THE HILL OF THE JUNIPER

 July - the height of summer. Frankly, the height wasn't that high. Summer has not been great. We had already had to postpone June's walk for a week due to weather, which was almost unheard of for us. We didn't want any problems with July's outing. So, we were a little disturbed to see barriers and fencing all over the rendezvous car park when we arrived. Happily, there were still places to park and the Taste of Tomatin were happy for us to still use the spaces.

And - the weather was promising.

There was a moment of controversy before we started out. Dave seemed overly concerned that Susan's chest was struggling to remain constrained by her gilet. He felt that she may have had some sort of infusion, but it turned out to be a surfeit of layers to take advantage of whatever the weather might decide to do.

Panic over, but I decided to make the photo extra large, just in case.

We were heading towards the railway viaduct running over the line of the old A9. This took us past the site of the Tomatin tin church, which has now been dismantled and rebuilt and modernised as a holiday cottage. The juxtaposition of the tin church and the railway line was no accident. Tin churches were once reasonably common. They were actually something that you could buy from a catalogue (not from Amazon) and they would be delivered, flat packed, by rail. So, the distribution of tin churches closely matches the expansion of the railways.

The viaduct was opened in 1897 and the church was erected in 1903. It was dismantled and moved in 2019.

The viaduct, which is still in use, is pretty impressive, with a total of 9 semi-circular arches.

Maureen couldn't be with us on the walk, but I'm sure she would have liked the meercats on top of the garden fence.

She would have been less happy with the gargoyles sitting on one of the old station cottages. The station at Tomatin opened in 1897 and closed to both goods and passengers in 1965.

We walked along the route of the old Station Road. The path to the A9 bus stop was impossible to miss, even if the bus might not be.

Someone had painted the moon and stars on a tree in the garden of their house. This is not quite so strange as you might think. There are such things as Moon Trees. Quite bizarrely, these are trees grown from seeds that have orbited the moon! Seeds were sent into space by NASA in 1971 and later in 2022. Almost all of the seeds from the first experiment in 1971 germinated and were planted, most of them in the US. People, including NASA, forgot about the experiment, but it was revived after the existence of the trees became more widely known. New Moon Trees from the seeds of the original trees have since been planted. Attempts have been made to find what were thought to be 15 Moon Trees planted in Britain, but to no avail. I would be astonished if this was one......but you never know!

The Free Burn - Allt na Frithe in Gaelic. Frithe being a deer forest. The burn flows down from Tom na Frithe - the mound of the deer forest - and the burn is the source of water used by Tomatin Distillery. 

By coincidence, that is exactly where we were.

The distillery was founded in 1897. Yes, the same year as the station and the viaduct and that is no coincidence. A local man, John MacDougall, began planning his distillery at Tomatin once it became known that the railway would pass through Tomatin and that there would be a goods and passenger station in the village.

His venture didn't last that long - it closed in 1906! Luckily it didn't stay closed for long either, re-opening in 1909. The new ownership lasted a bit longer, going into liquidation in 1986 and then being taken over by Takara Shuzo, a Japanese conglomerate. In 1987, Tomatin was reputedly the biggest malt whisky distillery in Scotland. It was most famous for the Antiquary brand of blended whisky. 80% of production goes into blends, although the company has been trying, successfully, to make a name for itself with single malts.

Tempting though it was to stop and sample the produce, we were here to walk, so we walked through the distillery grounds, without stopping.

Well, actually, we did stop when Sharon revealed that she had temporarily taken over Maureen's role as the Sweetie Wifie and she produced a packet of Jelly Babies. Agnes, also rose to the challenge and brought out a packet of dark chocolate covered cranberries. Naturally everybody bit the heads off the Jelly Babies, but there was some division about the merits of the cranberries. I liked them!

These are some of the outbuildings associated with the Lands of Free House. I'll bet there are plenty of Americans who would want to live in the Lands of Free. The original house, lies a bit south of these buildings,  but I thought the tin roof more photogenic than the run down farmhouse. Had I but known, the farmhouse is supposed to be one of the oldest buildings hereabouts and was thought to be unaltered since the 1700s. It belonged to the Mackintosh of Holm, as part of  the Frithe - deer forest. It was then bought by the MacBean family to add to their deer forest,  before eventually ending up in the ownership of the distillery.

