Drummuir

 

Tonight is night No.48 of living in my Eriba in 2023. We are continuing our trip to Speyside, staying on at the C&CC Site just outside Archiestown.

The weather was fine and dry again today, although it did rain quite heavily through the night for a short time.

Todays walk was one I'd done a couple of years ago. A brilliant walk from the Church in the village of Drummuir along a path which follows, for much of it's route, the Keith and Dufftown Railway, a heritage railway. 

We followed a single track road from the village which was signed for the Church and parked up at a large carpark. 

The very impressive War Memorial in the carpark.

The Church, Botriphnie Parish Church.

We joined the path from a waymarker at the corner of the carpark. It is an excellent route all the way from Drummuir to Loch Park.

The path leads through a variety of landscapes, including some fine forested sections.

And also along some grassy tracks. The path led into the Lochpark centre, which is a centre for adults with learning disabilities. They seem to get involved with gardening, wood cutting, and landscaping. It was fairly busy as I passed through.

We followed the shore of the Loch, much of which was obscured by hedges, then climbed steeply through a forest, retracing our route following a higher level route on gravel tracks.

Hamish with his stick as we emerged from the forested section into open country.

The heather was in full bloom and was very fragrant. A really nice section of the walk.

The track was overgrown with heather. Some great views north from this higher level track.

As we approached a gravel land rover track, we came across what I imagine is an Air BnB? It certainly wasn't inhabited but was kitted out inside.

We made our way back to the car at Drummuir. Around 5 or 6 miles, it was a great walk and apart from the folk at the Lochpark Centre, I only saw one other person, a cyclist who passed me on the return. Being only 5 or so miles from Keith, we headed up there to get some supplies and headed back to the site via Craigellachie, a nice circular drive too.

And since I was last here, the site dog walk has been developed a bit and now has a new entrance which leads to a much longer path to let the dogs have a good run.