A gem of a winter day at Loch Muick

After Storm Erik had swept across Scotland there was a day of rare winter perfection; cold but not frigid, clear blue skies and crisp winter sunshine.  We decided to take a walk at Spittal of Glenmuick and drove the short distance from home through Ballater and up the single track road to the head of the glen.

Just as you approach the car park at the end of the road there's a great view across to Lochnagar, which was looking very fine under a full cover of snow.

You don't get to see all of Lochnagar from this angle though, the great corrie which is the defining feature of the mountain is hidden behind the upper slopes.  A cloud cap was streaming over the western arm of the corrie and then dissipating into the clear sky.

The term "Spittal" indicates the site of a medieval staging point for travellers on the drove road between Deeside and Glen Clova - termed as a hospital or hospice but having the meaning of a shelter from wolves and robbers.  There are some fascinating remains of quite a sizeable township, described on the Canmore site record.

The end of the road is a car park owned by Balmoral estate - there's a charge for parking which was originally quite reasonable but is creeping rapidly up - £4 per car currently.  There's also a small but very interesting visitor centre in a former cottage and some public toilets.

We'd originally intended to walk around Loch Muick but noticed an information poster indicating that a bridge over a large burn near the head of the loch has been washed away.   There would be no easy crossing of the burn so we decided to walk out along the west side of the loch and return the same way.  The loch is a real glacial feature, wild and surrounded by steep hills for most of its length.  Although a level, loch-side walk it needs to be remembered that Loch Muick is at 400 metres/1300 feet and can experience ferocious weather.  On this day, in the winter sunshine it was a stunning blue jewel among the muted winter hills and a perfect foil for the sky.

The River Muick drains from the end of the loch and flows north to eventually join the Dee near Ballater.  A dark brown yet not peaty, I've always found the Muick an interesting river - it starts sluggish and meandering and picks up speed well below the loch, tumbling and surging down a gorge to join the Dee - almost the reverse of most rivers.

Along the path every bit of moisture had been frozen hard, there were smears of hard grey ice and puddles crazed with beautiful crystal patterns.

On the warm coloured granite sand at the end of the loch there are signs that this was once a well wooded area - historic climate change and changes in land use have left it mainly bare, though the trees are beginining to return along the loch with help from the estate in fencing and reducing deer numbers.  Fifty years from now there should once again be a natural wood all along one side of the loch, extending up the slopes.

The track along the west side of Loch Muick is built to a very high standard with drainage ditches and retaining walls of pink granite blocks.  This was built to service a quite remarkable building and one which is quite unexpected.....

Glas-Allt Shiel was built on the site of a much smaller cottage for Queen Victoria who loved the place for its remoteness and peace.  Built after the death of Prince Albert, she seems to have preferred it because there were no associations with her late husband - she found Balmoral and the small hideaway of Allt-na Guibhsach too full of memories.  The name is taken from the burn which rushes  down off Lochnagar and into the loch - the Glas Allt (grey water)

Still owned and occasionally used by the Royal family, this is perhaps one of the best situated of all the great lodges.  At the rear, an outbuilding is an open bothy cared for by Dundee University and the Mountain Bothies Association.

We found a sheltered spot by the loch side in the wood surrounding the lodge and spent a pleasant half hour in the sunshine eating lunch - there was even some warmth in the February sun.  We left reluctantly; Victoria was right about the peaceful setting of Glas-Allt Shiel.

We strolled the 6km back to Spittal of Glenmuick in alternating cold winds and warm sunshine, the wind beginning to pour down from the higher ground.  From the car park we could see that the morning cloud had burned away to reveal the edge of Lochnagar's corrie - it had been a gem of a winter day.