Craigendarroch

With the new restrictions in place re gatherings, Colin and I formed a mini-bubble for the planned walk up Craigendarroch. I had assumed we might be joined by other pairings but now feel my e-mail must have confused the others as nobody else took the opportunity to join us on a gloriously sunny afternoon. Apologies to all if that was the case.

It was also planned as an experiment - our first use of our bus passes since the start of the lockdown back in March. We need not have feared the journey - the 201 was a double-decker again and there were so few passengers we felt perfectly safe. It was a test, however, for our ability to wear our face masks for the 40 minute journey - and that was no bother either, so I would be quite happy to repeat the journey on another occasion when the opportunity arises.

We approached the hill from the old station, walking west along the main road for a couple of hundred yards, then turning in to Craigendarroch Walk where we found the path that led us to the circular trail of the hill - anti-clockwise - how would Colin cope?

The initial climb is fairly steep, but mercifully short. We came to a y-junction and opted to take the left fork as that appeared to be the one that would lead us right round the hill and hopefully eventually to the top. We were half right - it did lead us round the hill but soon we stopped climbing. By this time we were on the north side of the hill, running parallel to the Pass of Ballater, and still on the official path, but then we started losing height and got concerned that we were heading back down to ground level.

Thankfully, we came across a local who was descending the hill and she directed us upwards, explaining that there are several waymarkers, not all of which are current - some are out of date and haven't been removed. We thanked her and then headed straight to the top. We were always going to get there, but she certainly saved us some unnecessary excess hiking.

We were pretty hot and sweaty when we arrived at the summit, where the temperature was in excess of 20 C with not a breath of wind. The top is pretty clear of trees and there are excellent views of Ballater, Lochnagar and back down the Dee valley. There's one of the largest stone cairns I've ever seen and plenty of large rocks for sunbathing, as demonstrated in the photos below:

Had it not been for the lure of the fine Ballater pubs and the prospect of some real ale again, we could happily have stayed there for a while - it was truly glorious.

The way back down was much easier to find and we managed to complete the circumnavigation that we had planned. Here's the stats:

A couple of excellent pints of Trade Winds in the Alexandra's new beer garden were followed by one more of Windswept's excellent new (to me) Witch Pricker, a dark chocolate stout - highly recommended - in the Barrel's newly extended beer garden.