The Sunday Times - UK (2021-12-19)

The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 11

The Cairngorms, main

picture, are home to

red squirrels, reindeer,

pine martens and

wonderful whisky,

and offer miles of

hiking trails for

walkers such as

Georgia Stephens

and her mother, below

myself relax. When you’re hiking, the

world narrows to what’s in front of you,

and your breathing falls into rhythm

with your feet. Nothing else matters —

not even Omicron.

Of course there’s a reason hiking trails

in the Highlands are so quiet at this time

of year, and a pleasant time is never

guaranteed, as we found at Loch Laggan,

but it helps to be properly kitted out —

it’s only bad weather if you have the

wrong clothing, as they say. My outfit

wouldn’t have won any fashion awards

— it involved sweat-wicking pyjamas,

colour-clashing layers and a water-

repelling shell in lurid hi-vis orange —

but it made hiking in winter a breeze.

Another way to boost morale, I found,

is to follow a particularly blustery

wander with a tasting in one of the

Highlands’ whisky distilleries.

Dalwhinnie is the highest distillery in

Scotland, set in the snow of the Grampian

Mountains on the Ben Alder Estate, and

after Loch Laggan we warmed up by

sampling the fiery 15-year-old single malt

in a toasty-warm room that smelt faintly

of honey and bananas. As we wandered

between vast polished-copper stills, the

distillery guide Barry explained that until

2006 they used the pure mountain water

free of charge, then the other distilleries

“got their knickers in a twist” and said it

was unfair; now Dalwhinnie “pays” the

Ben Alder Estate 12 cases of whisky a year

to use the spring water.

Many a good adventure leads to a

good pub lunch too: wild venison steak

with a side of whisky sauce at the Glen

Hotel in Newtonmore; hake with smoked

Shetland mussel and leek cream at the

Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore; more

venison, this time in wild cranberry

and peppercorn sauce, at the Bistro in

Kingussie. And it’s good practice to

precede your walks with a hearty

breakfast as well — with some of the

finest to be found at Coig na Shee

Guesthouse in Newtonmore.

Our home for the week — a beautiful

grey-stone Highland lodge on the crest

of a grassy knoll between pines that are

popular with red squirrels — provided

everything you could want from a B&B.

Breakfast — vegetarian haggis and eggs,

buttery kippers and oatcakes — was

served beside a crackling fire every

morning by the wonderful owner

Marion, accompanied by lilting Scottish

folk music.

I found it tough to part with my

electric blanket each morning, although

I was glad I did on our final day when we

hiked the crowd-free old droving road

through the Ryvoan Pass and up through

the pines to the bothy, where we found

the stove still warm from the night before.

We were utterly alone, save for the

intrepid dog-walker sharing his lunch

with his labrador, with uninterrupted

views of undulating white hills.

Overnight it had snowed in such vast

quantities it was as if Mother Nature had

had a foam party.

On our way back, we stopped off at

Lochain Uaine, nicknamed the green loch

for its deep aquamarine colour and said

to be where the local pixies wash their

clothes. I watched a young girl floating

snowballs in the water while her mother,

made of far sterner stuff than me,

stripped off for a wild swim. I’d

successfully got back to nature after a

week in the Cairngorms. Evidently some

— like these Highlanders — never left.

Georgia Stephens was a guest of

Wilderness Scotland. Five nights’

B&B on the self-drive Winter Highland

Explorations itinerary from £1,785pp,

including some lunches and guiding

(wildernessscotland.com). Fly or take

the train to Inverness

We were utterly

alone, save for the

intrepid dog-walker

sharing his lunch

with his labrador

Loch Laggan 10 miles

Loch an Eilein

Dalwhinnie

Distillery

Newtonmore

A86

Kingussie

Aviemore

Ryvoan

Bothy

Glenmore

Forest Park

Lochain Uaine

Cairngorms

National Park

over breakfast can send you into fits of

sunny optimism, while an overcast day

does the opposite.

My heart soared at Loch an Eilein, with

its ruined 14th-century island castle and

dense forest of Scots pines, later that

afternoon. We reached it just as the sun

was dipping behind the hills and making

the clouds blush, and we set off on the

three-mile walk around its fringes. The

trail was laid with a carpet of springy

pine needles and suede cushions of

lime-green moss, flanked by clumps of

fragrant heather.

Ben, our guide, who grew up in the

windswept west-coast community of

Lochcarron, paused beneath a wolf tree

to tell us about the Rothiemurchus Forest

we were in. This region is one of the last

habitats of the capercaillie, he said, a

huge, black woodland grouse known for

its gothic good looks and aggression

(once, one even went after David

Attenborough).

They’re at risk of extinction, but are

being helped by initiatives such as

Cairngorms Connect, a partnership

between estates committed to an

ambitious 200-year plan to restore and

manage native habitats. It’s the biggest

project of its kind in Britain.

Initiatives such as this are welcome

news for the red squirrels, eagles, pine

martens and wild cats that call this region

home, but conserving wild places is good

news for us too. As we tramped our sedate

circle of the loch, all was quiet save for

the sound of our footsteps and the wind

whispering through the trees, and I felt

Loch Morlich near Aviemore. Left, Coig na Shee

Guesthouse has hearty breakfasts for hikers

AND

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