Hill Forts, Skeletal Trees & Blood Red Berries

Tangled forest in Clais an Dunain

An interesting exhibition on the First People Of The Spey at the excellent Grantown-on-Spey Museum (well worth a visit if you're in the area) had a sketch map of nine Iron Age hill forts in the area, two of which are within a few kilometres of my home. One stands out prominently on the hillside on the other side of our little glen. The other is hidden in trees above a steep ravine called the Clais an Dunain. I've visited both these in the past but inspired by the exhibition I decided I'd go and have a closer look at Grant's Fort, the one buried in the woods, and take some telephoto photographs of  the other one, Torran Ban. 

Torran Ban

Not much is known about these hill forts. The exhibition booklet says they are "oval enclosures sited on hill tops or glacial mounds" and that their purpose is unknown. They have ramparts of earth or rubble  and ditches or moats around them. Grant's Fort and Torran Ban are both on raised areas on the sides of hills. They ate opposite each other and would have commanded views up and down the glen. Torran Ban still does but Grant's Fort has no clear views now due to the trees.

Aspens 

Visiting Clais an Dunain and it's tangle of mixed woodland is always worth while but especially so in autumn. Many of the leaves had fallen but there was still enough colour left to add beautiful contrasts to the pale leafless skeletal trees, especially the almost-white aspens.

Grant's Fort, or part of it.

After crossing the steep ravine I wandered through the trees to the mounds that make up Grant's Fort. These can't be seen until you are almost on top of them and I found it hard to work out the exact shape and which slopes were part of the hill fort and which weren't. Through the trees I caught glimpses of distinctive Torran Ban, just two kilometres away. I wondered about the people who lived here 1500 years or longer ago. What was the landscape like then? Did they admire it? Worship it? Take it for granted? How did they live? What were these structures for? Many questions and much scope for speculation. The world was so different then. We know that, whatever it was like.

Rowan berries

From Grant's Fort I plunged back down into the Clais. Rowans appeared, leafless now but with astonishingly bright blood red berries not yet stripped by the birds. I've never seen so many berries on rowans as this year.

Bynack Mor, Beinn Mheadhoin, & Cairn Gorm

Back in the open fields I could see the Cairngorms in the distance, etched sharp against the cloud-streaked darkening sky. Dusk is 5pm now. Autumn is fading into winter.

More scenes in the Clais

More rowan berries

Wild Nature Diary & Wild Nature Calendar 2025: Highly Recommended

Nature and adventure photographer John Beatty has recently published his Wild Nature Diary and Calendar for 2025 in partnership with the John Muir Trust and they are as superb as ever, packed with brilliant wildlife and nature photographs. I always look forward to seeing them.

The Wild Nature Diary has a Foreword by BBC TV presenter Iolo Williams and is edited by John Beatty. Inside there are 60 wonderful images by some of the best landscape and wildlife photographers in Britain including Beatty himself. 

With a page per week and measuring 205mm x 193mm this is a functional desk diary. It's also a superb photo collection that can be browsed again and again. This is not a diary to throw out at the end of the year.

The Wild Nature Calendar features 12 more mouth-watering photos and is also worth keeping. Like the Diary it's functional too with a page per month and plenty of space for each day. It measures 300mm x 300mm.

Both items are available from Wild Nature. The Diary costs £16.50, the Calendar £13. 

Tony Hobbs' videos on our recent Cape Wrath Trail walk

Tony in the rain on the Cape Wrath Trail

Tony Hobbs accompanied me on my recent almost completion of the Cape Wrath Trail (see this post) and shot many videos during the walk. I could often hear him recording his commentary and see him holding out his action camera. His ability to slosh through tussocks and bogs whilst filming and talking is impressive!

Tony has now posted six videos on his YouTube channel, one for each day of the walk. I think they capture well the beauty of the area and the wetness of the bogs! Plus the rain and the campsites.

An autumn walk and camp in Glen Feshie

Glen Feshie in the Cairngorms is one of my favourite places, as regular readers of this blog will know. I go there several times every year. At least one of those visits is always in the autumn when there is a brilliant show of colour from the deciduous trees, especially the birches.

This year I set off down the glen in a rain storm and a strong wind. But, as forecast, the rain soon cleared and there were occasional patches of blue in the sky. The wind, however, blew on. Under the shade of the grey clouds the wet trees glistened, the autumn colours glowing.

