Glenmore , Ryvoan, Nethy Bridge loop

Loch Uaine

Today I cycled a circular route beginning at Loch Morlich then cycling past Glenmore lodge,
 Ryvoan bothy and down to Nethy bridge. The return is along the road to Kincardine 
then take the turn off marked Milton cottage a little further on and come back off road 
over the hill . It is a pleasant undemanding ride, with great views of the Cairngorms and 
a journey through the ancient Scot's pine woodland. There are many particular points 
of interest to stop and admire such as the green coloured  waters of Lochan Uaine. 
The fantastic situation of Ryvoan bothy with its views towards Bynack More and
 the Lairigh an  Laiogh which is apparently cyclable for most of its length unlike its more 
forbidding twin, the Lairigh Ghru.

Ryvoan bothy

The descent  through the forest to Nethy bridge was exhilirating and fast with the strong wind at my back. In Nethy bridge I had a sandwich and read the information about the Thomas Telford bridge. Telford's egineering achievements seem to be ubiquitous in the Highlands!

Thomas Telford bridge at Nethy bridge

 After Nethy bridge I was back on the road for a while admiring the Spey alongside me and thinking of the Jacobite hero, poet, bagpiper and dandy John Roy Stewart who came from this area. There is a cairn commemorating him somewhere here but I couldn't see it. 

the Spey near Kincardine

Another interesting stopping point was the Kirk at Kincardine which dates back to pre-reformation times. Many of the  gravestones are very old and show how populous the area once was. You can see the black mortsafe by the door which was used to protect coffins from body snatchers when the corpses were being stolen for use in medical school. There is also a stone basin of obvious antiquity outside the door which was probably the original font, put outside in the reformation.

Kincardine church

Turning back off road at Milton cottage gave a nice climb back over the hill to Loch Morlich with great views into Braeriach and the Northern corries, which were almost bare of snow.

Braeriach from the road back

Lochiel of the 45

Here's  a poem about Lochiel of the 45 Jacobite rebellion inspired by my trip down to Lochaber:



Lochiel
You ask me why I plant this avenue
Of beeches which winds towards Achnacarry?
I tell you I do it to please my wife,
For whom I’ve built this stately home
With civil comforts, dressed stone,
Not a castle but house graced by gentle arts,

An Italian garden in my wild Lochaber.
These saplings I’ve laid by plan, those yonder
Lie haphazard for later ordering.
Think how their spreading  arms in summer
Will overarch the avenue with dappled shade
Or golden hues of Autumn will confirm
The august genius of the place
And set a reverence for tranquillity
In the approaching traveller’s mind.

With seven men he has landed in Moidart,
No French dragoons  or Irish brigade?
Seven men you say, then would that the Lord
Would undo the seven day’s making of the world
For we are seven thousand times doomed.

Should I chance these men who to me
Are kith and kin, to whom I am like a father,
This Cameron land that is the map of my heart
See bloodied, broken, burning?
Should I cast all with a dice preloaded?
My father lives in exile for the cause,
One brother’s a burgher in whiggish Glasgow
A merchant who wants no part in Honour’s
Perilous pledge,but steady increase of wealth,
And I within my nest have new fledged bairns.

Will I  a gentle man unlearned in war’s brutal school
Buckle targe and broadsword?
You admire the workmanship, the  tempered blade,
The ornate basket . In Stirling it was made to my design,
But it was never whetted  by a drop of blood.
Here I’ve finished writing now, the inks near dry.
Take this note to my brother the priest,
On Loch Arkaig’s side. Have him convey it
To the rightful Heir. Tread the Dark Mile in haste,
The Prince must know I’m bound by Honour
But torn by the rashness of this enterprise.


Lochiel's sword



Modern Achnacarry, the original being destroyed after Culloden.





Rhona Lightfoot sings the ground of the piobaireachd 'My king has landed in Moidart'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YN9M02sLLA

Strathconnon

Sunrise on the way to work

This week I managed to cycle to work, Inverness to Dingwall three times. I am getting faster and am starting to feel fitter. The weather has been very good for cycling, ridiculously mild for this time of year.

Today I went out with the club in the morning and we did one of the usual loops through Beauly, Kiltarlity and back through Struy. In the afternoon I went up Strathconnon to take some photos.

I got my camera from my car and some food from the shop in Contin and took the left turn for the singletrack road past Loch Achilty to cross the Meig dam and get onto the road up Strathconnon.

Loch Achilty with oak tree.

There were many oak trees and other deciduous trees up the side of Loch Achilty. At this stage it was idyllic and sunny and one had the same feeling of being in cycling paradise that you might have at the start of other beautiful glens like Glen Lyon. Further on I crossed the dam and was on the single track up the Strath, which runs West to East and must be one of the most beautiful glens to cycle up in Scotland. It has many houses dotted along it and was the subject of the 1998 Grampian TV series 'A Glen For All Seasons'. The terrain varies from woodland to a real feeling of being in the heart of the mountains higher up.  It has an information display at Milton about two thirds of the way up and even hosts a Highland games where I have played with the Strathpeffer pipe band. There are corbetts (hills over 2550ft) and plenty of wildlife. I have seen pine martin and eagles here, and black throated divers while fishing the hill lochs. The hills also host rare types of wild orchids. Today I saw red kites hovering above the woods.

One of the best aspects of cycling here is being so close to a highland river throughout its length.

Further up the Glen the wind picked up and the cycling was hard going. Still the scenery varies wonderfully and there is real feeling of remoteness. I also saw red deer near the road.

Landscape with flock of black sheep:

Here you can see one of the churches built by Thomas Telford. It is presently for sale for £90,000.

