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The Lost Coast: Lossiemouth to Burghead by sand, sea and cliffs

By Nick Bramhall on February 17, 2012 · Filed under: mountains, reports · 0 Comments

Date: 11th February 2012
Distance: 16.45km
Ascent: 126m
Time: 5hrs 14mins
Hills: None whatsoever
Weather: Mild, light breeze, later drizzle turning to light rain
Route: Click to view on OS Map

Lossiemouth harbour on a steely grey Saturday morning in February is a quiet, empty sort of place. There were only a handful of dog walkers on beach, an old gentleman wandering down the street with his newspaper, and twenty-seven eager Stockets ready to face the perils of the Moray Coastal Trail.

We were dropped off close by the docks and soon set off past the Fisheries Museum with its large anchor and life-rings. At the end, rather than get wet feet, we took a left turn along a road of fish warehouses and car mechanics. This soon brought us out onto the first stretch of real coastline.

With the grey houses of Lossiemouth behind us we passed the sombre tank trap before finally taking to the damp, sandy beach. The walking was easy going, keeping pace with the early morning leg-stretchers and breathing in the fresh sea air. With no climbing to be done people were happy to go at their own pace and soon groups formed, people chatting amiably amongst themselves.

At the lighthouse we stopped for elevenses. It stands prominently on a jumble of rocks littered with yet more coastal defences. Whilst some people made themselves comfortable, others went off to explore the sandstone cliffs and caves whilst down on the beach a Jack Vetriano re-staging was undertaken.

At this point, though the skies were grey, it was mild and only the lightest of breezes was drifting in off the Moray Firth. We ambled onward, eventually reaching the end of the beach where the day’s major ascent began.

Climbing up past fascinating examples of sedimentary and striated rocks, the trail led us up onto the top of the cliffs near Covesea. We followed the narrow track as it twisted and turned around the crinkly coastal contours. The track offers fantastic views and we paused often to gaze down into idyllic coves, admire amazing arched sea stacks and watch Fulmars wheel and dance above the rolling sea.

All of a sudden there was a cry and everyone had stopped to see the distinctive fins of a pair of dolphins break through the waves. They were ambling along at much the same pace as us, also making towards Burghead. Sadly they were just a little bit too far away to get a photo.

From the delights of the high cliff top path we left the coast slightly after pausing at the Coast Guard Station (mysteriously unmarked on the OS map). The broad path runs between high gorse bushes until you reach the large quarry at Clasach. Here the drizzle eased slightly so we paused for a bite of lunch. As the rain got heavier again we moved on, skirting the edge of the quarry, and soon encountered the famous (?) dinosaur footprints. A series of rocks, uncovered during quarrying, have been dug up and are arranged in a semi-circle. The indentations were not overly impressive but the steady drizzle may well have dampened our paleontological interest.

Continuing on brought us back down to a series of small rocky bays separated by high dunes which were eerie and other-wordly in the mist. Eventually the ominous Hopeman Lodge loomed out of the swirling fog and we found ourselves walking alongside a long row of colourful beach huts, some with more extravagant designs than others.

At Hopeman itself we again regrouped, observing another walking group who suddenly drove off in cars. We took to the road to make our way through the village as the signing around the caravan park wasn’t very clear.

Now we were on the final stretch which takes you along the route of a dismantled railway line. As such it is flat, easy going although sadly down in a cutting for most of the way so the views are limited. The last half mile or so however brings you back out onto the beach, this time just short of Burghead. The Malting Plant dominates the eastern side of the town and with mist and steam swirling around it the place looked like a post-apocalyptic film set. Endeavouring to get a good shot of the plant I had an entertaining encounter with some very slippery rocks but luckily managed to save my camera from damage.

To reach the finish point we followed the coast around the outer street of Burghead until we reached the end of the spit of land that juts out into the Moray Firth. We climbed a short sharp hill up to the site of the Clavie and the remains of a Pictish Fort and here we waited to be picked up.