Through the forest the river wound, fast and rushing here, slow and swirling there. The Feshie is a very mobile river, constantly changing its course, leaving banks of shingle, and dried out old water courses. Often it’s braided, with many channels. In places it cuts into the steep banks of soil and pebbles, bringing down trees and sometimes the path itself.  Every visit something has changed. Here you can see a dynamic landscape in action.

At a point where the path had collapsed into the river a temporary way had been made steeply up and then steeply down a wooded slope. I’d followed this many times. On this occasion though the river had receded enough to allow passage along its edge below the trees. This was aided by some new material fallen from above. When I returned along the glen I took the steep path up into the woods to find that the descent had eroded away, providing the surface I’d walked on below. Constant change.

On another section the edge of the river was flowing over a shingle bank at right angles to the main flow into a lower channel. I walked out along this shingle bank with the river roaring past next to me and the overflow just below me.

As I searched for a camp site reasonably sheltered from the wind that roared down the glen a female capercaillie rose out of the long grass and flapped away into the trees. I pitched near a beautiful big old pine and a screen of young pines and birch saplings. From the tent door I could watch the river flowing.

The evening was peaceful, the wind dying down. During the night it picked up again, roaring through the trees and buffeting the tent. The night was warm for late October, with a low of only 7°C.

I woke to low clouds covering the tops and the wind raging on. I had thought of heading up to Mullach Clach a’ Bhlair and the Moine Mhor if the weather improved but as it hadn’t a walk further up the glen was much more appealing. Leaving the tent to collect on the way back I followed the river below the crags of Creag na Gaibhre and Creag na Caillich where the glen narrows and the forest rises steeply on the rocky slopes. The path rises and falls, sometimes beside the water, sometimes traversing high above it, a superb walk in the grandest part of the glen.

A soft but loud ‘kek’ call came down from high in a stand of old pines. It was hard to see the source but eventually I spotted a cock capercaillie way up in the branches plucking pine needles as it called. Seeing two of this rare and threatened bird was wonderful. I passed by quietly.

The subdued light and overcast sky made the autumn colours even more striking. The mix of trees, rocks, and river was glorious. This is a landscape to inspire and hearten. It always raises my spirits, especially now the forest is returning under the stewardship of Wildland. “A landscape of hope” says the sign near the start of the walk. It truly is.

Cape Wrath Trail Gear Changes

Heading for Rhiconich

When I returned in early October to continue my Cape Wrath Trail walk (see this post) I made some changes to the gear I used for various reasons which I’ll describe below.

Much of the gear was the same though – the Atom Packs The Prospector EP60 pack, Atom Packs The Roo bum bag, Pacerpoles, Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite mat, Multimat Camper 8 closed cell foam mat, Altra Lone Peak 8 trail shoes, Montane Minimus overtrousers, Berghaus MTN Arete Synthetic Hoody, BAM T-Shirt, Rab MeCo merino wool/polyester  long sleeve base layer, Patagonia Houdini windshirt, and all the smaller items. I wrote about this gear here.  It all performed just the same.

Here's what I changed.

Shelter: Mountain Laurel Designs Trailstar

Camp at Lone by Loch Stack

On the earlier trip I took the MLD SoloMid XL because it has a zipped door, useful in midge season and for privacy on campsites. I wasn’t expecting midges or campsites on this trip so I took my old Trailstar plus a groundsheet. This is a roomier, more versatile, and more wind resistant shelter. After hundreds of nights use it feels reliable and familiar – even though I needed Tony Hobbs to remind me how best to fit the shaped groundsheet as I hadn’t used it for so long! It was as excellent as ever.

Sleeping Bag: Sierra Designs Cloud 20

Expecting colder temperatures on this trip I brought a warmer sleeping bag, the Sierra Designs Cloud 20. As it was, early October turned out to be warmer than early June and the Rab Mythic Ultra bag would have been fine. The temperature on the coldest night in October was the same as the warmest in June, 8.5°C. I’d hoped for frosts and clear starry skies. Neither occurred.

The zipless Cloud 20 with its foldover comforter is one of the most of the comfortable sleeping bags I’ve ever used but it weighs over 2.5 times as much as the Rab. Even so I was glad to have it in case the weather turned frosty.

Stove & Pot: Soto Windmaster Triflex & Fire Maple Petrel

Kitchen setup in Glendhu Bothy

This change was so I compare this combination with the Windmaster 4Flex and Jetboil Stash pot I’d used on the earlier trip. The stove was the same in fact, just the legs changed for the shorter Triflex ones that fit into the slots in the heat exchanger on the base of the Petrel. The weight of the two setups is almost the same. The Windmaster Triflex is 20g lighter than the 4Flex but the Petrel pot is 25g heavier than the Stash, so just a 5g difference.

