Iris K

Short walk from Cruden Bay to New Slain's Castle today. This was Bram Stoker's inspiration for Dracula 🧛‍♂️. Fairly windy, but great views.

Couple of loops of the blue and red mountain bike trails in Banchory. Lovely trails with berms, table tops and the red also has some (rollable) drops.

Short walk to the impressive Maule monument today. You can even explore the inside. It was built atop Rowan Hill in 1866 as a tribute to the Panmure family. The return journey passes some stone grouse shooting butts. Lots of grouse higher up and pheasants lower down today. Spotted some red squirrels in the birches beside the road too. Stopped at the Arch cafe and bistro in Fettercairn afterwards. This has a "wall of cake"!

Short walk from The Drive at Haddo ,whic is a motorsport themed café. Daffodills brightened the walk along a lake and Burn of Keithfield.

Last few snow patches today. Sky stayed pretty clear, though not too sunny. Great views! Snow was quite soft. It was a bit tricky among the boulders as you never knew when you would sink really deep into a hole, hidden by the snow. We cycled to Derry Lodge and hiked from there.

The practical element of the Adopt a Path surveyor training took us up Creag Choinnich from Braemar. We looked at different features, such as drains, steps, path widening and overgrown vegetation. Adopt a path is maintained by the Outdoor Access Trust Scotland. https://www.adoptapath.org.uk/

We followed the castle loop from Netgy Bridge. Castle Roy was interesting (and free) to visit. Gorgeous views to the snow topped Cairngorms. The walk through the forest was very relaxing.

Blustery wind and sunshine today. Especially on the ascent up Windy Ridge, we felt blown about a bit. A rare treat in Scottish hillwalking: Coffee stop at Ptarmigan Station. Lots of walkers and ski tourers out today. Got some use of the crampons up on Cairn Gorm and again on the descent. Being up on the sub-Arctic plateau was especially fun. A few clouds were just coming in, the snow was drifting in the wind and we felt the solitude. A few mountain rescue teams were out training too.

Winter hill walk was mostly in the sun today, although a cold wind picked up later in the day. A lot of ski tourers out. Also spotted 2 white snow hares 🐇. It had been thawing during the week, but got cold again yesterday. Snow was hard and icy, so we used our crampons most of the way. The descent down the steepest part was a little scary, used the walking pole and ice axe. Massive thanks to the guy who fished my pole out my backpack for me! Lots of avalanche debris visible below Glas Maol from earlier in the month.

Couldn't get into the Spittal of Glenmuick car park due to soft snow. 🫣 So we changed the plan and hiked up another hill for a while. Slow going in the soft snow. Nevertheless, geat to get outside after weeks of rain. The sun nearly made an appearance, but wind and rain accompanied us most of the time.