Dorback and Cromdale Hills
There are so many places without conflict when walking in Scotland. The NTS is only the start, and then there are the drove roads to follow, coastlines to explore and of course with phone answering services like Hillphones it is easy to keep going through the year. I appreciate that some folk in the field sports world hate walkers and consider us to be little better than vermin, although that is an attitude more commonly found down south. Even though some of them cannot live with us, there is no reason why we should not show them that we are co-operative and thoughtful, thus showing the true motive of 'KEEP OUT' for what it is, territorial selfishness. Fortunately, this attitude is not so common in Scotland. Conflict can now have but one outcome. Of course we must remember that we will be gone tomorrow and others have to make a living here. On another visit to Dorback I parked a borrowed car in a quarry at the end of the public road and headed across the sandy moraines to cross the braided river. Once over, quite a crossing in bad weather, a road carved through the peat lead to 450m and less than a mile from the summit. The road is crudely bulldozed, but the scars are disappearing under the dense heather. The old pines, sadly few still alive were a striking feature by the Allt-an-Eirghe. Ahead lay a boggy bowl amongst gently swelling hills, with another road on the opposite side, the descent route. A quick ascent alongside some butts soon led to the altitudes where the heather provides little resistance. The summit dome proved to be wet and very boggy. It was March and the damp day was enlivened by the calls of the newly returned golden plovers. The OS 1:25 000 shows a fence. In 1996 this fence was just a few weathered wooden posts. The view to the south was one of utter desolation. The big hills were in cloud, all that could be seen was miles of peat. Sticking to the fenceline would have led to the rocky Castle of Ailnack, but I chose a return northeastwards toward
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Keywords: bleak, britain, cairngorms, chill, cold, desolate, dorback, freeze, frost, grantown, great, highlands, hills, ice, icy, interest, inverness-shire, kingdom, landscape, moor, moorland, national, nethybridge, park, places, scattered, scenery, scenic, scotland, scottish, snow, spey, travel, trees, uk, united, wild, winter