In use the Triflex/Petrel seems just as fast boiling and fuel efficient (I haven’t done a direct comparison test) and simmers well. I did find I needed to turn the stove down a little to stop flames emerging from the side of the heat exchanger, which wastes fuel, as the Petrel is narrower than the Stash. The shape made the Petrel a little harder to eat out of it and stirring to stop food sticking was needed a little more often. Overall there’s little difference though.

Waterproof Jacket: Montane Cetus Lite

Montane Cetus Lite in the rain

Shortly before the trip a new waterproof arrived for test made from Montane’s new Petrichor fabric, which I was keen to try. The DWR on the Ascentshell jacket I’d used before is in needs restoring, which I hadn’t done, so I’d already decided to take a different one. The Cetus Lite weighs exactly the same at 330g and worked just as well, which was good as it got far more use than I’d hoped.

Other Clothing:

Reckoning I’d be wearing a jacket most days I didn’t take a trekking shirt. I didn’t miss it. I did take an ultralight down jacket, the PHD Wafer K, in case of frosty nights. I never wore it but it took up little room and actually weighed less than the trekking shirt at 222g.

Autumn colours before Storm Ashley arrives and blows them all away

With the first named storm of the autumn forecast to bring very strong winds over the next two days (there is a Met Office weather warning) I thought I'd go for a local to see the autumn colours before more leaves are stripped from the trees.

The day was pleasant and warm with sunshine, an occasional breeze, and fluffy white clouds. No sign of the big storm that's on the way. The autumn colours were glorious, startlingly bright in places, subtle and gentle in others.

Some trees have already lost their leaves. On others the colour has hardly started to change. The woodland here is mixed outside the pine and spruce plantations, dominated by birch but also with aspen, rowan, oak, willow, cherry, and  hazel, giving a wonderful mix of colours and shapes. 

A few hours wandering in this glorious woodland was relaxing and invigorating at the same time. Several buzzards circled overhead, one rising from the ground just ahead of me. A raucous was a jay, flitting through the trees. A flock of starling perched high on the already leafless top branches of an aspen. Two roe deer watched me warily before disappearing into the dense trees.

Out of the trees the view towards the Cairngorms was hazy and bright, the hills cloud-capped. But here the sky was blue and the air sharp and clear.

 After the storm I'll return and see how much the woods have changed, how many more leaves have fallen, whether any trees have come down. But for now all is peaceful and calm in the autumn forest.

High Summer new edition - available November 1st!

I'm very pleased to announce that High Summer, the story of my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies in 1988, will be published in a new updated edition through Andrew Terrill's independent publishing imprint, the Enchanted Rock Press, on November 1st.

 

 Rereading the book for the first time in many, many years for this edition reminded me how different it was to undertake such a walk in the days before GPS, the Internet, smartphones, and satellite communicators. I really was out of touch for days and weeks at a time. Some of the stories in the book made me feel nervous! I've written a new introduction about what a different world it was then and put in some footnotes to clarify or explain things that might be puzzling but left the story as originally written.

On Kiwetinok Pass, Yoho National Park, July 2, 1988

High Summer was first published in 1989, in an edition long out of print. Back then all photography was on film and I took over 3000 colour slides during the walk. Just 21 appeared in that first edition. For the new edition there are 98 black and white photos in the paperback and 105 colour photos in the ebook, most of them never published before. One of my main tasks for the new book has been selecting and scanning slides, work that took time but which was very enjoyable. Even so it made me grateful for digital photography!

Working with Andrew Terrill has been a delight. His enthusiasm for my work is infectious and the magic he works on my old slides is astonishing. The new book is his design and I think it looks much better than the original one. Andrew has also redrawn the maps and made them far more attractive and informative. I never thought I would see the book in print again and I am very grateful to Andrew for republishing it and putting in so much work to make it look as good as possible.

 

High Summer will be available on Amazon from November 1^st, 2024 as a paperback and an ebook, and from other online book retailers shortly after.

Ebook pre-orders can now be made on Amazon.

For UK readers HERE

US readers HERE

Canadian readers HERE

A Look At The November Issue Of The Great Outdoors

 In the November issue of The Great Outdoors I review eight head torches and the Paramo Alta Trek trousers. Also in the gear pages Kirsty Pallas and James Roddie review four pairs of warm gloves each.

