THE BLAIR LOCH PROJECT!

 Frankly, the weather this spring and early summer has been woeful, so the prospect of a walk on a promised fine day was not to be sniffed at. Of course, the forecasts have been known to be wrong, in fact they seem to be more wrong than right these days.

Undaunted we all drove through to the Loch of Blairs. Where is that? 

That was the question almost all of us asked before we got there. Robin and Susan knew, because they organised the walk. Hugh knew because he had fished the loch back in the mists of time. For the rest of us, this was a venture into virgin territory. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Before we could set off, some of us had to play One Potato, Two Potato, to see who would set off first along the track.

Meanwhile, the class clown pretended to be The Tartan Army, minus kilt, Scotland top and pint!

Happily, we soon stopped all these childish games and actually started walking into the woods. The woods are part of Altyre Estate and they are known as Blairs Wood. We had parked near the site of Old Blairs. With no historical authority, my guess is that the Blairs name derives from the Gaelic Blar meaning field, plain or flat area of moor. Blar is also used for the site of a battle Blar Cuil Lodair is the Battle of Culloden. In this case, I think the reference is to fields or plains, because the name Blairs is used for the woods, property, a loch and the Home Farm. 

There are a lot of rhododendrons scattered through the woods. These are undoubtedly escapees from nearby planted policy woods. The use of Rhododendrons was widespread in stately homes built by the Victorians in the 19th Century. It is not native to Britain, is aggressively invasive and it will quickly crowd out native species. It also causes problems to honeybees. The nectar can be toxic to bees, unless they can mix the nectar with that of other plants. The rhododendrons in this country have been cross bred with American varieties to make them frost hardy. They tend to have less toxic nectar than the original plants in the Himalayas or Turkey. Additionally, bees here take nectar from a wide range of other plants.

The bigger problem with Rhododendrons is that they outcompete native plants. Nothing can grow under them. Invasive species such as rhododendrons are thought to be wholly responsible for 16% of plant extinctions. Pretty to look at, they harbour a dark secret.

The Loch of Blairs is no real distance into the walk. It is a popular walk and there are seats scattered along the shore. I can't imagine anyone would want to steal a seat, but they have made doubly sure that such vandalism would be very difficult.

Like moths to a flame, we are drawn to the water's edge.

There are a number of hides around the loch and the first one is named Otter Hide. Needless to say we did not see any otters. There were plenty of mallards and little grebes, as well as the lesser spotted Liz to be seen.

Yellow flag was to be found all around the loch.

At this hide, there were large numbers of froglets or toadlets.

On the basis of their colour, I think these are most likely toadlets.

As well as the birds, flowers and Liz, there was a view across the loch to be seen.

The path connects a number of bird/wildlife hides around the shores of the loch.

Agnes was a bit worried about Big Brother watching us all wander in the woods.

Luckily we were able to reassure her that it was just a bit of old alkathene pipe to stop the wire biting into the tree. The wire holds up the sign that was placed there, but not by Big Brother.

This is the boathouse and surely was where Hugh went to fish all those years ago. Indeed, there has been a boathouse here almost since the loch was created.

Created? 

Yes, it was. 

The loch does not appear on early maps of the area. One map from 1830 records other nearby water bodies, but not Loch of the Blairs. However, by 1872, the first Ordnance Survey map shows the loch and a boathouse in this location.

There are also photos of the loch being used for curling in 1891!

The loch would appear to have been originally created from boggy ground by the landowner specifically for fishing. The fishery was run by the local council from the late 1970's until the early part of this century. Once the cost of maintenance became too great, the loch and the buildings gradually reverted to nature. The loch became heavily overgrown with Phragmites reeds and aquatic weeds, while the grounds suffered with rhododendron infestation.

The fishery is now run by the Friends of Loch Blair, although the loch itself remains in the ownership of Altyre Estate.

