Sgor Gaoith Wild Walks

Very few mountain ranges in Britain have the wonderful approaches of the Cairngorms.

You wander through these fabulous pinewoods

that form a great big skirt

around this great mountain range.

A number of years ago, we would have referred to these pinewoods

as the remnants of the great Caledonian pine forest,

that great area of trees that covered much of the Highlands at one time.

But really, in the areas like this, it's not a remnant any more

because, thanks to great work by Scottish National Heritage

and a whole number of landowners, we see new growth coming through

so what we have now is a living, vibrant forest,

a really interesting place to wander through.

I'm heading for the high tops today -

not the most popular high tops of the Cairngorms,

but rather nice hills just above Glen Feshie here.

I'm going to climb the hill called Geal-charn, which was a Munro

when I first came to these hills but has since been demoted.

We'll finish, all going well,

probably in the mist on a mountain called Sgor Gaoith,

which means "the peak of the winds", and that might be appropriate as well

because, although we're sheltered in the forest at the moment,

I suspect once we're on the tops it's going to be a typical autumn day

of blustery winds and showers.

What I find so interesting about this particular bit of forest

is the trees here form the highest natural tree line in Britain.

The pine trees here are growing at over 600 metres,

which is quite extraordinary.

At one time, these forests would have harboured wolves and bears and elk

and there would be beavers in the streams.

You won't find these things today

but you will find some of the small birds that eat pine cones.

Birds like siskin, the Scottish crossbill,

the birds of the tit family.

They might not be as exciting as seeing a bear or a wolf

but they're pretty nice in their own way.

# When Ricky Lynch and his golden guitar

# Singing Autumn In Mayfield and the barley was ripe

# You were... the children were young

# And fathers were tall and kind. #

Blueberries.

At this time of the year,

they're a free food on the mountains and they're delicious.

Is my tongue purple?

You sometimes see these purple patches in the Cairngorms.

That's where ptarmigan have been gorging themselves on the blueberries

and then it passes through them so we get these purple patches,

a bit like my tongue.

Oh!

Pretty spongy, this sort of heather.

Quite difficult to walk up when it's steep like this.

Well, that was harder and steeper than I remember it. Oof!

Never mind. That's all the hard work done for the day, really.

All we have now is a gentle ridge up to the summit of Geal-charn

and then a sort of gentle slope up onto the bealach

that separates Sgoran Dubh Mor and Sgor Gaoith.

Already, it's looking fantastic.

I can see the sunlight across there on the Lairig Ghru.

The great quarries of Braeriach.

Of course, behind me down here, Loch an Eilein

and what looks like the urban sprawl of Aviemore.

Seems to get bigger every time I see it. Great to be up here.

When I started hill-walking,

there were five Munros in this immediate area.

This was one of them - Geal-charn, 920 metres.

Now there's only one Munro, they have all been demoted apart from one.

That's Sgor Gaoith, up behind us here, the hill we're heading for.

It kind of saddens me a wee bit. I noticed coming up onto this hill,

there's a path that kind of goes round the bottom of the summit here

and connects with the bealach behind me,

as though people don't want to know any more.

Geal-charn's become a sort of lonely old hill,

nobody wants to know it any more.

I still like it.

These are big hills and that means big climbs.

But the reward is just appearing

across here. Just in a second,

we'll see the head wall of Loch Einich and Corrie Einich.

Loch Einich is where Aviemore gets all its water from.

You get this spectacular sense of spaciousness

right across Creag Dhubh here.

It really is beautiful and some lovely autumn colours of Braeriach

just dropping down on to the flatness of the Moine Mhor, or the Great Moss.

There's a little blip on the horizon up there.

That's our summit but I promise you,

it's much more impressive when we get there.

Oh, wow!

Fantastic.

This is Sgor Gaoith,

the Peak Of The Wind, at 1,118 metres.

It's not so much the hill itself that's fantastic

but the view you get from it.

It's in such a dramatic situation.

In the corrie below me,

there's a rock pinnacle known as An Cailleach, The Old Woman.

Across from Braeriach, there's another rock pinnacle

known as Am Bodach, The Old Man.

It's said that on wild, stormy nights,

you can hear this old couple quarrelling with each other.

There's a lot of black cloud coming in

and I suspect it's going to be another of those wild, stormy nights

so I'm going to get down from here before this old couple start arguing.

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