The local pub in Burghead was very welcoming (mainly because the lounge was empty and had plenty of seats) and we enjoyed a relaxed pint, sharing photos, swapping stories and generally looking back on what had been a pleasant day, despite the rain and drizzle during the second half.

Posted in mountains, reports · Tagged coastal, stocket hillwalking club · Add a comment

A Miniature Scotland

By Nick Bramhall on February 10, 2012 · Filed under: flickr · 5 Comments

Last November I entered a photography competition run by Grampian Fire & Rescue Service. They were looking to increase public awareness of Kincorth Nature Reserve and Tullos Hill and in doing so, hopefully reduce the number of fires that are started there deliberately during the summer months. These two areas lie either side of Wellington Road on the south side of Aberdeen and are close to where I work, and where I used to live. As such I am very familiar with them and often take a wander along the various excellent paths as part of my lunch hour. Considering their proximity to the city and the surrounding industrial estates, they are havens for both flora and fauna. Wild flowers grow amongst the grasses and you can sometimes catch glimpses of deer darting into the shadows beneath the pines. The woods echo with birdsong and tadpoles fill the ponds and pools come spring. It is a pleasant, peaceful sort of place that offers views out along the Dee valley towards the Grampian Mountains; on a clear day the dark bulk of Lochnagar is visible.

I came runner up in the landscape category of the competition for my entry “Woods” (above) and part of the prize was to participate in a group tutorial session with local professional photographer Robert Kerr. This took place last Sunday morning. I got a head start on the group by heading out early to photograph the sun rising above the North Sea. Unfortunately a young guy had gone missing on the cliffs the night before and so the coastguard, police and search and rescue helicopter were all out combing the coastline. I went instead to Nigg Bay where I spent a good hour photographing the changing light as the sun rose on a beautiful Sunday morning.

At 9am I joined my fellow competition winners, and the photographer Robert Kerr, at the agreed meeting point. We took the coastal path a short way south to the headland below Nigg Bay. Here Robert split us up and assigned us some locations where our challenge was to put together a “mini portfolio” of six shots that captured something of Scotland in Miniature. Amongst the rocks and pools it was our task to discover and shoot lochs, mountains, glens and forests. We spent a good twenty minutes here, making the most of the bright morning sunshine, before moving further around the headland to a small cove where we repeated the task This time though the weather was a bit more inclement with occasional rain showers sweeping in. Once everyone was happy with what they had captured we headed back to the cars for a debrief. By this point the rain was falling steadily so it seemed a good time to head back to respective houses to see what results we had come up with.

After a little bit of tweaking in Apeture here is my mini-portfolio of Scotland in Miniature:

The morning was very enjoyable and it was good to work alongside other amateur photographers, as well as chatting to a professional about the challenges of landscape photography. A Flickr group has been created to gather together the different photos taken during the morning.

Posted in flickr · Tagged aberdeen, photography · Add a comment

Book Review: At The Loch Of The Green Corrie by Andrew Greig

By Nick Bramhall on February 2, 2012 · Filed under: culture · 2 Comments

I hadn’t come across the names Andrew Greig or Norman MacCaig before At The Loch Of The Green Corrie appeared on bookshelves a couple of years ago. However, having now read this fabulous book in just a couple of days I am already intrigued to find out more about them, and read more of their books and poetry.

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Andrew Greig is an author, poet, mountaineer and fisherman who struck up a long though somewhat distant friendship with the Edinburgh-based poet Norman MacCaig. MacCaig (born McCaig) is known for his short poems revolving around places and creatures inhabiting the North West Highlands, and the area of Assynt in particular. His poems have a stark beauty and simplicity that belies – or perhaps even sidesteps – their geo-social context. In them though is something of the history of a land and a people which is anything but black and white.