The Friends are a charitable organisation dedicated to improving the fishery and the surrounding land and buildings. It is fair to say that we were all impressed by their work.

The boathouse and bothy have been completely reinstated and added to with educational buildings in keeping with the original complex.

I do hope the Friends would approve of me using this photo lifted from their website to illustrate the progress they have made.

The path to the Swan's Hide was edged with lots of Cat's Ear, which we identified. We didn't know the Gaelic name, which is Cluas Cait which means Cat's Ear!

Another view of the loch.

Walking back from the hide, we stepped over this Two-banded Longhorn Beetle. These are pretty common and they lay their eggs in Coniferous trees, where the pupae stay for two years. They are easily recognised (it says online, because I had no idea) by the yellow bands on their elytra. I'm assuming you all know what elytra are.

Wing cases, of course!

From the hide, we walked away from the loch towards the east and Blairs Home Farm, which we could catch glimpses of from the track.

The farm is an astonishing complex of Italianate style buildings, somewhat out of place in this landscape. As Home Farms go, this is a bit different. Or at least, it was. Now it forms a research and teaching space for Glasgow School of Art. Both of these things are not exactly what you might expect in the Moray countryside, but here they are.

Altyre Estate has been in the Cumming family for over 800 years. The Cummings - formerly Comyn - were probably the most influential and powerful families in Scotland outside the Royal houses. Of course, a great deal of that power disappeared when Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn in Greyfriars Church in Dumfries in 1306.

Many of the family lands were then given to allies of the Bruce. John Comyn's son, also John, joined the English and was killed at Bannockburn in 1314. His son died two years later. He was another John (there's a theme there) and he was the last in the Badenoch line of the family. The chiefship of the clan then fell to the Cummings of Altyre, who hold that position to this day

The Gordon-Cumming family of Altyre does have a particularly interesting forebear. The 4th Baronet, Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming seems to have been a bit of a lad.

He was born in 1848 and inherited the chiefship and the baronetcy at eighteen. He had asthma and was, apparently, blind in one eye, but he managed to purchase a commission in the Scots Guards. He later purchased a promotion and served with some distinction in the South African Zulu Wars. It was not for this that he became infamous, however.

He was apparently arrogant and a womaniser as well as being a close friend of the Prince of Wales. Indeed, he seems to have made a point of having many affairs with married women. His friendship with the Prince of Wales extended to him allowing the Prince to use his house in Belgravia for meetings with his mistresses. It is said that the Prince visited the house only to find Gordon-Cumming and one of the Royal mistresses in "each other's arms". This clearly wasn't to the prince's liking and may have had much to do with Gordon-Cummings fall from grace, which began only a few days later.

Gordon-Cumming, the Prince and others were illegally gambling at cards in Yorkshire where Gordon-Cumming was accused of cheating, which he denied. Ultimately, he agreed never to play cards again, if everyone present agreed to say nothing of the matter. However, the accusations surfaced later and Gordon-Cumming decided to sue for slander, citing the Prince as a witness. The trial took a week, but the jury took only minutes to determine that he had, in fact, cheated at cards.

The very next day, the Times declared that he had been "condemned by the jury to social extinction.....He has committed a mortal offence and.... society can know him no more". He was sacked from the Army immediately and resigned his membership of 4 London Clubs. He also married his fiancée, a rich American heiress on the same day!

He would seem to have become quite bitter, resenting the middle class, which he was now a member of, and continued his serial affairs despite his marriage. He was disgraced, but thought himself better than everyone else. The Prince of Wales stated that anyone who acknowledged Gordon-Cumming, would fall out of favour at court and felt that "the crowning point of his infamy was that he had (the day after the trial) married an American young lady....with money"! It is unclear to me whether the greater sin was that the young lady was American, or that she had money!

It would seem that there was no shortage of money when it came to building the home farm in this Italianate style. Even those buildings that look neglected now would not look out of place in a Tuscan landscape.

