Muir of Dinnet NNR

There is a rather lovely blog written by the Reserve Manager, Catriona Reid which you can find here along with links to other NNR blogs. We always visit the reserve when in the area and take the short walk to the Burn o' Vat or longer one to Loch Kinord. Ideal when (if) you want a day off from the hills or the weather turns nasty, but also worth it for its own sake.



The photograph below is taken from the blog - acknowledged below.

Adder  close up (from Muir of Dinnet NNR blog)

Although we have been quite active during March and the first half of April I have not been posting, as is blindingly obvious. Work on the house has now been completed (well, as much as we are doing at the moment anyway) so come the beginning of May we should be ready to escape to enjoy the hills of Skye, the north-west - or anywhere the sun is shining.

Bla Bheinn

Enjoy your summer.

Ineos, fracking and FoE

Courtesy BBC website

Ineos, which has begun a community consultation process to try to get support for fracking, said that it promised to drink "a lot of tea in a lot of village halls" to try to win the argument [over fracking].

Whatever your own position on the fracking debate, I'm sure the irony of the comment from Friends of the Earth won't be lost on you: "Ineos", said Friends of the Earth, had the budget for "a long and dirty fight" while community and campaign groups could only fight their corner "on a shoestring".

Not that the industry which FoE support, namely wind, would dream of using their financial clout to fund long and dirty fights. Perish the thought.

A post to stop the rot

 "These rare moments proffered parsimoniously by this wayward climate of ours, have to be snatched at greedily, for they can be speedily withdrawn" (Richard Bernard, In The Quiet Places)

Well, we did manage to snatch this gloriously warm day before Christmas but since then, having been smitten by some virus or other, nowt. Nada.*

A couple of years back in early spring after a hard winter, the snow was banked up to the height of the fence providing a perfect launch pad into the icy reservoir for any unfortunate soul who slipped. We teetered across higher up contemplating our potential trajectory. It was the only significant snow encountered all day.

Today though, the only obstacle was the bracken. I bashed on through but when I stopped beyond the first inlet Lynne was no longer to be seen. Eventually I caught sight of her as she rose from deep cover having been absorbed in some finding or other. This not uncommon.  Soon reunited we paused for tea and took in the scene, few words being needed to express our mutual content at being in such lovely country.

A butterfly fluttered past as we reached the top of Wether Hill. Distant (well not so distant really) Ben Vorlich, Stuc a' Chroin, Ben Lawers and the rest are always 'a sicht to sair the sowl'. It's some years since we were in these hills in winter but memories of those days are strong, even very early ones with the school climbing club, for example, when we traversed the Lawers group in perfect snow conditions. Alas in those early years I had no camera nor any thought of one and many years later I went through a phase of quite deliberately not carrying a camera. I can't really say what prompted this decision but even today I sometimes find the stops and starts to take photographs interfere with the experience of just being in the hills.

Once on the drove road through Glen Eagles we were in shadow but there is always something of interest here, sun or not.

* Today we had our first local walk since December so can now look forward to getting out on the hills again and thinking about our planned trips for the year.

Some snow left on the hills from the falls of a few days ago.

Well, that's the rot stopped, albeit with a rather rambling post of little or no consequence. It's done me good though!

Merry Christmas

A very Happy Christmas to all Followers and those who have read and commented on the rather infrequent posts made this year. Your company is always welcomed.

 Enjoy the festivities and your hills of 2015:

'Tis a lonely way where your fancy wends,
But it leads you straight to a thousand friends.
May your heart keep true to the peaks above!
May your feet be sure on the hills you love!
May the summer mist and the winter storms
Never hide your path to the high Cairngorms!

A verse from a poem sent to Seton Gordon by W.H. Ogilvie and published in Seton Gordon's Charm of the Hills, 1912

Glenquey Moss Quarry Application - Unanimously refused

Just out of the DMC meeting - the application has been refused. Of course it will be appealed to the Scottish Government but meantime we can celebrate success. More anon perhaps.
Sent from my BlackBerry® 

Glenquey Moss - DMC Meeting 19 November 2014 - Stop the Quarry

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Glenquey Moss in centre of photograph (click to enlarge)

On Wednesday we will be attending the District Management Meeting (DMC) of Perth and Kinross Council as objectors to the planning application for a quarry which will destroy Glenquey Moss. It is feared that planning officers will recommend approval leading to the destruction of this blanket (or raised) bog* which, as well as being an important carbon sink, is home to a great variety of fauna and flora. More can be found here and here.

