THE AMNESIA AMBLE

Cor! What a scorcher! 

As they say in the tabloid press.

It was certainly flaming June when we gathered beside the River Beauly at the small car park next to the Black Bridge, which crosses the river. The bridge is certainly not black, and the name is thought to refer to an earlier bridge that crossed the river here. The current bridge was built in the 20th Century.

We had brought a guest walker with us. Marion was staying for the weekend and knew a goodly number of the walkers, so seemed to feel quite at home amongst Shuffling dinosaurs, despite being a bit of a Highland Dancing luminary.

Jimmy strode manfully across the car park to see Pam demonstrating her Travelling Balance as performed in her Seann Triubhas - which as we all know translates as old troosers from Gaelic.

Enough dancing, it was time to start walking, so, off we set across the River Beauly via the non-black, Black Bridge.

Looking upstream, you get a good view of the Kilmorack Hydro dam. This is the lowest dam on the Affric Hydro generation system. It was built in the 1960's and can generate 20 MegaWatts of power.

Marion, unsuccessfully trying to teach Maureen, Agnes and Sandra some Dusty Miller Reverse Shedding. Liz is completely bemused in the background. Can you see a theme developing here?

Off they go into the woods with a Hop and Travel.

Not far into the woods, Jimmy and I spotted what looked like an old mill lade or cutting of some sort. The feature has been noted archaeologically, but there were no signs of anything of any significance when the site was investigated in association with the expansion of the nearby quarry in 1989. So, who knows, maybe it was just a Scotch Measure, which if you hadn't guessed by now, is a Highland Dance.

Here is the quarry in question. I expect there's a Dusty Miller in there as well, but nothing that a bit of Brushing wouldn't sort.

More dance steps - this looks, to my untrained eye, like a well executed sequence of Balance, Forward Travel, Rocking and Round-the-leg. Don't try this at home.

Twa dugs. Not a Highland Dance, just a statement of fact.

A bit of Assemble and Forward Travel, here.

Moving away from the dancing, for the moment, a bit of a word about broom. It is known as Scotch Broom in other parts of the world. The seed pods are a little unusual in that the hairs run along the seams of the pod rather than all over it. Broom is an indicator of dry, sandy soils. Broom contains chemicals that that can treat things as diverse as gout and heart problems.

Dandelion seeds. Little children love to blow them and tell the time. On the other hand, engineers love the seeds because they have a separated vortex ring, which is very handy in understanding fluid behaviour around fluid immersed bodies, whatever that means. This is apparently, good for understanding locomotion, weight reduction and particle retention in structures.

Broom and dandelions are, of course, yellow, and this wee bird is also yellow, but is, bizarrely, called a Grey Wagtail. These are most often seen near water - in this case, the River Beauly.

From wee birdies to big castles. Beaufort Castle was only built in 1885, but it is thought to be the 12th building on the site. Previous buildings dated from at least the 1100's and some of these were destroyed by Cromwell and then by the Duke of Cumberland after Culloden. It was sold by Lord Lovat to Ann Gloag of Stagecoach to pay for Inheritance Taxes.

I expect it has HIS and HERS everything.

Soon we were back down at the riverside, where it looks like Jimmy had an itch he had to scratch.

While Jimmy was scratching, we were eating sweeties from Maureen.

We could have just stopped there for a barbecue, but I feel we might have been moved on fairly swiftly.

This wee beastie seemed to me to make a Syncopated Hop out of one patch of grass to land on this stalk of grass. However, it doesn't really seem to be a cricket or grasshopper, the nearest possibility being a conehead cricket. It is not the right colour for that. If it is a moth, I can't identify which one, so it will remain a mystery, a bit like Flora MacDonald's Fancy.

Yep, two Highland Dance references for something about which I have no idea.

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A better view of the castle. For something so up, it is a bit ironic that the castle was originally called Castle Downie. Clearly I was influenced by this as it appears to be sliding downhill to the right!

A beach stop by the river. Everyone seems to be looking longingly, wanting to cool their dancing feet off in the cool waters.

We started to move away from the river side through some nice beech woods. This photo shows how beech trees thrive. They create a lot of shade in summer and only shade bearing vegetation can tolerate this. Beech is, of course, shade bearing and so these little beech seedlings and saplings will have a huge advantage over other species, so perpetuating beech woodlands.

Unbeknown to us, the banking behind us was part of a feature called Castle Hill. This is thought to be the site of an ancient artillery fortification. The earthworks were supposedly built by Cumberland after Culloden. Their purpose was to protect his cannon while they bombarded Beaufort Castle across the river. This just goes to show that you cannot trust every local legend you hear - the cannons would have been facing the wrong way! The more likely explanation is that the fortification protected an old ford across the river.