I'm a bit of a sucker for a red tin roof.

I'm not quite sure why this sign is here, The Cottage of Free sits on the other side of the track from the sign and this is wild ground without any sign of habitation. There might be a story here, but I can't find it. However, it is a bit of a come down from the Land of the Free to the Cottage of the Free.

Our route took us out to the old A9. A tree with numerous shiny hangings caught the eye. There is nothing to say why this tree was decorated, but our guess was it commemorates somebody who lost their life on the old road.

There was also the remains of a colourful windmill on the fence post. People have been losing their lives along the old and new A9 for decades. The section of new A9 nearby is about to be dualled and, hopefully, made much safer.

There is a nearby cycle lane, but someone seems to have abandoned their bike in the woods.

Just along from the bike, we found an egg! Quite a big, intact egg. Intact it may have been, but nobody was willing to see what was inside. Why was it there in a plant pot?

Very strange indeed. It is very close to the local mobile snack wagon stance, so perhaps it came from there. We will never know.

It was also near the road signs announcing Tomatin. As you can see Tomatin is the Hill of the Juniper - An Tom Aitinn in Gaelic. Later in the walk, we would see just why it got that name.

Someone from the Kaiserslautern Ultras stuck their sign on one of the signposts. Kaiserslautern are a German second division football club. They have fallen on hard times a bit, having once been a very successful club, indeed, the 11th most successful ever German football team. The club is also involved in other sports, but the Ultras are fanatical fans of the football club. Ultras have poor reputations, but in Germany, these groups also do huge amounts of charitable works as well as being dedicated to promoting a fairly wild atmosphere at their home ground, which can hold almost 50000 fans. I expect the sticker poster was on the way to take in the atmosphere at Caledonian Stadium, another club fallen on hard times! I've still got my season ticket, as have another 3 Dinosaurs.

Walking back to our lunch spot.

Just by the chosen spot, was a very pretty bank of wild flowers, perhaps sown  by the Distillery as it was near their entrance.

Dave liked the flowers, and why not?

Lunch - with the distillery entrance wall providing a very useful windbreak. As before at lunch - Dave had his eyes shut!

On the other side of the wall.

We walked back up by the station cottages and some newer houses. A red deer hind found the garden plants more appealing than the blaeberries and heather on the other side of the road. She was completely unconcerned about us walking along the track towards her.

Very graceful.

Once we got too close, she trotted off.

We were walking back along a short stretch of our earlier route, but soon detoured and went under the railway line via this fine underpass.

Dave and Agnes walk through the vaulted archway, emerging through the true arch comprised of voussoirs and supported by a key stone, which in this case, had been repaired with brickwork, which you can't quite see. Quite a nice piece of work, I think.

A little up the hill, we found this very fine and unusual cross, contained within a small stone and railing enclosure. This is, oddly, not referenced in the National Record of the Historic Environment, although it sits very close to a farmstead shown as unroofed in the 1875 OS map. The cross is of smooth round granite and is really quite impressive. There are no marks on the cross itself, although the plinth has some very difficult to read inscription.

It appears that the cross commemorates Lieutenant-General William MacBean, who I think was Colonel in Chief of the 5th West India Regiment between 1863 and 1865, when the regiment was disbanded. He died at San Martino Lantosca in the Maritime Alps of south west France in 1879. San Martino Lantosca is the Italian name for the village, which is known as Saint Martin Vesubie in French. The village sits right on the border between France and Italy. What he was doing there, I cannot find out - maybe he was on holiday!

Whilst his trip to France was a mystery, the really interesting thing is the West India Regiments. These were based in the West Indies colonies and manned by local people, although commanded by British officers. The regiments were originally made up of freed black people from the local population and then augmented by slaves purchased by the army for service! Slaves purchased in this way made up between 5 and 10% of the slaves brought to the West Indies between 1795 and 1808. All these slaves were freed through the Abolition of Slavery in 1807 and the regiments came to be made up of volunteers. The regiments fought with distinction during the First and Second World Wars.

