Braemar weekend - May 2005

The 2005 season got off to a start with a camping weekend at Braemar (right).  It's one of our favourite campsites, but they now don't allow tents over 2 x 4m, so we won't be able to go there with our new tent.  Shame!


I had tweeked my back earlier in the week, so was hoping that it would recover enough to get some decent walks.  I drove, but could hardly move when we stopped for a coffee en route.  It felt slightly better when we had the tent up, so decided to give it some exercise ...

The warm up was an evening walk up to Morrone (left).  Nice walk, with good views, but the summit is an industrial wasteland!  We sat with our backs to the radio mast and buildings, and admired the view out to the west!


Next day was Sunday - back still pretty stiff - so went to church and had a couple of short walks down by the river, then up at the Linn o' Dee.   It rained heavily in the afternoon, so we were happy to lie low!

Monday looked better, so we headed off up to the Linn o' Dee car park.  We cycled up Glen Lui to Derry Lodge and dumped the bikes behind the bothy, then set off on foot up the lovely path into Glen Derry (right).  Plenty of mist still hanging around the hill tops, but it looked to be lifting, so we strode ahead optimistically, and reached the Lairig an Laoigh (750m) after a couple of hours.  A shower of rain tried to damp our spirits, but it soon eased off, as we struck up the hillside to the right.   

An easy ascent soon brought us to the first Munro summit, Beinn a' Chaorainn.  On the way up, we met an ex-colleague from back in Craigroyston days.  The weather was improving steadily, so after a stop for lunch, we strolled down and back up to the next top, Beinn a' Chaorainn Beag.  Our reward was a fine rainbow (left).


From there, the onward route was south across the wide plateau of the Moine Bhealadh to reach Beinn Bhreac, the next Munro.

This was lovely easy walking mostly on springy short heather.  Reached the top at 5pm, and out came some fine evening sunshine, so we lay down and sunbathed for a while, before descending over the west top and down a gentle ridge back to Glen Derry.  


view from Beinn Bhreac towards Beinn a' Chaorainn across the Moine Bhealadh (right)










Admired the beautiful evening light on the pine forests, and reached Derry Lodge at 7.30pm.  


Trundled gently down the track on our bikes, glad to rest our feet,  and back to the car at 8pm.

Next day was time to go home, but - just to prove the back was completely sorted - I did a quick jaunt up and down The Cairnwell.  


30 minutes up, and 10 minutes down, louping through the heather!  Great fun!


Carn Aosda from The Cairnwell (right)