26 walkers left Aberdeen by bus on Sunday for a walk in the area of the Balmoral estate. It was a very challenging day for a walk due to the heavy snowfall which the north-east of Scotland had experienced in the preceding days. 21 of us alighted the bus at the hamlet of Littlemill on south Deeside for the main walk while 5 stayed on the bus to Crathie for a shorter walk up to the memorial cairns behind Balmoral Castle. The main group left Littlemill for an 8 mile walk up to Tom Bod a’Mhonaidh where we encountered about a foot and a half of snow most of the way. Although there was deep snow it was surprisingly mild due to there being no wind and bright sunshine. We stopped at the empty farm buildings at Bovaglie near the top of the walk for our lunch break. From there it was on downhill to Easter Balmoral where we encountered a snowplough coming up the track clearing the snow. This was the first piece of clear tarmac we had walked on all day. We crossed the river Dee by the suspension bridge and reached the car park at Balmoral where the bus was waiting for us. Unfortunately due to lack of time we did not have our usual pub stop but instead went straight back to Aberdeen.
Alastair