A GREAT GLEN DAY

It seems hardly any time since we came home from our weekend away and here we are out for another monthly walk. It was our turn to organise the walk and we had two alternatives to account for different weather. The forecast was not great - heavy rain - so, we decided that the walk along part of the Great Glen Way in the woods was the better choice.

There is nothing like being organised, and, frankly, it started out as if we hadn't a clue what we were doing. Meet at the Nature Scot car park, we said. Great idea, but someone had closed it off and the barrier was immovable. Not a good start.

Undaunted, we went to the visitor car park and chanced our arm on nobody actually working on a Sunday, which proved to be fine.

Now all we had to do was to wait on Agnes arriving......! 

She found us eventually and we could then sort out the cars as it was not a circular route. We were starting the walk at Blackfold Croft, above Loch Ness. So, we squeezed into two cars and set off.

There are fantastic views down Loch Ness on the way. It was heartening to see the rain sweeping up the Great Glen.

The Great Glen is part of an ancient geological fault line originating about 400  million years ago, give or take a few million years. It actually can be traced in Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence in Canada, but that more complete fault was broken when the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was formed 200 million years ago, a bit before even Dave was born.

We parked up at an old quarry and walked a few yards north to join the route of the Great Glen Way. The Way is one of 29 Great Trails in Scotland. It opened in 2002 and is used by 30000 people every year and about 4500 really special people complete the whole 78 mile route every year. 

We were soon well into our stride. The clouds were threatening, but so far they failed to deliver any of the forecast rain.

Indeed, there was plenty of blue sky about and it was, occasionally pleasantly warm in the sunshine.

It did appear that we were not the only users of the trail. I don't think it was a wolf, but you never know....

Wolf, or not, nothing was going to stop us having our usual sweetie stop!

Robin and Susan did seem as though they hadn't seen confectionary for some time!

Just next to the route was the remains of a house. There is no information on the Historic Environment Scotland website about these remains. However, it would appear that the route follows the line of an old cattle drove road. Whether the house was something to do with cattle droving or was coincidentally next to the route, I can't tell.

We really do need these walls to talk!

Looks like there will be a good crop of blaeberries later this year. 

The berries won't be wanting for a bit of rain!

Rain isn't the only weather there's been plenty of this year. 

Of course, one of the disadvantages of walking in the shelter of the trees, is that you don't exactly get a lot of views! However, there were some views across the Beauly Firth towards Ben Wyvis, over the top of the bright yellow gorse.

It is a little discombobulating to have driven down Loch Ness side to start the walk, to then look across the Beauly Firth up to Ben Wyvis!

It isn't just the long distance views that are worthwhile. This is an almost white Dog Violet. I don't think I have ever seen one of these before. They are called violets for a reason!

Just by happenstance, we come across some handy logs, just made for us to have a comfortable stop for luncheon.

One witch filling her face!

Another witch filling her face, while a third, dainty, witch watches on.

Meanwhile two riders of the Apocalypse look on somewhat menacingly.

After lunch, we walk on a bit and then divert off the Way and into the Dunain Community Woodland. Less conifers, more broadleaves.

In among the trees are the remains of a community gathering space and shelter.

The path here takes you on a little loop, bringing you round to the south east facing slope of the glacial Leachkin Ridge - An Leacainn in Gaelic. An Leacainn translates as the broad slope or hillside, which very aptly describes the location.

There are tantalising glimpses of the view over much of Inverness.

Just around the corner are the remains of a Neolithic Chambered Cairn. This dates to 4000 to 2000 BC. Essentially this was a burial chamber formed from the stones that we can see there today. Over that would have been a mound of stones forming a cairn. The cairn stones have all been removed over centuries. The whole cairn is thought to have been about 25 metres in diameter. 

The cairn is described as being of the "Orkney-Cromarty" building tradition. Now, that notion covers a lot of different cairn types and debate is raging in archaeological circles about whether these represent an attempt to build monuments in a way that would allow for change over time to take into account changes in religious rituals. Alternatively, some argue that some types of cairn represent a more permanent building solution and that subsequent change was merely tinkering at the edges.

Now, I could go on, but Sharon has threatened to kill me.

A fair amount of the land through which we walked had once belonged to the Lord of The Isles,  it was then passed to the Chisholms and then to the Episcopalian Church. It ultimately went to the Frasers of Lovat and from them to Lord Burton.

Much of the land was sold to the town for the construction of Craig Dunain Hospital, in the foreground of the photo.

The Inverness District Lunatic Asylum was built in 1864 and was considered very modern for its day as it had no walls. A significant problem was that patients frequently "escaped". Of those that sought to escape, the majority were from Skye and they most frequently tried to leave at harvest time!

The roof line of the building is quite distinctive and it is said that when it was built it used more slates than any other building in Scotland at the time.

By the 20th Century over 2000 patients were being treated here at any one time.

There is a nice big tree with a bench built right round the trunk. Nearly everybody paid attention to the camera!

The Asylum had a huge estate surrounding it and, when Roberton's the house builder bought the site, it bought the estate as well. Much of that was gifted or leased to the community for local use. This nice garden gate gives access to a now overgrown piece of ground that seems to have been a wee community garden, with fruit trees and the like.

By now the views over the city were quite epic.

It didn't take us too long to walk down to the cars, from whence Robin took the drivers back to Blackfold and we all eventually found our way to An Talla at Dochgarroch.

No wonder Maureen is looking pleased with herself, she had just drunk a whole ice cream sundae, or something like it, by herself! In the photo below, she is just pretending to be daunted by the amount of cream before her, but, in reality, she couldn't wait to dive in!

That, then was the end of a really pleasant and almost dry walk. What you can't see is how drookit I got going to get the car to pick my passengers up in act of unparalleled chivalry.