Good Friday - and a lovely morning it was, so Jo and I decided we would combine some CAMRA deliveries with a short walk round the Ballater area.
The most popular walk round there is the Seven Bridges Walk (
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/seven-bridges.shtml) but Polhillock Bridge is still closed after the floods, so this wasn't on. Plan B was just to do part of it and walk out to Knock Castle. We crossed over the Dee bridge at Ballater and, rather than just walk along the South Deeside Road, we headed up the hill, following a sign that read "cycle path to Glen Muick". You have to be a fairly strong and intrepid cyclist to do this route - at least the first part, which was steep, technical and pretty wet in parts.
We came across what had once been a Land Rover track which seemed to be heading in roughly the westward direction we wanted to go in - unlike the cycle track which headed further southwards up the hill. This led us eventually to a fenced off area where the House of Glenmuick and its outbuildings were sited. We went through the first fence, staying clear of the house itself - as per the Access Law and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code - and came across the first of several burns heading back down the hill towards the Dee. In the absence of a discernible path, we followed the route of the water and eventually we made it back down to the South Deeside road, near the road entrance to Glen Muick.
From here we stuck to the road until we found the track leading up to the ruins of Knock Castle. Two workmen were taking down the scaffolding which had been erected to allow them to make the castle safe - no further restoration work will be undertaken:
The route back along the road took us opposite the scene of devastation at Ballater Caravan Park:
