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.

Doctor Johnson and South Loch Ness

Here's a poem which tries to imagine Doctor Johnson's experience of travelling along the South Loch Ness road. It's based on the account in his 'Journey to the Western Isles':

Doctor Johnson by Joshua Reynolds

After Culloden some Jacobites including Bonnie Prince Charlie fled down South Loch Ness

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usebooks/johnson-westernisles/04-inverness-fortaugustus.html

Doctor Johnson Rides Along Loch Ness

A corpulent figure riding through sunlit birches

The brown clad moralist and his worldly disciple,

Boswell.

On Highland trails he seeks a spartan virtue

Not to be found in London or the new born Athens-

The sandstone Acropolis of enlightened Edinburgh.

This day South Loch Ness is a sunlit  Arcady

And does this fey land people the storied 

And fevered imagination of  the Sage

As he rides along Wade’s way?

Does he imagine Deidre of the sorrows

Whose fabled fort lies above

The mossy pass of Farigaig?

Or perhaps from the pages of Tacitus

The eagle bearing legionnaires
Jubilant with victory, the air full of ribald song,

Cart spoils from Mons Graupius,

Their breastplates a glitter in the sun.

Or does he see the proud massed Jacobites

Like ravening wolves rushing to take Edinburgh,

Then changed to a fleeing scattered few 

Broken on the spokes of  Fortune’s wheel-

The Redcoat’s bayonets?

But now forgetful of vain fantasy

He stoops to enter an old woman’s  home

And in the smoke reeking heath thatched dwelling

Finds one half  of Baucis and Philomen 

Whose  simple life lived in pastoral piety,

The potato patch, the life giving goats,

The tended coppice of the birch woods,

Refreshes him more than the offered whisky.

In Ovid Baucis and Philomen are spared being killed in a universal flood because of their simple piety  and unwittingly offering hospitality to the Gods Jupiter and Mercury

Loch Ness Ride

I spent the weekend doing a trail leader course with Jules Fincham down at Aviemore. I found him to be a tremendous coach and learnt loads on the weekend. I also realised there is a vast network of single track to explore in the Strathspey area much of which is not marked on any map.

Back on the fixed gear today for a ride in my favorite area, the South side of Loch Ness. This is a cyclist's paradise with miles of scenic virtually traffic free road. From my house there's tons of routes I can do. Today I cycled out to Dores, a quaint small village with a beautiful bay on Loch Ness and a traditional inn. Then along the shore of Loch Ness to Inverfarigaig. The shore road is through woodland where you can often see red squirrels. There are no houses, only the solitary ruin of the house where Johnson and Boswell stopped on their eighteenth century tour of the Highlands.

Dores bay

Looking down Loch Ness near Inverfarigaig

The pass of Farigaig is full of velvety moss

After Inverfaragaig I turned up the spectacular pass of Farigaig,  where huge crags beetle over you. The area is  of geological interest and there is a memorial to a geologist killed there by rock fall. I struggled with the steepest section on my fixed gear. After this I reached the crofting hamlet of Errogie and sped homewards under darkening skies, bowled along through the moorland by a strong wind. The high moorland has incredible panoramas on all sides especially the expanse of loch Duntelchaig and on the  far side of Loch Ness the long ridge with its fans of scree, the green nook of Abriachan village nestling on its shoulder and the gaunt finger of Glen Urquhart castle below it by the side of the water.
.http://www.lochnesswelcome.co.uk/sectionDetail.asp?sID=53
http://cauldeenprimary.co.uk/secretlochness/data/foyers_dundeardail.htm

Ben Wyvis

Today I was thinking about the chief of the Munro clan holding his lands by being able to give the King a snow ball at any time of the year. He could easily do this because Ben Wyvis holds snow in its corries even in summer. so here is a poem about this:

A Snow Ball From Ben Wyvis

A snow ball for the King
Secures the lands for Munro.

He holds forever the lands of Ferindonald.
With the perpetuity
And looks in amazement
At a kingdom of crystals
Held in his hand.