There's a Scottish theme to this issue as it's the annual TGO Challenge one with stories and pictures from this year's event. Alex Nail describes the many trips and false starts needed in the four years it took to compile his latest photographic book on the NW Highlands, The Great Wilderness (which I review here) in a photo essay packed with mouthwatering images. Also in the NW Highlands Gemma Smith explores Assynt and looks at the Gaelic placenames and the history of the area.

Away from Scotland, and indeed Britain, Rudolf Abraham walks across the Massif de Vercors in France and finds solitude, beauty and wildlife.

In the shorter pieces composer and violinist Lisa Robertson is Creator of the Month, Mary Ann-Ochota argues there is a place for music in the hills in the Opinion column, Jim Perrin looks at Mow Cop in Cheshire in his Mountain Portrait, James Roddie looks at Portree on the Isle of Skye as a base for a weekend, Maymana Arefin gives a beginner's guide to mushroom identification, and Emma Schroeder falls for autumn in her Notes From The Edge column. 

As the autumn colours develop in the woods Wild Walks concentrates on forests in this issue.In Scotland Craig Weldon explores the pines of Culbin Forest in Moray, Alex Roddie climbs little Creag Bheag above Kingussie through the woodlands on its flanks and also visits Loch an Eilein and Rothiemurchus Forest in the Cairngorms where he ascends another little hill, Ord Ban. In England Ian Battersby explores Kidland Forest and Bloodybush Edge in Northumberland, Vivienne Crow visits the fragments of temperate rainforest in Borrowdale and on Castle Crag in the Lake District, Norman Hadley doesn't find many trees on Ward's Stone and Grit Fell in the Forest of Bowland, and Fiona Barltrop enjoys the autumn colours on Alder Hill and Fritham Plain in the New Forest. In Wales Phillipa Cherryson does find trees on a walk over Ysgyryd Fach and Ysgyryd Fawr above Abergavenney in Monmouthshire, Roger Butler climbs Moel Hebog and descends into the jumble of Beddgelert Forest in Eryri/Snowdonia, and Ian Battersby visits Stackpole Woods and Stackpole Head in Pembrokeshire.

October Snow in the Cairngorms

"It's like the North Pole!" The Cairngorm Weather Station

Snow has been lying high in the Cairngorms for the last few days so I thought I’d go up and have a look. Snow in October isn’t unusual. It also isn’t unusual for it to thaw and then no more fall for several weeks or even a couple of months. Snow now is no indication of the type of winter to come. With warmer temperatures forecast the next few days I expect this early touch of winter will soon be over.

The snow had fallen down to 600 metres but had mostly thawed at this level. Freezing conditions had then frozen the melt water and formed icy patches on the path up the east ridge of Coire na Ciste and there was verglas on some stones. I soon learnt not to tread on the latter as the thin veneer of ice was impossible to see. Much more and I’d have worn the micro spikes I was carrying. However as soon as I reached the freezing level the slipperiness disappeared. The snow and the rocks were dry. Higher up the snow had drifted and was shin deep in places, barely covering the stony ground in others.

On the ascent.View across Coire Laogh Mor.

The sky was overcast but the clouds were high, well above the summits, and quite thin – occasionally the hazy white disk of the sun appeared. The intermittent breeze was bitterly cold. This was winter.

As Cairn Gorm came into view I could see a few people descending the main path, the first I’d seen. I shared the summit with just one other walker who looked up at the rime ice clad weather station and called out “it’s like the North Pole!”.

I wandered round for a short while looking at the views and taking photographs. Handling the camera with just thin gloves on froze my hands and before heading down I changed to thicker ones. I had my hood up over my wool hat and there was ice in my beard.

Ben Macdui

Across the frozen Cairngorm Plateau clouds touched the summit of Ben Macdui. Across the rocky Northern Corries Braeriach was backed by a line of undulating white cloud with solid grey above it. All was colourless, cold and hard. But still grand and harshly beautiful. I love this landscape.

View across the Northern Corries to Braeriach

Turning away I descended the same way. Once out of the bitter breeze I stopped for a snack and a hot drink, sitting on my pack. A walker passed me also heading down, grunting a brief hello. He didn’t look happy. Probably because he was carrying skis. I’d seen nowhere with enough snow for more than a few turns. The air had warmed slightly lower down and the ice had melted off the rocks and was crunchy rather than slippery on the path.

The first day out in winter conditions each autumn always feels significant, the start of a different outdoor season.