Walk 20

Monday 6th September

Kirkmichael - Spittal of Glenshee (Cateran Trail section 2)

Very Strenuous

Distance: 13km/8 miles. Ascent 550m.
Start: Bus leaves Royal Hotel, Blairgowrie at 10:00
Finish:  Spittal of Glenshee 15:30 for refreshments - Bus leaves for Blairgowrie at 16:30.
Limit: 25
Notes: Very Strenuous. Hillwalking gear required. Packed lunch required.

Maps: Landranger 43, Explorer 387

About the walk:

Stage two of the Cateran Trail includes its highest and most remote section. After some easy walking through the farmland and woods of Strathardle the route starts to climb after Enochdhu.

Soon it leaves the forest and takes to the open moorland in the steps of Queen Victoria. Lunch may be taken at the Upper Lunch Hut; a wooden bothy erected at the site where Victoria stopped for a picnic on 13^th October 1865. According to her diary there was a slight delay because the kettle had been forgotten!

After lunch the path steepens until it reaches An Lairig (mountain pass) at 649m. Here the view is superb; looking down towards the Spittal of Glenshee at the junction of Glen Shee and Gleann Beag, Ben Gulabin and the higher peaks beyond as a back drop.