River deep and mountain high

Mark Hagger is lucky enough to live in the tranquil and rarely-travelled north-eastern corner of Scotland on the banks of Aberdeenshire’s River Dee, with the magnificent Cairngorm range – a biker’s paradise – as a backdrop. Here, the 75 year old solo rider describes three of his favourite rides around this rich land of castles and crags, royalty… and red squirrels RIVER DEEP AND CAIRNGORM CAPERS THROUGH SCOTLAND ’S ‘SECRET’ SCENERY

THESE DAYS I’m increasingly reluctant to travel far for Audax rides. And living in incomparable Cairngorm scenery, I don’t have to. I’d like to describe three of my favourite local routes, which I use several times a year.

This summer these routes formed my last three RRTY rides. I decided after the last winter season that I’d stop my RRTY activity, since I was finding it increasingly hard to face up to the winter rides.

ISLA-DEE LOOP 200K On 15 August, 2020, I took my first long ride since before the March lockdown. The forecast was good, though the night before the Beeb announced a light mist covering much of Scotland. It was warm enough though, with negligible wind.

This route is exceptionally tranquil, with long stages on which scarcely one vehicle will be seen. It entails two classic hill climbs, both of which feature in Simon Warren’s “100 Best Hill Climbs” – the Cairn O’Mounth and the Cairnwell at Glenshee ski resort. It is the reverse of a route known to Audaxers from Angus as the Isla Loop, but it makes more sense for me to ride it clockwise and to hit one of the two challenging hills with fresh legs rather than at the end of the day.

That also means that on the final Deeside leg, the route is downhill, fast, and the overall average goes up and up. Glen Isla offers outstanding scenery, complete with a classic tower house castle and delightful vistas of river and hill. It is quite remote country with little traffic, so for me it is a summer ride. Distance 200km, climb 2,172, moving time nine hours and 23minutes.

Departing at 7.45am, I headed through

D WORDS & PICTURES MARK HAGGERMOUNTAIN HIGH

Gairnshiel Bridge

Strachan and up Kirsty’s Brae, scene of a fall on ice a few years ago when I broke a hip. No problem today except that it’s a very steep, short ramp. Then a run past Bogendreip, a name fond to Audax Ecosse and where I lived for two years while building a new house.

The second sharp ascent was at the AA box, and by then I’d hardly seen a car. Unusually the Clachnaben car park was empty – just three cars there at this time. Then up the hardest brae after crossing the river Dye. Near the top I heard a lorry grinding up behind, and it sensibly stopped and waited for me to get up the steepest part and round the corner before overtaking: a powerful logging lorry which explained the heavy engine sound.

Ironically it stopped just after the next steep climb because its hydraulic lift had slipped off and was hanging over the side. I’m glad it hadn’t swiped me as it went past earlier! The 450m summit was reached at one hour and 15 minutes from home, which is a fair time for me.

There were at least six cyclists heading down as I hauled myself up hill, all with every right so to be looking cheerful. A check on Strava shows that my time to the summit was about twice that of the fastest! Though I stand at number 57, which seems ok for an old fart.

Then it was on down the hill at a steady pace, burning a bit of expensive rubber, being now more focussed on safety than speed, and then into the misty Mearns. I reached Edzell for a coffee stop, enhanced by a large slice of carrot cake as a reward for summiting the Cairn.

I headed down the rather lumpy back road to Kirriemuir with renewed enthusiasm. It was virtually traffic-free. Just

Auld Brig S Esk

before Memus I heard an urgent squeaking from a red squirrel which shot across the road less than a metre from my front wheel. Then round the golf course and up Glen Isla, with lunch stop at Peel Farm. After passing the large Lintrathen reservoir, built to supply Dundee in 1875, I had quick service for an unexciting cheese and tomato sandwich, followed by a supplementary coffee and cheese scone. Plenty of seating outside, in the company of a few pecking hens.

Glen Isla is one of the bonniest road routes in these parts, with frequent sights of the burn and a gradual ascent into the Cairngorm plateau. Through Kirkton of Glen Isla, past the turn to Blacklunans, and a brief admiration of Forter Castle, then up the final Isla hill, before descent at Cray to cross the Water of Shee where I joined the A93.

The last café before Glenshee, the Wee House, was able to provide a wee crunchy date slice with a cup of coffee to strengthen my will for the Glenshee ascent, though there were still a fair few lumpy kilometres to go. The second classic climb seemed at first easier than I had feared, but the last half kilometre was a real struggle, and I was glad to summit at 670m. Regretfully still no local authority signage of the summit for a selfie, as promised two years ago.

Then it was down the hill in the sunshine, under clear blue skies to the valley, maintaining a decent pace through to Dinnet. The pace is always good as the road courses downhill, apart from the few ups, through Scots pine woods, never far from sight and sound of the river Dee.

Reaching Banchory I was still irritatingly short of 6km, since my actual route was slightly shorter than the Google Maps route between the control points specified, so I took a quick turn up over the Feugh Bridge until 3km was covered, which took me neatly to the toll house, and return to be sure of the 200km travelled.

STONEHAVEN TO LINN O’DEE On 4 September, 2020, it was back to the Dee valley on familiar roads. This route is actually my deep winter ride, so I should really not have been riding it in the warmth of late summer. It’s almost exactly 200km, and crosses only the Mounth range of hills near to the sea, so hillclimbing is minimized, though 1,676m are accumulated by the end of the day because of the gradual climb all the way to Braemar and beyond. Distance 200km, climb 1,676, moving time eight hours and 45 minutes.

Fraser’s Brig Glen Clunie

I was off at 7am over the Slug road to Stoney (Slug being Scots for “a narrow pass between hills”, and “Stoney” being the vernacular for Stonehaven). A quick loop past the station, and back to Banchory for a coffee and sandwich at home before heading up Deeside. The road was quiet both ways. The main excitement was a red squirrel nipping across the road as I neared the summit of Cairn Mon Earn, albeit that this sign of good luck was negated sadly later by a dead red stretched out near Crathie. At 240m the Cairn Mon Earn is not too challenging, with a steady ascent on either side, albeit quite long.

The wind was picking up and the cloud cover thickened. I valued the intermittent shelter from trees and hills. I know every pothole on this section of the road, since for many years I’ve cycled up here most Wednesdays with a chain gang. It’s a fine route with a few gentle climbs, alongside the Dee and through woods of Scots pine and birch.

The Brown Sugar cafe at Ballater was, by noon, filling up with lunch trade, so I took a takeaway to the bench by the riverside. Then it was up the south road to Crathie, slightly hillier than the road on the north side of the Dee, but very tranquil and through native pinewoods. The hill at Knock seemed less challenging today. I love the Scots pine forests, the hills on either side, the rivers and castles, including Abergeldie, famous for nearly slipping into the river during the 2015 floods. Roadkill by now included two young deer, freshly killed since they were not yet smelling, a few pheasants, and another a red squirrel.

Approaching Crathie there were several groups of Sassenachs walking with their dogs. Were they looking for errant royal golf balls or did they aspire to an illicit encounter with a royal corgi? Crathie itself was heaving with tourists, as I paused briefly to eat a banana and have a drink.

After Crathie I joined the north road and headed up alongside the river to Braemar, crossing to the south side again at Invercauld. Then it was straight through Braemar and up the 50m rise beyond, with fine views up the upper Dee valley with the high hills beyond. Then a rapid descent past the Mar Lodge Bridge and through Inverey. I paused for a photo of the Linn O’ Dee, then went on round the loop back to Braemar. I had coffee and cake at The Bothy Café then returned on the north road past Crathie and Ballater to Dinnet, initially in light rain though the roads were dry again after Crathie.

The final stretch was the familiar South Deeside road to Potarch and then Banchory, though the GPS showed just under 200km, so I carried on over the Dee and turned round to be sure of 200km.

