Scotland Travel Blog November 07

"Rainy Seaon"

It has been a wet November, not the sort of weather that inspires us to take to the road. Whilst pondering on what to visit during the "Rainy Season", we received a call from a friend inviting us to join them for a few days in a rented cottage near Beauly. An excellent idea and one that helped to decide where we would be visiting this month.

So we packed our bags with some hiking boots and good waterproofs with the intention of doing some walking in Glen Affric, just a short(-ish) drive away from Beauly.

The Cannich end of Glen Affric is a lovely place to visit because it gives you a taste of what most of the Highlands must have looked like 300 yrs ago, before the hills were deforested to fuel the steel and ship building industries. Indeed, some of the older trees in Glen Affric date back 300 - 400yrs, so there is a sense of touching the past. Especially when you think that Bonnie Prince Charlie passed this way after his defeat at Culloden and he may have brushed past some of the mighty trees that you see today.

Unfortunately, the weather was never really in our favour, but we did venture along one of the well marked Forestry Commission footpaths that start from the car park for the Dog Falls.

It doesn't take much effort to walk from the car park to the Dog Falls so, despite the rain, there were quite a few visitors trying to take pictures. One problem with the viewing platform at the falls is the fact that short people (e.g. Aurelia) can't see much of the cascade in the gorge below. So for Aurelia's benefit I have added some photos below.

I also took a video clip of the cascade, but had to do it with arms at full stretch over the barrier of the viewing area. The end results aren't worth showing unless you'd like to look at a video of a wet branch on a tree above the Dog Falls!