Date/Time
Date(s) - 16/03/200812:00 am
Walk Details
Pub Stop?: No O/S Map Sheet No.: 44 Grid Ref. Start: Grid Ref. Finish Walk (Miles): 7 Walk Hours: Bus Time to Walk: Bus Time from Walk: Departure time from walk:Walk Notes
The walk today follows a part of one of the old Mounth roads which cross the Grampians from Angus to Deeside.
The starting point is just beyond Birse Church at the head of the Feugh valley (0.S.GR.532.906) where we take the road up towards Birse Castle and follow the edge of a plantation of trees to a junction of tracks north west of the trees. (Members are requested to keep clear of the castle).
Take the track which climbs the hill behind the castle and heads northwards to skirt the steep valley of the Gwaves. In about a mile a stone shooting lodge is passed and the track drops down to cross a burn before curving eastwards across a boggy hollow. At NGR.514.926 it turns northwards again heading for the trees in the dip between Duchery Beg and Carnferg.
There is the option here of climbing to the top of Carnferg(525m.,1722ft.), a good viewpoint for the middle Dee valley. At the top beside the 0.S.trig point there is a large cairn and a memorial to someone called ‘Heaven’. From the summit descend north—westwards to rejoin the track just before it enters the trees.
At a junction leave the bulldosed track and take a path on the left through the trees which crosses the Allt Dinnie burn and heads for a stone lodge called the Guard marking the boundary of the Glentanar estate. Near the lodge three tracks converge. Take the middle one straight ahead which leads in a short distance to a stone circle with a memorial seat at the head of a little glen with a distant view of Aboyne village. The seat is named “Rest and be Thankful” and was erected by the nineteenth century laird of Glentanar, William Cunliffe Brookes,(his initials and dates are engraved on one of the circle entrance stones).
The track then descends through the trees and crosses the Allt Dinnie again before arriving at a junction of farm roads near the derelict cottage of Parkside. Take the road which heads northwards alongside the burn past Birsemor Loch and comes out on the B.976 South Deeside road at Birsemore. The road braniching right then crosses the River Dee at a bridge and enters Aboyne. The bus will be parked at car park in the centre of the village