2018 Walk 12 - Countesswells - Hazlehead

Jeb was a late addition to our Friday afternoon jaunt in to Aberdeen, making us 8 in all - equal best (with Carn Ferg) attendance this year for one of our monthly walks.

Ian had a plan for us to bus in to the Bieldside/Milltimber area and walk up from there through Countesswells woods and Hazlehead park, and he had recce'd it the day before on one of the Freewheelers' Thursday cycle runs. It transpired however that the planned route was also one that Jeb cycled regularly on his way to/from work, so with two leaders with experience of the route, there was little chance of us getting lost.

The start of the walk was up Hillhead Road, leading us through the very smart Hillhead Farm. Smart is not a term often associated with farms, but this one was special - a huge investment is being made here. The roads have all been newly tarred and fresh dry stane dykes have been built all the way up, lined by newly turfed neat grass verges. There are modern buildings and work still taking place on further developments. It all felt like they were planning some kind of visitor experience. Subsequent research revealed that the owners of Hillhead Farm are a Tom and Beverlie Velo, about whom I know nothing - is anybody else any the wiser?

Once past the farm, we were on to trail walking, initially past the heavily (electrified) fenced off Westfield Estate, believed to be owned by Ian Suttie of First Oil:

Jeb led us off what appeared to be the main track and took us straight up the hill until we eventually crossed Blacktop Road - time for a breather and a team photo:

Once over the top, the trails widened and led us to the Countesswells Forest car park at the extension to Baillieswells Road, where there is a major housebuilding programme going on. Thankfully, this didn't impede our progress and we marched onwards towards Hazlehead - but not before some bickering between our two leaders as to which path to take. It transpired that both trails took us to the same spot in Hazlehead in about the same timescale.

Passing through the rose gardens, we stopped to pay our respects at the Piper Alpha memorial - 30 years after the tragedy that took 167 lives:

Once through Hazlehead park, we headed down to the Den Burn and followed the river path for a mile or so before we hit the suburban streets where we jumped on a bus to take us to Archibald Simpson's for some well earned beer.

We found a good table easily enough in Wetherspoon's, but, unbelievably, they were fast running out of beer. Deuchar's was available but all others for a while were either finished or had the "available soon" sign on them. Eventually, one other ale did come on but by then, we'd decided to vote with our feet and move on - initially across the road to Blackfriars - no tables there - then to Prince of Wales, where we waited for a while - two pints' worth - for a suitable table to be vacated, but it never happened, so Jeb took the bull by the horns and booked us a table in the Jewel in the Crown, and off we marched again.

The curry was, as ever, excellent, albeit the turn of events led to a much dearer evening than the one we'd initially planned. We just had time for one more pub stop - to Carriage's - before heading for the 20:15 bus back to Banchory, and this inevitable outcome:

Here's the full stats for the day - 12.5 kms being pretty much our average walk: