Julia Garner : Cairngorm holiday

Showing posts with label Cairngorm holiday. Show all posts

Sunday, 9 February 2025

Cairngorm summit

A glorious walk up Windy Ridge - which wasn't windy - and fabulous views....

Top of the world - perfect!

By far, the best day of the year so far for me! Perfect ground conditions, requiring micro spikes and perfect weather - sunny and very little wind at 4000 feet.....a grand day out! So here are a few of many photographs!

Ascending up onto Windy Ridge.

Looking down over Loch Morlich.

Looking up towards the Ptarmigan restaurant (closed).

Mountain Hare prints - where it obviously sat down.

One of Cairngorms tors. As this was an impulsive visit, because of the weather, I hadn't really done much research but the Cairngorms are clearly an important pregalcial/periglacial and glacial site. This paper click here by Chris Thomas and Martin Gillespie, gives details of the effect of the granite on the landscape, which I have attempted to simplify: The Caingorm granite was formed 425 million years ago. It forms an extensive plateau as the granite is more resistant than the surrounding metamporphic rocks. As the granite cooled in the crust, it was altered by hot fluids running through fracture zones - which ultimately weathered and eroded more quickly to form valleys. During the Quaternary (last 2 million years) ice was relatively stationary over the Cairngorms leaving the land unchanged. The tors were formed in the hardest of the granite as weathering and erosion continue on the plateau. Reading more widely it would be good to revisit the area in search of periglacial landforms such as pattered ground.

Fir Clubmoss sticking through the snow.

We really did look out for Ptarmigan, but saw none - this may have been the closest we got.

..and the summit ...many photos in the next blog!

Saturday, 8 February 2025

Moray Meander (II)

After Lossiemouth we continued along to Burghead where the sun continued to shine. In such glorious weather, the resident Long-tailed Ducks were out at sea, rather than in the harbour - nice to see. After that a walk out at Roseisle, where we had a splendid ten minutes as a flock of Crested Tits, accompanied by a Crossbill, flew around in the pines infront of us.

The Moray Firth.

Burghead.

In the harbour: Triassic sandstone (240 million years old) - deposited by an ancient river system.

...layers of sands and gravels within the deposit.

Knot.

Long-tailed Ducks.

Walking through the pines at Roseisle.

You'll have to take my word for it that there are Crested Tits and a Crossbill in the photo!

Late afternoon light as we walked back ...tank traps on the beach.

Moray Meander (I)

A full day on a gloriously sunny Moray Firth - a bit better weather than last time we were there! ..But first a check on the Loch Garten bird feeder - no Crested Tits - they do appear most days; it's just a matter of luck apparently as to when they turn up. After a quick check, up to the Moray Firth and four stops in our meander: Loch Spynie, Lossiemouth, Burghead and Roseisle.

The highlight of Loch Spynie were the Red Squirrels - they are fed daily, very tame and beautiful in the sunshine. On the loch itself there wasn't a lot out of the ordinary: Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Coot, Goldeneye, Gooseander etc...

Loch Spynie.

The light was beautiful and there were four Red Squirrels hurtling round, chasing each other and finally feeding on the feeders.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

After loch Spynie a few miles north found us at Lossiemouth - again beautiful light. Lots of gull, Teal and Wigeon ....

Teal.

Wigeon.

Curlew.

The next blog continues the meandering....

Pine Forest Lichens

Unfortunately I have never really tackled lichen identification - at all, but it doesn't stop me enjoying and marvelling at them; some photos from our walk at Loch Garten.

Caledonian Pine Forest

Given the glorious weather, a flying visit for a couple of days, to the Highlands. We arrived midday, just as the last of the drizzle cleared ....so a quick wander in the woods at Loch Garten.