In At The Loch… Greig has constructed something very special; the book is part biography, part auto-biography, it is a book about the North West Highlands of Scotland as much as it is a book about poetry or a poet. As Greig says towards the end of the book, Norman MacCaig is the reason for the book, but not necessarily who the book is about. It is also a book a little bit about fishing; not really the technical how, but the emotional why.

It revolves in the main around a four day trip to fish the eponymous remote loch, nestled below Glas Bheinn, a peak to the east of the winding road between Inchnadamph and Kylesku. It gets to this the long way around with the walking, camping and fishing interspersed by fireside stories and recollections of trips to the Himalaya, encounters with London record agents and all sorts of other things in between. It stretches back into dim and distant childhoods, and follows the courses of relationships and lives, of passions and careers. It touches on the geology of Assynt, as well as issues over land ownership and the long shadows cast by the Jacobite uprising and the subsequent Clearances. It is a celebration of Gaelic culture and people. It is also sad and bittersweet, touching on deep-rooted personal issues that give it a cathartic feel. However, it never gets bogged down by these deeper, more melancholy passages, and often the next page sparkles with the bright light bouncing off a clear loch or a distant mountain. It reverberates throughout with jokes and anecdotes, the fug of good whisky and pleasant company.

Told in lyrical language it follows a hundred different threads during its 300 pages but Greig never gets lost or tangled. It is bound together by a celebration of place and of the Gaelic culture and features several of MacCaig’s poems, printed in full, that are echoed throughout the text.

It is a book I feel I will return to again and again, and one that has set me off on a number of different routes of further enquiry.

Posted in culture · Tagged books, mountainliterature, poetry · Add a comment

The Icy Skies at Night

By Nick Bramhall on January 24, 2012 · Filed under: astronomy · 6 Comments

When looking at moving to Scotland back in 2007 I will admit that the hills and mountains were not my first concern; it was the promise of dark skies and the chance to properly see a display of Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) that really excited me. In both October and November 2004 I saw the Northern Lights from Durham in the North East of England. For being stuck in the middle of an (albeit small) city with the orange skydome of Newcastle to the north, we got some impressive views. There were sheets of green and red that danced and flickered, and a bright green arc stretching low across the horizon. I only had a very small digital camera at that time, but I did get a few photos which must be stored on some random external hard drive somewhere. In the meantime, this view of Orion shows the quality of the night sky out in Aberdeenshire.

Storms that push the auroral oval sufficiently far south are quite rare and so it was with great excitement that I moved the few degrees north to darker skies of Aberdeenshire where I hoped to be able to repeat the viewings but on a much more dramatic scale. Of course since then we have been stuck in the gloom of a long and particularly low solar minimum and only now are activity levels on the sun really picking up again.

Whilst countries further north enjoy views of the Aurora Borealis throughout winter, here in Scotland it is a more temperamental affair. Not only does the solar wind have to be strong enough to push the auroral oval sufficiently far south (usually a Kp value of 5 or more), but you also need dark and cloud-free skies. Getting all three conditions together on the same night can be tricky and it is only when the sun is particularly active (around solar maximum) that we really get a good chance.

That being said I’m always on the lookout for potential aurora viewing opportunities and on 19th January 2012 satellites monitoring the sun detected a number of events, culminating in a Coronal Mass Ejection, which hurled a barrage of solar particles out into interplanetary space. Initial predictions were for the storm to hit Earth on the night of the 21st January 2012 which was a Saturday, with a new Moon and no clouds forecast. All three conditions for aurora viewing? Check!

A couple of flasks of tea were made, cameras were charged and packed and we journeyed west into Aberdeenshire to a site just off the main road near Midmar kirk. The wind was ferocious, lashing the trees and rocking the car quite substantially. We got out and although there was a brightness to the northern sky there wasn’t any structure or colour to be seen. Low clouds carried through by the wind also didn’t help with the northern horizon partially obscured for much of the time we were there. After waiting about half an hour (mainly in the car to avoid the chilling effects of the wind) we called it a night and came home. On inspecting the photos it was clear some faint Aurora had been there (see below), unfortunately it hadn’t been particularly apparent to the naked eye.