“For what” he asks,
“ Is more beautiful than midsummer snow
From the shade of a corrie
High on Ross-shires’s Queen?”

“Perhaps the ruff of gold round an eagle’s neck
Who looks unblinking upon the sun,
Or the gold of birch leaves turning in Autumn,
Or the banshee wail of the storm wind
Over the whale back mountain,
Whitened in winter.”

Certainly these are beautiful,
My lord, but these also are
Distilled in the essence of this snow
So give the King his due.

Glenfeshie

Went up into Glenfeshie today. I was originally intending to do the Ryvoan Feshie bridge loop but it was raining at Coylum bridge and looked better south. The weather was indeed much better on that side of the Cairngorms. I found the single track quite challenging in places, very stony with plenty of ice about. I went as far up the Glen as I could before being stopped at a ford that I couldn't cross and stay dry. A lot of storm damage was in evidence higher up the glen with trees lying uprooted or many with broken branches hanging exposing the red Scots pine in gashes. Lower down I tried to cross a precarious looking ice bridge but gave up after my foot went through the ice twice leaving me with one wet foot. The bridge near the lodge had also fallen down which meant I couldn't cross to the other side and ended up cycling back the way I came.

Burns turned to ice in Glen Feshie

Ice in the Feshie

Torn up trees by the river

A view back down the single track

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Strathpeffer ride

Ben Wyvis on the way to work

Bridge of thighs Strathpuffer route

Ben Wyvis from the top of the Puffer

Sgurr Mor from the top of the Puffer

Loch Kinellan

View back down the track over to Fodderty

Dingwall from the heights of Keppoch with moon.

Beautiful sunny day today in the Highlands. Took some photos on the way to work, then managed a mountain bike ride in the afternoon. I went round the Strathpuffer course once, stopping to chat to an elderly couple on the top of the course and admire the view, the man informing me that his grandfather and great uncle were both dux of the school where I teach. When he asked me if their  names, both Cameronians, were displayed on the dux board, and that his grandfather was born in 1906 I had to regretfully inform him that I was sure a new board had been started. Its a damn fine school anyway, he said, a damn fine school. When I asked him where he lived he referred to the big white house prominent beyond the loch, which he was obviously very proud of. When I cycled past it I did indeed see that it was a fairly stately pile and I must find out more about it . Had I unwittingly been conversing with the local aristocracy?

After this  I cycled back to Contin and set off towards Garve on the track which runs pretty close to the river Blackwater, finding it open and sunny with good views. I didn't go all the way to Garve but took the sign posted route to the right at Loch Garve which is marked Heights of Fodderty, though it actually comes out at the Heights of Keppoch. This involved a longish but fairly gentle ascent of about 400m across a fairly bleak stretch of country but eventually giving good views into the back of Ben Wyvis. There were some farly massive forestry vehicles coming past and a guy with a lorry and a flat tire near the top who I stopped to chat to. Once the sun dropped it was bitterly cold on the descent and surprisingly snowy as there was no snow on the way up. Eventually I rejoined the bonny wee  'Heights' road and returned to Contin.

Around Loch Affric

Putting up some photos from the ride around Loch Affric which I did a couple of weeks ago. Great ride. Easy track on one side of the loch with moderately technical return on the other side. I also cycled out to the Youth hostel which is closed, to May I think. It was cold and I was continuously breaking through ice into water, the splashed water freezing on my shins, but as you can see it was a stunning day. It was great to see  the remnants of the Caledonian forest as I have been reading Jim Crumley's book about it.

Sgurr na Lapaich

Bridge to cross at the end of the loch with Strawberry cottage behind

Add caption

 The youth hostel

View down the lochs on the return path

Looking towards Kintail from the youth hostel

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Wood-Ancient-Forest/dp/184158973X

Cycled into work twice this week so far on my fixed gear Pompino. Its very cold,-5 degrees today, but the roads are clear of ice mostly, so its been good. Aim to get more photos on route as its a very scenic route of about 16 miles, 32 in total there and return. Here's one going back over the Kessock bridge with Inverness and  I think Venus in the sky.