This ‘tree’ caught me by surprise one day as I was climbing from Meall Tionaill to Geal Charn, in the hills between the Bynack Burn and Glen Ey. The hillsides and corries may be shorn of trees by the deer, but this one – an illusion formed by grass-edged streams converging on a heathery hillside – was thriving.
I had started my climb that day to enjoy the views from the tops – the whole length of the ridge from Carn Bhac to Carn Liath gives superb views into the heart of the central Cairngorms – but I was enjoying the journey to the tops as much as the arrival. These less often visited hills are filled with twisting, hidden corries which, though usually unremarkable in terms of cliff or waterfall, reward with constantly changing views and a sense of exploration. There are places in this massif I still want to discover, and corries that are all the more tempting because there is no ‘real’ reason to go there, not to mention historical locations, such as an 18th century soldier’s grave and a mapmakers’ hut built into the hillside.
Hills often ticked and forgotten by Munro-baggers, but intriguing for the stravaiger.
A series of Covid dreams. Just a photo or two from the archives and a few words: memories of the Cairngorms to stay in the heart while we’re kept away from the hills.
cairngormwanderer 
Great views from those hills indeed Neil. I was up at Sgt Davies grave at the start of the year but haven’t heard of the mapmakers hut until now , I must investigate!
My last trip to the hills was in March when I saw you near Derry Lodge as I was headed for Carn Crom , that seems like a lifetime away now but patience is a virtue!
I’ve still to visit his grave – been on my list of places to visit for a year or two now. The mapmakers’ hut is a guess – it’s a wall cut into the hillside near the summit of Carn a Bhutha, the westernmost top of Carn Bhac. I’m assuming it’s the remains of a Colby camp, like the Sappers’ Bothy on Macdui, to house the surveyors as they took all their bearings. https://cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/the-sappers-bothy/
Hope you’re keeping well. We’ll get back there someday.
Thanks Neil , i’ll check that out sometime.
Regarding the grave , its barely a foot tall and hard to spot in the heather…I only noticed it from a distance as there was a thin covering of snow. I read that Sgt Davies ghost roams Glen Christie asking for a Christian burial so just watch yersel ..haha
Cheers Ross, there’s a fair bit about Sgt Davies’ murder and the search and trial in Ian Murray’s great book ‘The Dee From The Far Cairngorms’. You’ve maybe read it, but if not it’s well worth seeking out, along with a couple of other similar books he’s written.
Thats where I read about it Neil , good book that! There are remains of a whisky still in Glen Christie that im interested in finding too , it certainly is an area worth exploring!
we call it Dendritic Drainage – after the Greek Dendros meaning tree. & yes this is most commonly seen where man has stripped the very vegetation that would naturally have diluted the effect. Irony piled on irony?
That’s brilliant – well spotted! Very clever. I suppose Mr Anderson above is correct though…