The next morning it was clear from the charts (see below) that the storm’s arrival had been later than predicted. Around 8am the dials were climbing into the red and it was clear something was happening. Of course it was broad daylight so no chance of a view. Would there be residual activity that evening though?

Screen Shot 2012 01 22 at 14 03 51

All Sunday evening I sat with half an eye on the space weather sites, and another on Twitter (both #aurora and #aurorawatch were useful search terms). Gradually activity on both picked up with people reporting views of aurora along the Moray Firth, in Shetland and even above Edinburgh. At 8:30pm I eventually decided to head out, this time without the hot tea.

By 9pm I was parked up again outside Midmar kirk and almost bounced out of the car as a green arc had been clearly visible in the northern sky since leaving Aberdeen. The sky was stunning. Inky blackness peppered with stars everywhere except the north where a bright band of ghostly green light stretched from beyond the hills in the west around to where it was lost in the glow from Aberdeen to the east.

As my eyes adjusted to the low light levels I could see the aurora pulsing gently as it intensified and faded over the course of a few seconds. Initially it was brighter towards the west but as my time there went on it changed and was later much brighter in the central region.

I had the camera out and was taking exposures for most of the time I was there. I started off at ISO800, taking 20 second exposures, but later increased the sensitivity to ISO1600 which produced more vivid colours and more extensive aurora, particularly into the fainter red and purple areas of the display.

Around 10pm, and conscious that it was a school night I reluctantly packed up and headed back. Clouds had been moving in from the west so it seemed like a good time to leave. The next day though it was clear that the display had been much more intense in the hours after midnight and I think this photo from Ryan Stevenson illustrates how much better the show got.

I’m hopeful that this marks the beginning of a good stretch of solar activity with increased opportunities to see and photograph aurorae. I need to do some more research into finding good sites with off road parking and a good northern horizon. Although the spot at Midmar is fine, the forest seen in the pictures does somewhat obscure lower displays.

As a postscript it appears that another CME was released from the sun on Sunday/Monday and is currently interacting with the atmosphere giving rise to aurora tonight (24th January 2012). Unfortunately it is currently very cloudy in Aberdeen.

Posted in astronomy · Tagged aurora, photography · Add a comment

Hill of Wirren (The Fast Train to Edzell)

By Nick Bramhall on January 20, 2012 · Filed under: mountains, reports · 3 Comments

Date: 15th January 2012
Distance: 22.12km
Ascent: 708m
Time: 5hrs 59mins
Hills: West Wirren, Hill of Wirren (Graham, 678m), West Wirren
Weather: Very cold, light winds, clear skies, haze developing at low levels
Route: Click to view on OS Map

I’m not sure whether the driver was slightly masochistic or just trying to acclimatise us to the cold we would face once we jumped off at Tarfside in Glen Esk, but it was absolutely freezing on the coach that took the Stocket Hillwalking Club away from Aberdeen for a day out. Actually, looking back, “jumped off” sounds a bit too active…. I’d met up with some work-related friends at eight on Saturday evening and finally got to bed at four the next morning. I was feeling particularly bleary eyed as I stumbled off the coach into the bright winter sunshine just a few short hours later. Water would have been good at this stage but already my hydration pipe had frozen solid so it was a cup of sweet black tea that did the job of slightly reviving me.

The rickety bridge across the North Esk (complete with liability defying warning signs) further helped the sobering up process and then there was a little bit of navigation fun to find the right vehicle track heading up the open hillside to the bealach below Garlett and Cowie Hill. We had climbed the hillside in the shade, enjoying the views over to sunnier slopes on the south side of Glen Esk so it was a great feeling to top out into the bright winter sunshine.

