TGOC 2014 - Day 13: Tarfside to North Water Bridge

Wedneday 21st May 2014

A pleasant walk down Glen Esk, via the Rocks of Solitude and the Blue Door Walk 

Distance: 27.5km; Ascent: 280m; Dry with plenty of sunshine; Mostly Solo

See tracked route in new window

The start and end points of today's walk were pretty familiar to me, having walked between them twice before in 2008 and 2009 (despite not actually having been on my route sheet either year!).  However this year I decided to investigate an alternative route instead of the perfectly pleasant walk down the southern side of the glen.  Angus Council's Core Paths Plan proved to be a useful resource for planning bits of today's and tomorrow's walk, which resulted in me deciding to pick a route between the hills over to Millden.

I set off at 9:15am, initially northwards along the Fungle Road, but after a few hundred metres I came to a signposted track junction and headed towards Millden.  The bulldozed track headed east and was reasonably well signposted every so often.  After a few kilometres I left this bulldozed route and picked up a older, greener track that led me down to the road.

Signposted footpath to Millden from the southern end of the Fungle Road

Looking back to the Hill of Rowan

The track from Tarfside to Millden

Signposts at the half-way point between Tarfside & Millden, with Craig Soales in the background

Looking back west from near Mile Cairn

The Hill of Wirren

Around half a kilometre of tarmac then brought me to the main road through Glen Esk, where I had a break to rehydrate on what was turning out to be a warm day!  I also took the opportunity to change into shorts given I still had a long walk ahead of me.  My original plan had been to backtrack westwards along the road for the best part of a kilometre so as to cross to the other side of the river.  However I decided that I couldn't really be bothered with the extra distance and instead headed straight down the road, which on the plus side was a route I hadn't previously walked!

River North Esk a few km downstream from Millden

Bluebells in Glen Esk

Trees in Glen Esk

An old looking signpost

At around half past midday I reached a old looking signpost for the Rocks of Solitude.  I'd heard that these were worth a visit, so I followed a path down through the woods to reach some rocky outcrops above the river.  It was lovely and sunny here so I stopped to enjoy the warmth of the sun whilst having lunch down near the river.

The Rocks of Solitude

The Rocks of Solitude

The Rocks of Solitude

I was pleased that I'd decided to come this way as the Rocks of Solitude were indeed worth a visit.  After feeling suitably refreshed I continued on a good path through the pleasant beech woods to reach the famous Blue Door.

Heading through The Burn woods

The riverside woodland path

The Blue Door, of walk fame ;)

I'd heard about this Blue Door several times over the last few years from various different people and had decided to include the Blue Door Walk on my route this year.  I was very glad that I had as it had been a really pleasant woodland wander :-).

River North Esk from Gannochy bridge

Crossing the river by way of the road bridge, I picked up a path between the fields and the river down to Edzell where I arrived at the Tuck Inn at around 2pm for a second lunch!

Outside the Tuck Inn

Here I met up with Lynsey, Isabel and Olivia again :-).  I was in no great rush to get to North Water Bridge this afternoon so I spent a good couple of hours in Edzell with them, which included much running around on the grassy Edzell Muir playing with a tennis ball :-).  Eventually it was time for them to head back to Montrose for tea, so I picked up a few supplies in the village shops and left Edzell at around quarter to five.

The Shakin Brig

Looking down the River North Esk from Shakin Brig

I crossed the Shakin Brig with Martin and Andrew, who I spent the rest of the day walking with to North Water Bridge.  We arrived at the campsite at around 6:30pm, to find it overrun with challengers (no surprise there then!).  There then followed a very sociable evening at campsite catching up with lots of other challengers, although it was sad to think that tomorrow would be the last day of this year's TGOC for me!

Ploughed fields near Arnhall

TGOC 2014 - Day 12: Queen's Well to Tarfside

Tuesday 20th May 2014

A short morning walk down Glen Mark and over to Tarfside 

Distance: 11km; Ascent: 130m; Overcast with warm sunshine later; Solo

See tracked route in new window

I slept well last night after my long day in the hills yesterday, and I woke this morning to find my tent surrounded by cloud.  However this gradually thinned and lifted a few hundred metres over the next hour or two.  I set off walking soon after half past eight and wandered over to take another look at the Queen's Well in the light of day.  It seemed a little odd to have such a dank well when there were perfectly good burns around to get water from!

