go better with mountain than washerwoman! However, Moire is much more likely to relate to Mary in a religious sense, as in the mother of Christ. Indeed, Beannaidh with 2 n's can mean blessing and Beannachadh Moire would mean Ave Maria. However, I'm going with Big Mountain Stream. You have to blame Hugh, or Uisdean as he is known in Gaelic, for this diversion into semantics. He was the one that queried the name at lunch time and set the hare running.

Here is the offending and confusing plaque.

Before lunch there was time for a bridge photo.

Here is the offending and confusing Allt or Stream.

Luncheon was served right beside the bridge where some boulders had assembled specially for us to sit on.

After lunch we looped our way back to the start, taking in some nice views back to the hills.

The Pinewood was more open in character here as the ground was a little wetter and less conducive to tree growth.

There was a bit of water about.

And Cotton Grass or Bog Cotton. It is not actually a grass but a sedge. Bog Cotton is a good indicator of wet ground and if you see lots of it, don't go walking through it unless you want wet feet.

A wood ant nest. I hadn't seen too many of these. Much of the woodland we had walked through was too dense to allow enough sun through. Wood ants prefer to nest on the edge of woods, preferably on a south facing site to maximise the heat from the sun.

It wasn't long before we reached Lochan Deo - the Sparkling Loch. Deo refers to the spark of life, the vital spark or a breath of air. It was drying up after all the recent warm weather.

It was a wee bit sparkly.

There was enough water to provide prey for this Common Blue Damselfly.

Maybe not for long, though

More views back to the Cairngorms.

A bit more brooding.

A pile of stones. there are no archaeological records for this, but there are significant finds of field systems, clearance cairns and hut circles a few hundred yards away. Still, this might just be a pile of stones!

At last, the cow let me sit down just outside our cake stop at the 3 Bridges Café in Tomatin.

 Here we all are enjoying some very nice tea, coffee and cakes at the splendid 3 Bridges. We will return, I feel.

Many thanks to Hugh and Pam for organising an interesting and enjoyable walk along with somewhere new to most of us for some yummy cakes.