There were 26 members on today’s walk from Glen Esk to Glen Muick. Seven walkers got off at Tarfside to do the longer walk while the bus carried on to Invermark where 19 did the main walk leaving 2 on the bus to do shorter walks round to Loch Muick area. The main part of the walk was on land rover tracks passing the shores of Loch Lee where the first of three red flags was flying warning people of shooting in the area. An estate worker told us it was for target practice but not on a Sunday. A break was had at Glen Lee Bothy also known as Johnny Gordon’s Shiel. (Johnny Gordon lived in the bothy for many years, leading a hermit like life style in the late eighteen hundreds. In his last few months at the bothy he became ill and locals transferred him down to the Kirkton of Lee for nursing, he died a few days after being moved.) We continued passing the Stables of Lee where we saw Ela descending Hunt Hill. We climbed over Muckle Cairn when we had to put on our waterproofs as the predicted showers arrived. We descended over rough ground to the Shielin of Mark and had a refreshment stop at the bothy. We continued downhill through peat hags to cross the Allt Darrarie at the recently rebuilt footbridge to arrive safely at Glen Muick. We left around 5pm, had a pub stop in Ballater and Paddy, our driver, had us back in Aberdeen around 7pm. Alan
