Monthly Archives: April 2020

Covid Dreams 9: The gap in the curtain

Posted on April 29, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

Looking at this I can still feel the snell wind that blew that day, and would wish myself back there, looking up Glen Dee from the illusory shelter of the hilltop outcrops on Carn Fiaclach. It wasn’t a promising day. … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Topography | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Covid dreams 8: Regeneration

Posted on April 28, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

Regeneration Loused fae the darg: sunrise on weel kent hills, new trees keekin ower the heather. The picture above was what I had in mind when I wrote these lines, the title referring  both to the personal regeneration of getting … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Covid dreams 7: Coming home

Posted on April 27, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

For me this has to be one of the most evocative of images. You’ve parked at the Linn o’ Dee and walked up the track to the Black Bridge. You turn the corner and there the wide, flat meadowland opens … Continue reading →

Posted in Topography | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Covid dreams 6: The plateau

Posted on April 26, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

The Cairngorms can disappoint those who are thirled to pointed peaks and sharp ridges, but that’s to miss the point… so to speak. The view here is all about size and scale: the expanse of the high plateau, the sense … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Topography | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Covid dreams 5: Mar Lodge in the 1970s

Posted on April 25, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

This takes me back to my childhood and early teenage years, to the late ’60s and early ’70s and the heydays of the public bar at Mar Lodge. With a free campsite a couple of miles up the road, Saturday … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged | 14 Comments

Covid dreams 4: Perfect day

Posted on April 24, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

There’s something so relaxed and relaxing about this photo of Neil Findlay and Alfie descending from Sgor Dubh to Luibeg Cottage. June sunshine dominates, with the occasional cloud-shadow drifting across the hillsides but to wind to speak of. As I … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Stravaiging | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Covid dreams 3: Cold winter

Posted on April 23, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

These images speak of the harshness and violence of winter in the Cairngorms. And of the beauty. The weak sunlight flaring through a gap in the wind-torn clouds to light a ridgeline almost scoured of that dry, cold snow that … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Stravaiging, Topography | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Covid Dreams 2: The chairs

Posted on April 22, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

It’s never been just about the hills. It’s also about the people: the sharing, the craic, the daft ploys and laughs. We were heading in to Corrour Bothy to do some work and taking in a couple of replacement chairs, … Continue reading →

Posted in People | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Covid dreams 1: Coire Sputan Dearg

Posted on April 21, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

How many times have I taken this photograph? The journey out to Corrour that I must make as many as eight or nine times a year has its familiar stages, its weel-kent landmarks, and always, about half way out there, … Continue reading →

Posted in Topography | Tagged | 11 Comments

Into the Mountain: Garbh Choire Mor

Posted on April 4, 2020 by cairngormwanderer

  This article originally appeared in the excellent anthology ‘Shared Stories: A Year in the Cairngorms’, edited by Anna Fleming and Merryn Glover.   A dished out hollow of snow, sharp, granite scree rising steeply before me, disappearing into a … Continue reading →

Posted in Stravaiging, Topography | Tagged , | 4 Comments