The beautiful Ochil Hills have been under attack by the wind farm clowns for some years and now CEMEX UK plan to obliterate yet another part of these much-loved hills.

Permission to extract gravel from this small peatland wildlife site was first granted in 1963, before being re-approved in 1984. However, the site has never been worked commercially and permission to extract minerals on site expired in 2011.

If you love the Ochils and want to protect them from this horrific development please attend the meeting at the Council Offices in Perth at 10am on Wednesday19 November. There is still time to contact your Councillor to make your views known; if they are on the DMC, so much the better.



STOP THE QUARRY:SAVE GLENQUEY



*still being debated

Thursday 16 October - ABO Wind UK and Eurowind withdraw wind farm proposals

Good news. Eurowind UK has withdrawn its application for the 17-turbine Nathro Hill wind farm on the Carseton Estate. The company did say however that "the decision will "allow more time to deepen and strengthen ongoing discussions over the community ownership element of the development" and it "fully expects to take the project forward at a later date". I'm skeptical about that.

In a second piece of good news, ABO Wind UK has withdrawn its application to erect five turbines
near Cnoc a' Bhreacaich near Ben Wyvis.

I'm not known for my optimism when it comes to opposing wind farm developments in Scotland but could the tide be turning? Maybe.

...the Hielan' Hills o' Mar

DOLOMITES by J C Milne

                           O I gaed furth and far awa to see what I cou'd see,

                           And loshtie! siccan heichts o' Hills I nivver thocht cou'd be!

                           I lookit lang and lookit at yon grander Hills afar

                          Till I fairly taint a notion o' the Hielan Hills o' Mar.

                          'Twis here I cam' and hame again fae yonner faur I'd been, 

                          And day and nicht yon fremmit hills were aye afore ma een!

                          Till "Dyod!" thinks I, "I doot my lad, ye mebbe micht dae waur

                          Than tak' a dauner westward to the Hielan' Hills o' Mar".

                          Ay, there they were, like brithers, Ben Macdhui, Carn Toul,

                          Braeriach, Cairngorm - man, a sicht to sair the sowl!

                          And braid Ben A'an and Beinn a' Bhuird, and yonner Lochnagar,

                          A' noddin-aul' and neibourlike, the Hielan' Hills o' Mar!

                         And govie dick! at gloamin-time, maist Hielan' time o' a'!

                         The young and lordly Dolomites gaed worth and clean awa!

                         And left a leear thinkin, "Though ye've traivelled furth and far,

                         Ye hinna traivelled far'er than the Hielan Hills o' Mar".

Friday 26 September - A walk back in time

Upper Glen Devon Reservoir as it is usually seen from the north shore - opened 8 June 1955

"... A farmstead, which is depicted on the first edition of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire 1866, sheet cxxvii), now lies beneath Upper Glen Devon Reservoir"

We crossed the dam and followed the well known path above the reservoir to witness nature working its restorative magic on the upper the glen. Three deer sped across the mud; old fence posts, once marking field boundaries, were revealed; a quite delightful round sheep fold appeared; a wall, capstones still in place, ran down to the river from Glen Bee.

A delightful sheepfold; old fence posts can be seen on the opposite bank

I wandered down to the fold, touched the stones and imagined the past. A peaceful, somewhat melancholy place.

From Glen Bee

As far as I'm aware, 2003 was the last time the reservoir was so low - in fact lower. As we returned water was still being released to the lower reservoir so I imagine that even more of the glen has now been revealed.

More photographs can be found here.

Home and hoping for a NO vote

Well, that was an excellent trip with generally good weather, some very hot, some pleasantly cold but nearly always clear. The only serious rain was at The Gathering when it poured for a few hours before the sun shone to welcome the Queen!

I posted from the BlackBerry most days, largely for record purposes - I'd much rather read in the evenings really -  so the posts were fairly brief. Thanks to those who commented. I couldn't reply easily because although the WiFi on site improved, it was virtually impossible to publish comments.

Apart from days on the hills we went back to the Burn o' Vat at Muir of Dinnet and explored a bit more.

...and enjoyed a coffee or two at Braemar Mountain Sports cafe, The Bothy which opened last June. We didn't have breakfast so can't comment on that (their double Cappuccino was good) but it would be worth a look if you are on the TGO Challenge next year.

I expect we will get away again in October but for the moment it is the usual clearing up in the garden and elsewhere.

It's a big day here in Scotland tomorrow - just in case you don't know - and hope we vote to stay as part of the UK. I'll be very, very sad indeed if we leave.

I've posted some photographs here