My overnight pitch near the Queen's Well

The Queen's Well

The Queen's Well

Glenmark and the Queen's Well

After leaving the Queen's Well, I made my way down Glen Mark on the reasonable vehicle track.  All the surrounding hills were still covered in cloud, but there were still good views up and down the glen at times.

Looking back up the Glen Mark track

The Water of Mark from the bridge

A very old looking gate near the bottom of Glen Mark

Footpath signs at Invermark

At around 10am, I reached the road at Invermark and wandered over to the car park, where I met a couple of other challengers: David and Margaret Brocklehurst.  I stopped here to chat to them and to have a bit of a second breakfast.  However I didn't linger too long as when I was on Mount Keen yesterday evening I'd arranged with Lynsey that I'd meet her in Tarfside at midday.  Therefore I headed along the hill track over to Tarfside, which I'd walked three times previously - the only such overlap between my four crossings.

Looking back westwards from the track to Tarfside

Looking down Glen Esk on the way to Tarfside

A welcome sign :-)

On entering Tarfside at 11:15am, I headed straight for St Drostan's for a welcome shower, bacon butty and tea :-).  At around midday I wandered over to the camping field to find Lynsey, Isabel & Olivia waiting for me - it was good to see them all again!  It was strange arriving in Tarfside so early as I had the pick of the entire field for pitching my tent as no-one else had yet arrived.

We had a leisurely picnic lunch followed by a visit to the nearby play park; it was good to be spending time with the kids again :-).  My tent seemed to be an exciting place to play in too!  By now a few more challengers had started arriving, so we decided it was time to start eating Lynsey's birthday cake.  It reminded me of our first challenge back in 2008, when Lynsey also celebrated her birthday in Tarfside and Roger had arranged for a surprise birthday cake to be delivered to Tarfside!

Lynsey's birthday cake :-)

The rest of the afternoon was spent around the camping field and back at St Drostan's saying hello to lots of other challengers.  We headed down the road to The Retreat for Lynsey's birthday meal, before it was time for Lynsey and the children to head back to Montrose.  I headed back to St Drostan's for a jacket potato, before spending a sociable evening in the Mason's Arms with many friendly faces :-).

Tarfside camping field

TGOC 2014 - Day 11: Gelder Shiel to Queen's Well

Monday 19th May 2014

A long day walking in the hills of the eastern Mounth, including Conachcraig & Mount Keen 

Distance: 31km; Ascent: 1300m; Warm & sunny, but misty on the tops; Mostly solo

See tracked route in new window

The weather was forecasted to be good today, which was promising as it was due to be my penultimate day up in the hills on this year's crossing.  I had a reasonably leisurely start to the day and found that half the tents had already gone by the time I got up!  And by the time I set off walking just after 9am, there were only a couple of tents remaining.

Just a couple of tents remaining as I set off walking

I followed the riverside path along the Gelder Burn for a few hundred metres before it petered out into the heather.  Therefore I opted to head directly across the rough ground to an area of recently burnt heather and on up to the vehicle track.  Perhaps I should I just taken the slightly longer way round via vehicle tracks instead from the bothy!

Lochnagar from near Gelder Shiel

Last views back to the Cairngorms on the way up Conachcraig

I ascended along the vehicle track for a couple of kilometres, past Little Conachcraig, before deciding that it was time to begin my ascent up to my first hill of the day: Conachcraig.  The ascent was up some pretty steep rough, rocky and heathery ground, so it took a while to pick my way through.  I saw a couple of ptarmigan on my ascent up into the mist; the cloud base was at around 800m so the tops were only just cloud covered!

Eventually I reached the summit of the subsidiary top of Caisteal na Caillich (Corbett Top) at around quarter past eleven.  A reasonably pleasant misty walk over the plateau, punctuated with granite outcrops brought me to the higher summit of Conachcraig (Corbett, Marilyn) around thirty minutes later.

On the summit of Conachcraig

After a quick break I descended SW by way of a path back down to the vehicle track; clearly this was the most popular way to ascend this Corbett!  My pace increased noticeably as I followed the reasonable track down towards Glen Muick.

