 |
| Bachnagairn - pastel sketch on paper |
In Scotland the weather forecast for the day is usually wrong which makes planning a trip to the hills a game of chance. Today the crystal ball said 'bright and dry' which translated into 'overcast and rain' in reality. Strangely enough, and wisely for once, I kept away from the higher tops of the southern Cairngorms to wander towards the upper glen of Clova to reach the picturesque woods of Bachnagairn where waterfalls, Scots Pine and Larch trees mingle to form a capsule of pleasant, meditative provoking medicine. There comes a time when the chosen sketching place is just too overpowering to translate into a sketch and that place exhibits its own natural art needing no more adoration that might be offered up by the likes of me; Bachnagairn is such a place.
 |
| Sketching today |
I love exploring a new location and Loch Esk has been viewed many times from afar but I have never wandered its shores. The ink blot shaped loch lies a short distance away from Bachnagairn and can be seen from the upper stretches of Jock's Road and the slopes of Broad Cairn. A stalker's path heads through the trees where Tree Pipits sing and then passes over the granite intrusions called 'The Glittering Skellies'. The chill waters of the loch are still being fed from the melting snow-fields but the shore hosts a few species including Teal, Wigeon, Mallard, Common Sandpiper and, on the grassy margins, a Dunlin's reeling song can be heard. An intrusion of land almost makes an island and probably one day shall be the Isle of Esk but our circumnavigation of the loch confirms that it was surrounded by trees some five thousand years ago, if the numerous peat submerged Caledonian forest roots are anything to go by. To the north-west are the shining granite slabs of Craig Gowal and to the north Broad Cairn's conical shape is capped by the rapidly descending mist.
 |
| Loch Esk |
Our intrepid explorations ended with the rain, which came and came until everything was soaking wet. The journey back down to Bachnagairn cursed the weather forecast with every drip that trickled over my brow but, on the other hand, I revelled in the rain swirled mists that carved new shapes into familiar strata. Mist makes hills look bigger because the usual determining scale that we use to judge distances by is completely disorientated and imagination runs riot, therefore propagating myths like the, 'Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui' and the 'Grey Lady of Bachnagairn', or, more worryingly, the 'Soggy Man from Brechin'.
 |
| Trailing Azalea |
Trailing Azalea grows in various locations on the high ridges of Broad Cairn but an isolated patch is found on the loch path where it becomes bare and stony. The tiny pink flowers and red buds open up like stars against the mat of shiny leaves that hug the contours of the ground. By the loch, a buzz of yellow splurges through the wintered grass to reveal the 'day-glo' brilliance of the Marsh Marigold flower and by its side lies the picked to the bone carcass of a Mallard duck. With long legs used for paddling that terminate in delicate mummified, webbed feet and surrounded by a plucking of feathers the identification is solved when one of its blue flashed wings was found earlier on the other side of the loch after being chewed off and discarded by a predator. In the Cairngorms there is always that balance between life and death that makes the ecological cogs go round. Attempting to diagnose what killed something is challenging and the choices amount to a few in this area; Red Fox, Stoat, Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Peregrine, Pine Martin or Wildcat line up in the order of probability. A good number of Mountain Hare remains are also scattered around the loch but no grouse kills are evident.
The signs of what killed a prey victim are sometimes interchangeable. A Stoat neatly chews wing feathers off in a line across them but so can a Golden Eagle tear feathers across. Evidence of feather or fur plucking in bill sized mouthfuls is left by Raven, Carrion Crow or any raptor. A short trail of feathers across the moor to the plucking site usually indicates a strike on a bird by an eagle or falcon. For example if the head, guts and wings, of a grouse are found within a plucking of feathers but no body, it suggests a large raptor has processed it for taking away. A fox will sometimes cache its kill by shoving it under a boulder or peat hag out of sight from the raptor's patrolling gaze but again a fox leaves all the inedible parts such as feathers, wings, feet or the fur skin of hare. A Raven will also cache carcass pieces or eggs to consume later.
The signs of what killed a prey victim are sometimes interchangeable. A Stoat neatly chews wing feathers off in a line across them but so can a Golden Eagle tear feathers across. Evidence of feather or fur plucking in bill sized mouthfuls is left by Raven, Carrion Crow or any raptor. A short trail of feathers across the moor to the plucking site usually indicates a strike on a bird by an eagle or falcon. For example if the head, guts and wings, of a grouse are found within a plucking of feathers but no body, it suggests a large raptor has processed it for taking away. A fox will sometimes cache its kill by shoving it under a boulder or peat hag out of sight from the raptor's patrolling gaze but again a fox leaves all the inedible parts such as feathers, wings, feet or the fur skin of hare. A Raven will also cache carcass pieces or eggs to consume later.
