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Forfar & District
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Despite weather warnings for very cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls, an impressive nine members turned out for a bracing walk to banish any hangovers
after the New Year festivities.
The original plan was to meet at the top of Glen Esk and walk to Balnamoon’s Cave, but a decision was made to meet at Edzell first and assess conditions.
Conditions at Edzell were remarkably good, but with some doubting the wisdom of venturing up the glen and some taking a more adventurous point of view,
a compromise was reached. A plan was hatched to walk over the lower tops to the north-west of Millden, half-way up the glen, and so the group set off
in three vehicles, two of them being four-wheel drives which proved to be an advantage later.
Within a couple of kilometres they were driving on snow and soon thereafter emerged from the vehicles at Millden into a winter wonderland, disturbing
two red squirrels which had been busy stealing food from a bird table.
Setting off at 9.45, the walkers turned off the estate road, crossed a ford and followed a track heading west. After a couple of kilometres they reached
an interesting tower. An information notice on the door provided the history of the tower, which had been built as a shelter by the Freemasons.
The snow was now falling very heavily and at a path junction a decision was made to head downhill rather than take the track leading uphill to Craig Crane.
This took the walkers past Auchintoul Farm and down a wooded track to the main Glen Esk road which now had a covering of several inches of fresh snow.
A pleasant meander of just over two kilometres took the group back to Millden, where great heaps of snow had to be removed from the cars before driving
back down the road. A further delay ensued when the occupants of the four-wheel drive vehicles realised that the third vehicle was not following and so
one gallant carload returned to help push them out of the car park. After carefully negotiating the few miles down the glen, all arrived safe and well
at Edzell, which by this time had a good covering of snow which enabled the more mature members to indulge in some snowball fighting and snowman building.
The walk was curtailed to a distance of about five kilometres and took just under two hours at a leisurely pace.
