Moray Way, Garmouth to Carron - Day 4
Distance 35.4km Climb 603m
Wednesday 28 May 2014
It was a bright start to the day, day 4, the oyster catchers were up as we left Grantown-on-Spey Caravan Park and Susan drove us to Garmouth, where it was cold but clear. As we started walking we walked through the small town of Garmouth, heading south. This was the start of the Speyside Way, on the side of a house I saw this sign. Very interesting, but Anne and David did not have any time to look, they were walking on.
The Solemn League and Covenant. I have looked this up on the internet and it was interesting. This is from the English Civil Wars and this covenant was signed between the English Parliament and Scottish Covenants in 1648 against the Royalists. In 1650 the Scottish Covenants persuaded the exiled Charles II to agree to the terms of the covenant.
What an interesting place, it was not very big, but held a lot of history. There was another sign a little further up the road to commemorate Maggie's Fair. This apparently was a slave market, now it is an annual event of stalls.
At the top of the village The Way passes the golf course then turns left, east, over an old impressive railway viaduct. On the bridge is some graffiti "Mogwai wiz ere 2002" I have their Happy Songs for Happy People on my iPod, which I think is a very good album.
The viaduct crosses the Spey, once over we turned south again and walked by the river. It was wide and every now and then we came across a fisherman standing in the water in their waders.
It did not take us long to reach Fochabers. We walked up to the main street and found a small cafe to have a small snack. It was a short stop before we continued down to the river and moved on.
After leaving the cafe there was a little confusion in finding the road back onto The Way. We had followed the walking signs near the the burn that led us in the wrong direction. We did not go far before we realise and so turned back, found the correct route and headed up the hill. The views at the top were really good.
This took us down a road, which had quite a few up and downs as it rolled along heading to Boat o' Brig. Looking across the valley to the west we saw a few big houses, and the odd distillery.
At the Boat o' Brig we had a short rest before turning back up onto the footpath that turned east then south.
The footpath took us through the Ben Aigan Forest, the path twisted and turned and in places climbed. As I said earlier we have found in places like forest tracks the Walkers Shortbread Map was not as accurate as it was on the disused railway lines. So we did not always reach our stops in the time we said and at times Susan had been left waiting.
Some of the paths twisted and turned and were changed due to forestry work. This added to the timing issues. I was judging the distance and saying we would reach a certain point by a time, then an hour later we would still be walking. Causing Anne and David some amount of frustration. Our pace had not changed, just the distances did not relate to the distance shown on the map. I should add the map was not an OS Map just a drawn up picture of the route.
We arrived at Craigellachie, where we met Susan who had been waiting for some time. There was a pub here the Highlander Inn where we had a quick stop. We were too early for food, so had to make a decision would we wait and eat here or move on and eat later. The decision was made, we would move on and eat later, Susan stayed as she had missed out on our earlier snack.
As we moved back onto The Way we were returning to another disused railway line. The Way took us under a very long dark tunnel, interesting. We walked behind the Highlander Inn, Susan would still be sitting there waiting for her lunch.
Our timing had improved now as we were on the old railway line, so time and distance appreciation was back on track. So this confirmed to me that the distances shown on the other parts of the map were not accurate.
We walked passed Aberlour and continued on. It had been agreed to meet Susan but we could not see her and so carried on. She was probably just leaving the Highlander Inn.
This was good going, The Way was now passing old stations many of which were either attached to whiskey distilleries or had them very close by.
We arrived at Carron, where we did eventually meet up with Susan again.
The end of another day's walking, we returned to the Grantown-on-Spey Caravan Park. We were now heading towards our start and so were nearer the start of the walk at the end of the day than what we were when we started walking at the beginning of the day.
Start 09.10 to 19.30 we had covered 35.4km with a 603m climb.
More to follow.
Boz North
Details correct at time of walking.
If you have enjoyed reading my walk or found it useful you may also like to read other walks I have done on The Moray Way or other areas. Please check out the links on the right hand side.
Follow link to previous day, Day 3 Roseisle to Garmouth
Follow link to next day, Day 5 Carron to Grantown-on-Spey