 |
| Loch Esk peat shore with washed up Larch pollen |
Now, we had a mystery substance that was washing up on the shores of the loch and surrounded all the puddle margins on the path. Various forms of pollution were discussed and even the invasive yellow Sahara sand was blamed but, eventually, the two brain cells left between Mike and Dave determined that the mystery pale yellow-lime coloured bloom was indeed Larch pollen. Well, the loch is a good mile away but the density of pollen in the air is enough to dust the whole area and unusually my hay-fever wasn't triggered. Stranger than the pollen though was the peat bed around the shore that had the texture of rubber safety matting found in a children's playground. All the fine peat humus had been filtered out to leave a uniform layer of tiny black fragments that looked like asphalt - weird - and I must admit both of us trampolined on the bouncy surface just like kids. Centuries of formation disturbed, tut-tut, they really shouldn't let us out!
 |
| Marsh Marigold |
This area is part of the Balmoral deer forest and the moor that we are walking on is called Prince Charles's beat, it is keepered by the stalker who lives at Moulzie croft down the glen. This moor is not run as a grouse shoot but is used for deer stalking primarily, so there are no grouse trays with medicated grit pellets set out on the heather and only one row of butts near the Sandy Hillock hut. Remarkably (facetious inflection), and by contradicting modern grouse husbandry trends, there are plenty of grouse occurring naturally here without intensive amounts of vermin control or newly bull-dozed roads or dozens of fresh faced game-keepers running around on quad bikes setting the heather on fire. By the way, it was also a tradition in Victorian times that deer forest stalkers would burn heather to keep down deer parasites such as Lungworm.
 |
| Tree Pipit on Larch |
A newly identified bird, to me anyway, was the Tree Pipit and the song, starting like the familiar Chaffinch then ending with a descending trill, was delivered in a display flight. The wee bird would fly up steeply from the highest branches then swoop down in an arc to another branch singing as it went, a charming summer visitor to the wooded heaths of Scotland. Note the distinct bib of heavy streaks on its front that truncate in a line, illustrating one element in its identification from the Meadow Pipit that has finer streaks going further down the belly.
We also discovered, in a 'new to me' sort of fashion, the original Bachnagairn Lodge that was used for shooting in pre-Victorian times. It is in ruins now and can be reached after a short distance by ascending the left side of the Altduthrie burn before the lower bridge. The boulder built walls forming two large rooms are clearly visible, with a door and a tumbled giant lintel hewn from granite on the north side. The lodge would have had a fine view down the glen towards the oddly named crag called, Juanjorge. It was built by the Ogilvys of Cortachy who owned the land from the 1450's and is listed in the final estate of Donald Ogilvy 1788-1863. (between Balnaboth in Glen Prosen and Bachnagairn shooting lodges the furniture is valued at £413 back then and must have been fine quality)
There is another smaller ruin with an iron back-boiler in the fire-place near the main waterfall and footpath leading to the upper bridge. This ruin is often mistaken for the main lodge but it is more likely to have been the bothy reputedly haunted by a 'grey lady'. Too many 'grey ladies' going about for my liking, we have one at Brechin Bridge - why not have a 'slightly green lady' or a patriotic 'tartan lady' for a change.....
 |
| The ruins of Bachnagairn Lodge |
We also discovered, in a 'new to me' sort of fashion, the original Bachnagairn Lodge that was used for shooting in pre-Victorian times. It is in ruins now and can be reached after a short distance by ascending the left side of the Altduthrie burn before the lower bridge. The boulder built walls forming two large rooms are clearly visible, with a door and a tumbled giant lintel hewn from granite on the north side. The lodge would have had a fine view down the glen towards the oddly named crag called, Juanjorge. It was built by the Ogilvys of Cortachy who owned the land from the 1450's and is listed in the final estate of Donald Ogilvy 1788-1863. (between Balnaboth in Glen Prosen and Bachnagairn shooting lodges the furniture is valued at £413 back then and must have been fine quality)
There is another smaller ruin with an iron back-boiler in the fire-place near the main waterfall and footpath leading to the upper bridge. This ruin is often mistaken for the main lodge but it is more likely to have been the bothy reputedly haunted by a 'grey lady'. Too many 'grey ladies' going about for my liking, we have one at Brechin Bridge - why not have a 'slightly green lady' or a patriotic 'tartan lady' for a change.....
 |
| Mike demonstrating his strength on this poor Larch! |
 |
| Hind on the Rocks - modesty please! |
Notes;
All sketches and photos done on the day and are artist copyright.
Please be aware that it is illegal to disturb nesting eagles or other raptors and you may do so inadvertently in your journeys into the highlands. I do not recommend searching for any of the species mentioned in this blog because this may cause undue disturbance to them. With my knowledge of the areas described in this blog I can locate and observe protected species at a respectful distance usually from about 1000 metres for short periods of time only.
Map of the area