The loft in the older looking building is extensive and very dusty!

The buildings at Altyre predate Sir William, having been built about 1834. Buildings of this extent and style are not common, although it was not unknown for the landed gentry to build in a style that they might have experienced when undertaking the Grand Tour. More normally, Grand Tourists would bring back artistic works, to prove that they had the money and the time to embark on a year long cultural tour of Europe. A complex like this is a bit different.

These are the original cart bays for when the building was used for agricultural purposes.

The buildings are arranged around a central courtyard, which had thoughtfully been provided with a picnic bench where we could have our lunch. Had I but known, I would have brought some focaccia, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, olives and perhaps some Ligurian olive oil and a glass of Vernaccia di San Gimignano to wash it down. As it happens, I did bring a chopped Italian salad of tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, salsiccia, black olives, (Greek) olive oil, and some slightly warm water. Close, but not quite right. I'll know the next time!

I think Hugh had just taken some gobstoppers!

Sue and Liz were on the naughty step.

The tower opposite our dining table was home to a fair number of swallows, which clearly found the exaggerated corbelling under the roof to be irresistible. Maybe it had been built deliberately to attract them! Of course, they flew too fast for me to photograph.

In the centre of the courtyard is what looks like an Armillary sphere. I'm sure this is a modern, ornamental sphere and not a functional Armillary one. Armillary spheres have been about for thousands of years and were designed to show how the heavens moved around the earth. Of course, they ran into problems when Copernicus figured out in the 1500's that the earth wasn't really the centre of the universe. Nonetheless, Armillary spheres remained in use for mathematical measurement.

Lunch couldn't last for ever, after all we weren't actually in Italy! We had to leave it all behind.

Next to the complex is a pond, which holds water for fighting fires as well as being decorative. Remarkably, this was the second of these that we saw on our walks. Last month, we saw the same thing at Craig Dunain, where there was a fire pond near the old Asylum (although, I didn't comment on it in the blog).

This is Altyre House, but it wasn't always so. It is, in fact, an old (1895) rectory, which was enlarged in 1931, which rather explains its somewhat Arts and Crafts appearance. The Episcopalian rectory was the local priest's house, called Blairs House. It was enlarged in 1931 when the Gordon-Cumming family abandoned the old Altyre House and moved in here. The old Altyre House was demolished in 1962.

Just along the road from the house is this picturesque, wooden boarded church dating from 1900. It is still used as a church and occasionally for weddings, and you can see the attraction.

I'd like to say this was a saintly gathering, but that would never get me to heaven.

From the church, we walked back towards the loch, which took us past the squirrel hide and bird feeding station. There was, indeed, a squirrel there, but it didn't hang around for long. Perhaps we should have taken a squirrel whisperer with us.

Our route to the cars took us back along in front of the boathouse. Whatever was intriguing in the water was of no interest whatsoever to Hugh, Dave or Sandra!

A significant proportion of the loch shore is host to the common reed - Phragmites australis - which, despite the australis, is native to the UK. Australis means southern and, in this case, means nothing to do with Australia. The reed is very invasive if not managed, so the Friends of the Loch have undertaken significant management steps to control it.

It may be invasive, but it is useful, being the main reed to be used in thatching roofs and latterly, the reeds have been used in waste water treatment as they are good at removing pollutants and heavy metals from water.

The reeds may be good, but they do restrict your view of the loch.

Mind you, so do we!

Another hide overlooking the loch. Agnes, this was Osprey Hide. 

Looking for birds.

Is it an Osprey?

No! Its a swan, but too far away to be sure which species.

Having failed to spot any Osprey, we headed back to the car park and the cars. 

From there, we drove to Logie Steading for tea and cakes. It was very busy, but we got a seat upstairs and had a very nice break, which was not photographed!

Many thanks to Susan and Robin for organising such an interesting walk in a place most of us had never heard of, never mind visited. I'm sure most of us will return some time.

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.