Distance: 12.5km; Ascent: 50m; with Colin
We woke at 6:30am, having both managed not to roll off the sleeping platform in the night, to find that there was still a howling gale outside, together with intermittent rain. Last night we had made plans to walk out over Derry Cairngorm this morning, but given the weather neither of us fancied battling our way up to the summit against the strong SE wind. Therefore we decided to walk out to Linn of Dee via Glen Derry, after all the hills will still be there another day.
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| Bridge over Derry Burn ESE of Hutchison Memorial Hut |
So we set off from the Hutchison Memorial Hut at around 8:30am and headed ESE along the good path directly into the wind, which wasn't particularly pleasant! After around a kilometre we crossed the Derry Burn at a small footbridge. Soon the path coming down from the Lairig an Laoigh joined from the left and we continued south down Glen Derry with intermittent rain showers.
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| Glen Derry |
After passing a few areas of fenced off forest, we reached a fork in the path. The path on the other side of the river looked better so we opted to cross by the bridge, which had been built in 1959 according to a plaque half-way across.
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| Derry Burn |
We continued south through pleasant areas of pine woodland to reach Derry Lodge, where we recrossed the river and stopped for a break very close to where John, Lynsey & I camped on the 2009 TGO Challenge. It was now vehicle track almost all the way back to Linn of Dee and we made good progress, reaching the car at around 11:30am. We headed into Braemar for lunch at the Hungry Highlander before starting our drive back south.
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| Derry Burn at Derry Lodge (TGOC 2009 camp just off to right of photo) |
Well done you two, and well judged to make the best of the weather at a time of year when day walks rather than backpacks are probably the norm.
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin. I'm glad we went as we still managed to have a good trip despite the weather. You're right to say that day walks are more the norm at this time of year as we didn't see any other backpackers, but we did see several groups of day walkers over the 3 days.
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