First, an experiment with young Jacob Milnes, pictured (top) in a new form of transport on the back of a bike. A qualified success - his helmet was rapidly ejected, and he wasn't too keen on the bumpy trail back from The Hermitage and a 'hide and seek' cave.
Next, a visit to Birnham via the Birnam Oak (middle), an ancient tree that students of Shakespeare may recognise from the tale of Macbeth.
Lots of wild flower photos were taken on the way back via latte and 'Rocky Road' in a convenient bakery. These will feature in a forthcoming slideshow.
The flower pictures are mainly for Dave, who joined me this afternoon for the ascent of nearby Newtyle Hill, via a 13 km circuit. On the ascent, a walk along an access track to a mast afforded Dave as stunning a view of Dunkeld and the Tay valley as he has had in 20 years of visits. That was followed by an hour or more of the most extreme 'heather bashing' he has endured in those 20 years, as we hauled ourselves up to the 317 metre summit and down towards Loch of Lowes to the north. It's not a big hill (I'm pictured on the summit), but it tries hard to be!
After 2 km of energy sapping bashing through deep heather, bracken and bog, we regained the well maintained footpaths that led us to the north of Dunkeld and back home via a picturesque lochan.
It has been hot and windless today. Trouser legs were needed only as tick protection on Newtyle Hill. The air is as clear as you could wish for. All in all, ideal for a brief family holiday up here.
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
4 comments:
Glad you are being blessed with fine weather in Highland Perthshire Martin. Tayside indeed! :-)
Oops, sorry, I'm not very good with this sort of thing! As we were staying within a stone's throw of the River Tay, I imagined 'Tayside' would be a fair description, especially as our wanderings didn't take us much over 300 metres, which I felt didn't quite warrant a 'Highland' tag!
Regardless of nomenclature, the area was at its very best during the last couple of days...
In truth you were in 'Perth and Kinross', and Tayside is certainly a better description than that.
Tayside Region is divided into Angus, P&K and The City of Dundee. But you don't really want to know that do you?!
As you rightly say, it's the scenery that matters.
Agreed Gibson, but it got me thinking.... we live very close to the River Mersey, so (shock horror!) does that mean we are on 'Merseyside'?
If so, don't tell anyone - they may get confused...
Post a Comment