Heading down the track into Glen Muick

Soon I caught sight of another couple of backpackers ahead of me; I wondered if they were probably challengers too.  I didn't have to wonder too long as I had soon caught up with them and discovered that they were Laura & Louise, who thought I was slightly crazy to have nipped up Conachcraig on route from Gelder Shiel!

In the Glen Muick woods

Louise & Laura approaching Allt-na-giubhsaich

I walked down through the woods with them and past a shuttered up building near Allt-na-giubhsaich to reach the floor of the glen.  A pleasant flat kilometre or so led across the glen and over the River Muick.

Crossing the River Muick

Soon we reached the visitor centre at the Spittal of Glen Muick, where we stopped for lunch on a handy bench outside in the warm sunshine :-).

After a reasonably long and restful break in the sunshine, I decided that I'd better get going again as I still had to get over to the Water of Mark if I was going to fit Mount Keen into my day tomorrow.  Therefore at around 2pm I set off walking up alongside the pleasant Allt Darrarie.  Lynsey and I had previously walked this way back in 2008, during the only few hours of rain of our entire crossing!

The Allt Darrarie

Bridge over the Allt Darrarie

Higher up the path ends around a stream confluence, and I followed the left hand branch of the Burn of Mohamed up onto the peaty and heathery moorland above.  Back in 2008 we'd headed towards the Shielin of Mark, but this time I opted to bypass it and instead aim to pick up the Water of Mark further downstream.

The Burn of Mohamed

The upper part of the Burn of Mohamed

After reaching the headwaters of the Burn of Mohamed, I crossed the peat hags for a few hundred metres before picking up another burn heading SE towards the Water of Mark.  This made for a reasonably pleasant route and I was soon walking downstream along the Water of Mark.

For the first couple of kilometres along the river, I was able to cross at will to pick the easiest line although this was only possible due to the low water level.  As I got further downstream the glen became more well defined with steeper sides, meaning that I was sometimes down at water level and other times picking a way across the heather slopes high up above the burn.

The Water of Mark a couple of km downstream from Shielin of Mark

Looking down Glen Mark

The Water of Mark near Craig Michael, with Mount Keen in the distance

After a lovely couple of hours walking down Glen Mark, I reached my planned halt for the day around the northernmost point of the Water of Mark at 5pm.  However it seemed too early to stop walking on such a wonderful afternoon, and with the tops of the hills forecast to be in cloud tomorrow I decided to press on and climb Mount Keen this evening!

My original plan had been to follow one of the side streams up onto the moorland, but I'd noticed that the slopes of Little Hill seemed to offer a grassy alternative ascent.  This turned out to be quite pleasant initially, but soon turned into rough heathery moorland.  However there were lots of mountain hares bounding around on the moor this evening, which were entertaining to watch :-).

Looking East towards Mount Keen

A hazy view down into Glen Tanar from the NW slopes of Mount Keen

I picked a route across the peaty moorland for a few kilometres to reach the Mounth Road track, which I crossed and ascended to join the track heading up the NW slopes of Mount Keen.  At around half-past seven I reached the trigpoint and summit rocks of Mount Keen (Munro, Marilyn), just as the mist started to descend!  However there were still hazy views down towards Glen Tanar when the mist thinned.

The summit rocks of Mount Keen

On the misty summit of Mount Keen

I had a pleasant rest, savouring my last mountain summit of this year's crossing.  However eventually I decided that perhaps I'd better actually descend off this rocky and windy hill top and actually find somewhere to camp!  A good path led south, past a boundary stone, towards Glen Mark.  A while later this turned into a vehicle track, which I followed down to the Ladder Burn.

Boundary stone on Mount Keen

The track alongside the Ladder Burn

I had wondered whether there might be anywhere to camp alongside this burn, but it all looked to be unpleasantly heathery so I opted to continue my descent towards Glen Mark.  Soon after 9pm I reached Glenmark cottage and headed towards the Queen's Well in search of somewhere to camp.

Looking back to Glenmark cottage at dusk

Looking up Glen Mark at dusk

After deciding that the Queen's Well wasn't really an inviting spot to camp, I finally pitched the tent down near the Water of Mark.  It was now almost 9:30pm and I'd had been walking for over twelve hours so I was now pretty tired!  However it did mean that I was only around 9km away from Tarfside, which would mean for a short day tomorrow :-).