If you follow me on Instagram you will know that last weekend me and my partner walked Jock's Road to Braemar and back, and I decided it might be worth writing a little blog about it.
Jock's Road is one of the Cairngorms historic routes and was an important drove route used by herders to get sheep and cattle not sold in Braemar market to the Glen Clova's Cullow market. In fact, the markets were held two days apart to give the drovers enough time to get across. It was has also been part of a right of way dispute between 1886 and 1887 against the landowner McPherson and is believed to be one of the routes the Highlanders used on their way to fight at the ill-fated battle of Culloden in1746. It my also been one of the routes they took when escaping back to Glen Clova and Glen Esk. While the origin of the name is connected to a John (Jock) Winter who was thought to be one of those who testified against McPherson against the closing of the pathway, but the name actually extends further back than thought and is really unknown.
We decided to do the route backwards on the first day, starting at Glen Doll as this was the closest point to us, walk to Braemar, spend the night there, and then walk back again. In this directions you start at the Glendoll Forest Forestry Commission Scotland car park (which you can leave your car at for 48 hours) beside the Angus Rangers Base. If you start at this end make sure you go into the base to fill in a route card so they can send out help if you don't return in the time you've stated.
The walk starts along the blue route through the Glendoll Forest and, I have to admit, this is a very gentle, nice way to start this hike with lots of opportunities to do some bird watching. However, this doesn't last for long and soon you're walking up the step, but well maintained path up Craig Damff. It is quite a hard slog, but the view definitely makes it worth it.
When to come to the top of this climb you'll come across the emergency shelter, Davy's Bourach (the location of which is worth keeping a note of as the weather can come in pretty quickly) and beside it a plaque in memory of five men who went walking this route on New Years Day in 1959 lost their lives. It's a definite reminder of how exposed you can me on the Cairngorms. From this point the route levels out a bit and is a little easier going as you walk past Cairn Lunkard. The path is relatively obvious as you follow one man made pile of stones to another, that become more obvious as you get used to their shape. Here again it's worth stopping to take some of the scenery and do some bird watching. This walk is actually quite a god walk to do if you want a remote chance of seeing golden eagles, though we definitely didn't have the right weather this time.
The climb increases a little when you go over Crow Craigie, but the main thing you have to bear in mind is this is where you are really exposed to the weather. In our case it was cloudy with a little bit of rain and 30-40 winds, and you definitely felt that there. Thankfully it wasn't too cold, but I can see how this would be an amazing spot to watch birds of prey. Unfortunately, after Crow Craigie is the land of disappearing paths and wet feet. The boggy landscape does mean that it would be almost impossible to maintain a footpath up here and you are better off being able to jump from one relatively firm part of ground to the next.
The GPS on my phone meant that we were able to stay on sort of the right path, but on going down hill a long the Allt an Aitinn stream it really was just a 'find the safest way down and then work out where the hell you are' sort of task. The scenery was still stunning though, despite it being a dull day.
Once we had reached the bottom we headed for an obvious metal pole and then followed the sometimes obvious, sometimes not so obvious past on the east side of the Allt an Loch river. Here too you want to look out for large random looking stones. To begin with it's a little difficult to distinguish these stones and those left by the glacier receding, but, as before, these begin to become obvious and you can follow the route even when the path can't be distinguished. The ground is pretty wet in places, but becomes very boggy as you get closer to the Loch so either wear wellies or accept you're going to have soaking feet. There are a couple of places where the path slights in two and I would normally recommend you take the higher one, but when you're right beside the Loch I'd go against you instinct and follow the path through the reeds. This turned out to be the driest.
The path around Loch Callater is relatively easy under foot, but our legs were definitely tired by this point. However, it was still funny being eyed up by suspicious sheep. There is a Bothy you can stay in at Lochcallater Lodge and in hindsight this might have been a better plan than carrying onto Braemar. The scenery is beautiful here, with not too many midges, and waking up to that in he morning would be a great way to start your day. It also cuts out a lot more walking! That being said the path down from Lochcallater Lodge to Auchallater is a pretty easy one, well maintained, and clearly designed to take vehicles carrying people to the Grouse Butts. Once at Auchallater it's a walk along the A93 to Braemar.
We were staying in one of the two persons rooms at the Braemar Youth Hostel and, thankfully, this was one of the first buildings you come across as you walk into Braemar. After a shower and a large meal it was time for an early night and, I have to admit, I fell asleep pretty quickly. The only issue I had was that it would have been better off if there was a bath to soak into to help ease the tired legs.
The next morning we grabbed some lunch from the Braemar Coop, which thankfully opens at 7.00am, and then caught a bus to Auchallater. There isn't actually a bus stop there, but the bus driver was more than happy to drop us along the way. This time we did the route the way you're meant to do it, and the way the drovers actually took the cattle.
If you were only able to do the route one way, the direction of Braemar to Glen Doll is definitely the direction I would recommend. Not only is it a bit more historically accurate, but it's much easier going up the boggy, disappearing path route towards Tolmount and then down Craig Damff than the other way around.
This is a great walk, but you do intend on doing it you need to be quite fit, used to quite tough hill walking, and be very mindful of the weather. We were pushing it a bit on the weather front, but made sure that we had a good number of thin layers, as well as water / mind proofs to keep us warm and dry (apart from our feet).
Things that I did learn on this trip were how much I love being outside, whatever the weather; I definitely need to eat more of the snacks that I brought; how bitterly cold the wind can be onto of those hills; that I need to find out where the Bothies are; and how much I love my OS maps app used with GPS - totally genius, a great safety feature (though I will always carry a map and compass just in case) and this is not a plug. But, I definitely intend to do more walking trips, so expect to see more blogs on these.
And now I would just like to take a moment to say goodbye to my walking shoes. They've lasted me a long time and have taken good care of my feet, but this walk showed me just how worn out they have become. I do feel bad unceremoniously chucking them in the bin, but there isn't a lot else I can do. Framing them might be a little weird.
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