It was a good day out, and not too challenging – about 11 hours out and back. My new Reilly bike, behaved well on its first long run.

View from Cairn o Mounth

DEE AND DON I undertook this ride on 20 October, 2020. It’s a version of a route that I ran for a few years as an Audax a while ago, and I’ve done the route most years latterly. I love the climbs over the Strone/Parliament Hill and the Gairnshiel, after passing over my favourite Gairnshiel Bridge. An opportunity came between days of continuous rain, and it all looked like a reasonable day weather-wise.

In the event I had to repeat the ride in early November when I found that I’d underestimated my score of Audaxes for the RRTY cycle, confused by the Covid interruption. Distance 200km, climb 1,871, moving time eight hours and 52minutes.

I set off up the Dee valley on familiar roads, over the Potarch Bridge and on to the South Deeside Road. The sky was lightening as I left with battery lights on, but I did not really need the front light to see the road. I’d left before 7am, mainly to be sure to reduce time in the dark at the finish.

At Ballater it was cold under the cloud cover, but the sun soon rose. Travelling due west my shadow stretched out in front on the road. The light on the hills was amazing for its clarity after two days of rain.

The road past Knock Castle and Abergeldie was as bonnie as ever, and I saw a red squirrel near Glen Girnoch – my good luck sign. After eating a banana at Crathie I headed up to Braemar and through to the Linn O’Dee, which looked a bit more exciting than on my last visit, with more water flowing through from the recent rains.

Back in Braemar I stopped in a different café from usual, but was too early for soup, so I had to make do with a sandwich and rock bun with my coffee. I set off back down the road to Crathie with a good turn of speed on the downhill run, delighting in the sunshine, river, pine woods and hills around.

Turning left in Crathie road signs warned heavy vehicles: “Do not trust your satnav”. There was also the delightful sign of a humpback bridge with a picture of a truck stuck on it. Then it was up Parliament Hill and into the hills and up the Strone with its four false summits – the first challenging ascent.

The views were stunning toward the Cairngorm massif, with bright sun and clear air. Then it was downhill to Gairnshiel Lodge and the superb hump-backed bridge over the River Gairn, then straight past the Ringing Stone (which makes musical notes when tapped with a stone) at the foot of the Shenval climb, and over for more glorious vistas of the Cairngorms.

After the climb there was a fast descent to Donside. There was very little traffic on either section of road. Donside provides a rapid descent, past Candacraig, formerly home to Pamela Stephenson and Billy Connolly, and then past another superb bridge high over the Don beside the main road near Strathdon School.

I was soon at the Co-op in Bellabeg where I found a huge heavy fruit slice. I managed to eat half of it with a coffee on the picnic bench in the sunshine. So on down to Mossat, which I’d visited a few years ago to buy some red kilt socks from a man who’d made them with wool from his own sheep.

Forests and trees Deeside

Mar Lodge

❝Travelling due west my shadow stretched out in front on the road. The light on the hills was amazing for its clarity after two days of rain... ❞

Over the Don I pedalled through Alford, admiring its statue of an Aberdeen Angus bull, and headed up the hill toward Tillyfourie. After Millbank I was less familiar with the route, and it seemed to go on a long way before I saw Sauchen in the distance and so could look forward to my right turn at Dunecht. Now I was again on roads that I knew well, to Echt and then on to back roads across to Deeside. A final run on the North Deeside road was not too busy with commuter traffic. And I was home an hour or so before dark.

It has turned out to be a lovely, fine day, warm in the sunshine between two long bouts of rain – and the roads were calm and traffic free. The distance was almost exactly 200km, so no energy wasted. It was a good finish to my final RRTY – except that it turned out that I had another one to do! I would strongly recommend these three routes to any Audax visitor who fancies a staycation around these parts. And there are more!

Linn o’Dee

❝…I love the Scots pine forests, the hills on either side, the rivers and castles, including Abergeldie, famous for nearly slipping into the river during the 2015 floods. ❞