We made a 9.10am start from a car park a few miles east our of Braemar. We had intended to follow a circular walk going up to Lochnagar, but were asked by the representative of a big group of stalkers in several 4x4s to keep to paths and come back the same way from the top. It felt like we were herded up the lower slopes until we reached the first col of the ‘ridge’, between Carn an t-Sagairt Mòr and Carn an t-Sagairt Beag (Big and Little Hills of the Priest). Some hares were jumping around on Carn an t-Sagairt Beag. Skirting around Carn a’ Choire Bhoidheach, we passed the large cairn on Cac Carn Mòr to reach the top of Cac Carn Beag. These two high points on Lochnagar (1113m and 1115m respectively). For some reason, the bigger one is called ‘little’, and the smaller one is called ‘big’. We took a few photos, had a sandwich, then set off again as the top was getting a bit crowded with people who had come up via other routes.
Starting back the way we had come, we went up another munro, Carn a’ Choire Bhoidheach, which we went by earlier. Getting back to the main path, then back down to the first col, we looked at an aeroplane wing resting on the ground which was from a crash in 1949. Then we went up to the top of another munro which we passed earlier, Carn an t-Sagairt Mòr, with more aeroplane debris higher up and an interesting cairn arrangement on the top. After that, we headed down the way we had come. It began to rain again (there had also been some sleet earlier), and we took a slight detour once we were in the forest to look at some wateralls marked on the map. We got back to the car park exactly 8 hours later, when the sun decided to come out.
After buying a few groceries in Braemar, we drove on to the Linn of Quioich (a loop round past the Linn of Dee and Mar Lodge along the way). Having parked, we took a short walk to look for the Punch Bowl, which is marked on the OS map as a sight of interest. We eventually found this – a large round hole in the rock just above the river that a person could pass through. On our way back down, we came across an unusual-looking elderly woman who had earlier been walking along the road leading a horse. She was finding a place to wild camp with her horse and dog. Then a woman standing by her car asked us about the track ahead, as she was trying to plan a cycle route for a friend. We were not able to help as we had not gone any further ourselves. We then drove back to the Linn of Dee and looked around there – it is very impressive! We went right up to the edge of the linn to get a closer look, and did not hand around for long as we did not want to lose our footing there.
Lots of fauna-spotting today: on the first top, we saw hares, and saw ptarmigan close-up (I had started wondering if the droppings I had been seeing were from grouse, as we had seen many red and a few black grouse earlier in the day). We also saw hares on the last side munro with the aeroplane debris. A red squirrel made a brief appearance as we came out of the forest near the car park. The length of the walk ended up being longer than originally planned, probably about 16 miles.
Map showing walk route
View Lochnagar – Sept 2012 in a larger map
Map showing Linn of Quoich and Linn of Dee near Braemar
View Linn of Quoich and Linn of Dee – Sept 2012 in a larger map