Further away from the river, we came across these webs. These are often made by Ermine Moth caterpillars. There are lots of different species of Ermine Moth and they tend to feed on particular species of trees and other plants. Some species of caterpillar known as tent caterpillars also exhibit the same behaviour, so they may be one or the other.

The caterpillars can strip trees of most of their leaves, but most trees will recover.

It is not just caterpillars eating the trees hereabouts. These are red legged shield bugs. I see no red legs, I hear you cry. That's because they are not yet fully grown. they are mid instar nymphs. An instar is a stage of development for any anthropod. They have to moult out of their exoskeleton to pass to the next stage of their development. In essence, they shed their skin to move on up the maturity ladder.

This insect and bug trail is taking us around River Beauly Lodge. The property does not seem to be as old as it might look. It is a holiday lodge and people rent it for the fishing, shooting or golf. It would appear that if you have to ask the price, you probably can't afford it. As an aside, there are kennels for working dogs under the fig tree, house dogs get the garage.

The tent caterpillars were taking over this tree.

Having detoured around the house, we were back at the side of the river.

In some parts of the tracks there were little holes in the ground. There are a number of possibilities here, but the chances are they are made by one of the many types of mining bees. Females often make holes and lay one egg, before moving to the next spot and doing the same again. Occasionally, these bees can make burrows up to to 60 centimetres long.

All this burrowing was making people hungry, so we stopped for lunch at a fishing hut.

These Diamond Village Maids soon found the shade. I can report that they managed to stand up again after lunch. 

This Highland Laddie was appropriately distanced from the Village Maids.

As you can see. 

I expect that he was worried about the effects of a Russian Bouree.

Don't ask - dancing stuff.

The others in the group had sat in the sun for their lunch. Some of them had on their Blue Bonnets, ready to Assemble and Travel. Meanwhile, Dave managed to get his tongue Ronde a Highland Measure of banana.

Not long after lunch, we were accosted by some Hebridean Laddies, who wanted us to join them in the river. We politely declined, but watched them Toe and Heel and then Highland Fling themselves into the water!

From the dooking spot, we could see the Lovat Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1814. 

The bridge is particularly elegant for a structure that crosses nearly 500 feet of water without a Sailor's Hornpipe. As was common with Telford's bridges, it was humped, but the road was later raised to Flatten the Hump, allowing one to Shuffle over the Buckle.

More Highland Dancing, there. Well not the Flattening the Hump. That's true, but it isn't a dance step, although I feel it should be.

Before we got to the bridge, we turned back towards the start of the walk, passing through some good looking arable land. It won't be too long before the farmer is doing some Low Cutting and Gathering In the crops.

The tractor driver has taken a bit of Scottish Lilt around the tree hear to avoid Brushing the branches.

The sign says electric fence, but even I can tell it is a wooden fence, and not a very good one at that. It certainly wouldn't stop Johnnie Going to the Barracks.

Not a horse, but a cow in front of the castle. I don't know who the cow belongs to but it might just be The Earl of Errol.

We skirted round the fields and along the edge of some very fine woodland, which actually obscures the supposed scant and much altered remains of an Iron Age fort.

You will, of course, remember about shade bearing under beech trees. Well, another very successful shade tolerant species is Rhododendron. The standard purple Rhododendron ponticum is highly invasive and this is it growing under the beech shade. It out competes other shrubs and trees in Britain and perhaps this is because it once covered vast areas until it was wiped out by the last Ice Age. It did not recolonise the country after the ice retreated, but was reintroduced by humans.

Strangely, the nectar is poisonous to some species of bees, including some miner bees! Honey bees, however, are safe as they can detect the toxic nectar and they tend to Shake and Run from it.

Dave, chasing the Easter Bunny through the long grass.

You an tell the heat was getting to us. Luckily, we were not far from the cars and ever closer to tea and cakes at the Pollock's garden tearoom.

Here we are enjoying the fruits of someone else's labour.

Looks like a Dinosaur Cake Walk to me.

It was, in fact, a malfunctioning dinosaur candle especially for Liz's impending birthday.

Luckily, the cake was already cut - no need for a Sword Dance to slice it up.

After a hot walk, it was time for us to Assemble/Disassemble  and to be Gathering In and then Farewell until the next time.

Many thanks are due to Susan and Robin for organising the walk and the refreshments. Thanks also to Sue for the scones.

Apologies to Marion if I have made a complete Crab Walk of the dances and their steps.

Oh! and I forget why I called this the Amnesia Amble.