It has been suggested that the West India Regiments did not attract the highest calibre of officers, at least in their early years. This was possibly due to the make up of the regiment and prevailing attitudes at the time. British officers saw colonial service as a stepping stone to other, more attractive, posts. Some service abroad was seen as a way of having higher pay and the possibility of advancement in due course. However, officers commissioned to the West India Regiments were there for the duration and not for shorter periods, so the stepping stones didn't really exist, even though Robin found time to pose on this stepping stone!

Swinger Dave found another outlet for his energies.

It is a shame there is not a bit more information on site. It is an interesting tale and William MacBean was obviously highly thought of. Almost certainly, the trees surrounding the site were planted at the same time as the cross was erected. There is certainly a long standing relationship between the MacBean family and the local area.

There was another bit of a mystery nearby. Who loses one shoe when out walking or running? My guess is that something strange was afoot.

We headed a bit more uphill. All around was a huge amount of Juniper, which leant Tomatin its name. Juniper used to be an important part of Highland folklore. The twigs were burnt at New Year because the smoke was thought to cleanse and bless houses and the occupants. As all of the Dinosaurs also know, the berries are what gives gin its distinctive taste - indeed, the name gin derives from the Dutch word for juniper - jenever. Juniper typically grows in woodland clearings and can compete with tree seedlings to maintain these clearings. There is some evidence that Juniper plants compete among themselves to maintain access to rainfall. If you find Juniper in unforested land, it may well indicate that the land was once forested and the trees have been lost, but the Juniper has persisted.

Juniper is long lived, but the age of plants is sometimes masked by the fact that the leaves are always immature. Juniper is a sub-species of Cypress. Cypresses are noted for their leaves being more scale like as the tree matures, however, Juniper retains the immature needle like foliage for all of its life.

We were at the highest point of the walk and there were wide view behind us to the Moy hills and the Moy windfarm. You can decide for yourself which you prefer.

As we walked through the mature forest we disturbed a small herd of Red Deer. These are the largest land mammals in the UK and the Highlands are their stronghold as a species. Finding them here is not so unusual as this is their natural habitat. Whilst they were wary of us, they did not stampede away at our first encounter, but rather moved up through the trees and eventually settled on the skyline where they could watch our progress.

They were either watching us, or enjoying a view of the railway bridge across the River Findhorn. So they should be. This viaduct is commonly thought of as one of the finest in the country. The bridge engineer was John Fowler, who is more famous for the Forth Rail Bridge. There is a walkway suspended under the rail tracks that allows maintenance crews access for inspection and repair.

As we leave the forest, we passed Molly's Seat. Unfortunately, Mollie and her Grandmother Sue, couldn't join us today, otherwise we could have had a photo of Mollie on Molly's Seat. I can't find anything to tell me who Molly is, or why she needed a seat.

Just opposite Molly's seat we left the track and walked down to the side of a burn  - Allt Neacrath. I cannot find a convincing Gaelic translation for this. Allt is a burn, but Neacrath is much much more difficult. Neach would normally translate as people. Rath might translate as luck or even a shoal (of fish). So, perhaps people were lucky enough top find shoals of fish in the burn. Although to be fair, it hardly looks large enough to support shoals of fish, although it may once have attracted spawning salmon from the Findhorn.

There were more swings here, but Dave resisted.

There was also a bridge, giving an opportunity for a bridge photo.

Then it was deeper into the woods for us.

It was very pleasant to walk with the noise of the burn to keep us company - morbhan - in Gaelic. It also means a low murmur or the clatter of stones falling.

The path gradually climbed away from the babbling brook and up through the trees to the deer fence overlooking moorland.

It wasn't long before we had to make our way down from the hill through windblown trees, which failed to block our path.

It did require a degree of gymnastics to get over some of the fallen trunks.

We got through the devastation down to the path, which followed an unnamed ditch/burn back to the swings and, eventually to the village and the car park.

This, of course meant we were back at the Tastes of Tomatin, which meant tea and buns, which were well deserved and most enjoyable. 

Another good walk in a place that few of us had ever been before.