The road climbs steadily upward towards the final loch where the roads peters out but continues to Achnashellach for 8 miles as a track. As you can see there are very steep sides to the valley where the glacier carved its way. Cascades tumble over the hard rock slabs. This is also a good place for bird watching and I have even climbed ice here in a big freeze. 

Over turned fishing boat near where the road ends:

When I turned back the wind was so strong that I was going 25 mile an hour without peddling. A great way to enjoy the view.  The texture on the birches, the contrast between the bracken and the white bridge caught my eye:

Rainbows above The Cat's Back (Strathpeffer) from Strathconnon.

Just before I got back to Marybank I saw a rainbow.It seemed appropriate.  Strathconnon is the promise of great days cycling and walking to which I have to return more frequently!

Foyers Loop

I went to an excellent piping recital by silver medalist Cameron Drummond at Tulloch castle. He played a very wide ranging repertoire from pibroch, the Lament for the Earl of Antrim, through to Breton music and ultra modern compositions by Fred Morrison and Ian MacDonald. A very musical player, he is still relatively young and promises a great future
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVwCXYQnV0w&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiwKQQAXYuM

Yesterday I was out with the club cycling around the Black Isle in mixed conditions.

On the shore of the Black Isle with oil rigs behind.


Today it was windy again, but dry and sometimes sunny. I cycled out to Foyers along Loch Ness, seeing the occasional red squirrel.

Ponies near Dores

Urquhart Castle and Drumnadrochit

Beyond Inverfaragaig the road begins to climb away from the Loch. This is a very beautiful stretch of road with open views along the loch. In a couple of weeks banks of daffodils will be busy making a display here:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Wordsworth



 There is also Boleskine house which is said to be haunted because the ghoulish Alastair Crowley performed rituals to raise spirits of the dead from the cemetry below the house.

There are also musket ball impressions in some of the headstones as red coats marching by were provoked by members of a funeral party and fired into their midst. http://www.southlochnessheritage.co.uk/index25.html

Of course Jimmy Page also owned the house because he was a big Crowley fan. I don't think Page spent much time there. Like his infantile hero the reality of the Highlands probably wasn't to his taste.

Jimmy Page in front of Boleskine House. When does the chopper leave for London?

Further on I stopped at Foyers house to admire the view and watch the birds at the busy bird table.

Finally after a stiff climb you reach Foyers where there is a good cafe and you can visit the falls.

Burns wrote this poem about the falls:

Lines On The Fall Of Fyers Near Loch-Ness.

Written with a Pencil on the Spot.
1787
Type: Poem

Among the heathy hills and ragged woods The roaring Fyers pours his mossy floods; Till full he dashes on the rocky mounds, Where, thro' a shapeless breach, his stream resounds. As high in air the bursting torrents flow, As deep recoiling surges foam below, Prone down the rock the whitening sheet descends, And viewles Echo's ear, astonished, rends. Dim-seen, through rising mists and ceaseless show'rs, The hoary cavern, wide surrounding lours: Still thro' the gap the struggling river toils, And still, below, the horrid cauldron boils-

 After this the road winds along the river before joining the road up from Fort Augustus across the high moorland. At times there was a brilliant winter light on the hills of the Monadhliath and Loch Mor. I was bowled quickly home by a strong wind.

 War memorial near Errogie

Loch Mhor looking towards Errogie

                                                    view towards Loch Ruthven

Among the heathy hills and ragged woods
The roaring Fyers pours his mossy floods;
Till full he dashes on the rocky mounds,
Where, thro' a shapeless breach, his stream resounds.
As high in air the bursting torrents flow,
As deep recoiling surges foam below,
Prone down the rock the whitening sheet descends,
And viewles Echo's ear, astonished, rends.
Dim-seen, through rising mists and ceaseless show'rs,
The hoary cavern, wide surrounding lours:
Still thro' the gap the struggling river toils,
And still, below, the horrid cauldron boils-

Loch Lochy

Urquhart castle

Today I went down to Lochaber to cycle around Loch Lochy. It was a splendid day with bright sunshine in the Great Glen on the way down, so I stopped to take photos of Urquhart castle. It was in contrast to yesterday when on the club run conditions were so harsh, with wind driven sleet, that about half the squad turned back at Beauly.

Urquhart castle

 I parked my car at the North end of the Loch and cycled across the lock gate to join the Great Glen way. This was mostly on forest track with some deviations due to felling operations.

Ben Nevis in cloud

The road went quite high up the hills behind and gave good views. I could see across to Ben Nevis and Anoch Mhor though they were in the cloud all day.

Probably the best part was the far end of the loch where you could get on a path right down by the loch. This went through some deciduous woodland.

I also took a detour up the dark mile, the Mile Dorcha, so called because of its thick moss and overhanging trees. This is clan Cameron land and the clan museum is nearby at Achnacarry. It has an avenue of beeches which the Gentle Locheil , one of the leaders of the Jacobite rebellion,was planting before the '45. If you look at them they start off planted regularly then become less ordered further down the drive. The tradition is that Locheil managed to plant the first trees but when the rebellion set in, he never got an opportunity to complete the task, and they grew from their temporary planting positions. The Witches falls are also on this road.

http://www.greatglenway.fsnet.co.uk/hist.html

The Dark Mile

The Witch's Falls

Further down the road to Gairlochy is rejoined. From Gairlochy the route is uphill with great views onto the Grey Corries 

Lock gates at Gairlochy

and Ben Nevis. This section of the road was delightfully sunny. Eventually the main road was reached at the commando monument and  I was able to motor up this side of the Loch on a super fast return. All in all a varied and enjoyable route with plenty of historical associations.