Christmas walk, Dunkeld area
The weather was perfect, the company and craic as good as ever and the three routes were all interesting and enjoyable, the A & B Group seven got their boots onto snow.
No less than 32 folk took part (including two guests) most travelling from Blairgowrie by coach and the rest by car.
Evelyn Menzies who devised the routes did a brilliant job, most of the walkers were local but only a handful had ever visited the featured locations, a most unusual situation for such a seasoned group of hill-goers.
All the walks were in the area north of Dunkeld, an area of low but fairly steep & largely forested hills.
The popular Cally car park marked the start of the A & B walks.
The C Group started their walk from the north CP, through Dunkeld, over the bridge and down to the river Tay path and over the river Braan footbridge to the Jubilee bridge. There they crossed back onto the east side of the Tay following the path behind the cathedral and back to the coach in the N car park.
The A & B groups headed west form the Cally car park where they followed paths to the well-known feature, Lady Charlotte’s Cave with its adjoining water fall. From there both groups made their way up-hill along the Cave Pass then turned left to reach the (non-rocking) rocking stone.
They then turned west and down through the plantation to a forestry road where the groups split, the B group headed back to the coach whilst the A Group crossed the old A93 and headed uphill to visit the King’s Seat. This is a very interesting Pictish site where information boards explained its importance:
The group then walked back to join the path down to the back of the Dunkeld House Hotel and onto the river bank path, and back to the coach via the well-worn path passed the cathedral.
One particular wonder of nature was observed in many locations – ice fungus - a rare type of ice formation where the presence of a particular fungus in rotting wood produces thin strands of ice which resemble hair:
No Christmas walk would be complete without some grub and entertainment, the latter was provided by the club’s Vice President, Kerry Lindsay and the former by club members and their friends. The local British Legion Scotland had kindly allowed the use of their club premises (and bar!) for the event. BDHC would like to express its thanks to everyone who helped to provide such an enjoyable end to the event.
The next event on the club’s calendar is a walk to South Glen Clova on Sunday 8th January. For more details of this and future events a visit our walks page for more information.