Here we took a brief break to take in some warmth and admire the views. Through a gap in the hills to the west we had an interesting view of Lochnagar, looking along the rim of its cliffs to the summit of Cac Carn Beag. Northwest of us Mount Keen had streaky snow on its summit flanks. All the hills shone below perfect blue skies.

From the bealach we continued roughly south following a good, wide stony vehicle track that dropped down into the Burn of Berryhill where once again we were in the cold shadow of the hills. As we climbed up over the eastern shoulder of Knock Hill we came back out into the sun and with hazy views ahead to West Wirren we stopped in a sheltered dry stream bed to enjoy elevenses.

Feeling refreshed we marched on. Our intended route took us close to the top of the Clash of Wirren, a dry cleft leading down towards Glen Lethnot. Though we had debated about the best way to climb up to West Wirren, on arrival the decision was made for us by yet another new looking vehicle track that wound its way up the north side of the hill. These tracks are far from pretty but they certainly made for good progress and we were soon heading along the plateau. Here there was more evidence of investment by the estate with newly constructed grouse butts and strange markers, presumably to aid navigation around the network of new roads.

The track took us up to the summit of West Wirren where the small cairn was briefly visited. The views had now opened up to include a hazy Glen Lethnot to the south as well as the tips of the snow-plastered Cairngorms peeking over the lower hills to the west.

The track continued, circling around the rim of the large, cold corrie separating West Wirren from the Hill of Wirren before finally climbing up onto the wide plateau of this 639m high Graham.

The trig point is reached by leaving the track and crossing what were thankfully frozen peat hags and bog. The trig stood in a puddle of water, frozen solid, commanding views across the featureless plateau and out to the neighbouring hills.

It was about lunchtime now and we could see our next target, East Wirren. We decided however to return to the track, thinking that it might well turn around the hill to eventually link up to a track we could see climbing up to East Wirren. It didn’t. We ended up circling back, almost returning to the trig point, where we found another sheltered stream bed to enjoy a break for lunch. Though the ground was still hard frozen the sunlight was warming and sandwiches were consumed enjoying the views out towards the hazy fields and rolling flatland of the Howe of the Mearns.

After lunch our way took us through a maze of peat hags until we eventually linked up with a track climbing up from Glen Lethnot and heading up to the summit of East Wirren. Another cairn commanded views that were getting increasingly hazy with mist creeping across the flat lands.

To the south the march of foothills towards Dundee stood out only as faint pencil lines against the grey-white fog. It was a strange and transfixing sight to see, though difficult to capture on camera.

From East Wirren we dropped off, initially south but then east once more to reach the Hill of Corathro where we enjoyed the last of the expansive views before dropping off to reach the first of the farms at Little Tullos.

The track led us slightly off course so we cut across via the bottom end of a small reservoir to reach it again. The farmyard was a little intimidating but largely deserted so we crept past the cows in the barn and finally found the right exit onto yet another track.

This we followed for some distance until we turned off onto a footpath that eventually brought us to a proper tarmac road. This was followed a short way before we took to the fields and hills again, climbing up over a small brow beside a cold looking coppice to join a good straight track heading for Edzell.

As the light faded we hit the main street of Edzell where the coach was waiting for us outside the hotel. There was a warm and convivial atmosphere as we enjoyed a pint or two and chatted about the excellent day out we had enjoyed. By the time we stepped outside again it was dark which only left the swift journey back up the A90 to Aberdeen, a fish supper, and bed.

Posted in mountains, reports · Tagged graham, stocket hillwalking club · Add a comment

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A personal blog, mainly about hillwalking, mountaineering and lightweight backpacking in the mountains of Scotland, but with the occasional sidetrack into film, photography, astronomy and engineering.

You can contact me directly by using the simple form on the contact page.

The Lost Coast: Lossiemouth to Burghead by sand, sea and cliffs

A Miniature Scotland

Book Review: At The Loch Of The Green Corrie by Andrew Greig

The Icy Skies at Night

Hill of Wirren (The Fast Train to Edzell)

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