Glen Clova: Allan’s Hut To The Capel Mounth

Sandy Hillock (NO 266804, 768m)
Dog Hillock (NO 286793, 732m)
Ferrowie (NO 303794, 801m)

20.4 kilometres
1020 metres of ascent

North Clova route
Click to enlarge
Contains OS OpenData © Crown copyright and database right 2018
Path data © OpenStreetMap contributors under the Open Database Licence

I’ve had it in mind to take this obscure little jaunt for some time—a trip along the crags on the north side of upper Glen Clova, linking the two main routes across the hills between Glen Clova and Loch Muick—the crossing via Allan’s Hut in the west, and the old Capel Mounth drove-road in the east.

I started from the car park at Acharn. Mindful of the fact that the bridge north of Moulzie had been washed away by winter floods the last time I was here, I set off up the west side of the river, expecting that the faint path which had been starting to appear soon after the bridge was lost would have evolved into something more substantial. But it hadn’t. In fact, it had largely disappeared. So I wasn’t entirely surprised to discover a new footbridge had been put in place.

New bridge above Moulzie, Glen Clova
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If I’d thought to check on this before setting off, I could have saved myself a bit of trackless wandering across damp flatlands, and used the regular track on the east side of the river.

Beyond the bridge the glen turns west, and I walked into the teeth of the wind that was funnelling through the head of the glen. When I reached the little larch forest at Bachnagairn there was some shelter among the trees, but their upper branches were being buffeted strongly enough to shake down a continuous gentle snow of yellowing larch needles.

Then I crossed the Roy Tait Memorial Bridge, and started up the well-engineered zig-zag path towards the high plateau and Allan’s Hut. The modern corrugated-iron hut (actually a stable for stalker’s ponies) replaces a dilapidated wooden structure that stood here back in the ’70s. (I’ve written previously about pitching a tent inside the old Allan’s Hut.)

Allan's Hut, above Glen Clova
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The ascending path was marked by fresh hoof-prints, showing that ponies were still being used to carry dead deer off the hill at the end of a day’s stalking.

Hoofprints on path above Bachnagairn, Glen Clova
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Then on to my first summit of the day, Sandy Hillock.  A glance at the ground, where the path has eroded a slot in the peat, was sufficient to explain the name.

Sandy path on Sandy Hillock, Glen Clova
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The summit hosts four poles (one fallen) and a small cairn with a metal shelf inside. Almost all the paraphernalia is now gone, but it seems there were once two radio aerials up here, serving some purpose I’ve been unable to discover.

Summit of Sandy Hillock, looking towards Lochnagar
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Next, I headed south, into a little triangle of boggy moorland that seems to levitate 300 metres about the river below. This is the top of the improbably named crag of Juanjorge, an obvious viewpoint that I’ve long wanted to visit. Contrary to appearances, the cliff is not named after two misplaced Spaniards. The local pronunciation sounds something like Gin-George, and on the basis of that pronunciation, Adam Watson* speculates that the original Gaelic was  Dionn Deorid, which he translates as “hill or fortress of melancholy creature”. I don’t really know what to make of this, and both Gaelic words seem to be rather obscure. Anyway, it gives (as I suspected) splendid views both up the glen towards Bachnagairn and down towards the new bridge.

Bachnagairn from above Juanjorge crag
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Glen Clova from above Juanjorge crag
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From there, I worked my way along the rim of Moulnie Craig, glancing back to take in the view of Juanjorge.

Juanjorge crag from above Moulzie Craig
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And then on to Broom Hill (no broom plants in evidence) and around the deep cleft of The Gourock, with its lovely little lochan.

The Gourock, above Glen Clova
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The name, oddly, derives from an guireag, “the pimple”, hinting that the Ordnance Survey may have attached it to the wrong geographical feature.

Next, Dog Hillock, on which no dogs were evident. The name was probably given in conscious contrast with Sandy Hillock—in Scots, for some impenetrable reason, a “dog hillock” is a small hill covered in grass. Here, I took a seat and enjoyed the view south down the glen towards my starting point, and also north to the crags of Lochnagar. I noted that the Falls of the Glasallt (above the Queen’s lodge at Glas-allt-Shiel) were broad and white with run-off from recent rain (an observation that would become relevant later in the day).

Lochnagar from Broom Hill, Glen Clova
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And I could enjoy the classic sound of the Scottish Highlands in October—the bellowing of red deer stags in rut. Here’s what one of those sounds like:

This noise had been echoing around me from all directions since I’d reached Bachnagairn, though I’d glimpsed nothing but a little bachelor herd trotting across the peat hags in the distance.

To reach my final hill of the day, I had an awkward little descent in the headwaters of the Moulzie Burn, and then an awkward little ascent to reach the Capel Mounth track. I walked up to the high point of the track to reach Gallow Hillock, an unassuming heathery lump, visible on the sky-line to the right of the track, below:

Capel Mounth track at Gallows Hillock
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Dorward writes:

There are over a hundred place-names in northeast Scotland containing the term ‘gallows’ […] While there is seldom evidence of their having been used as places of execution, they appear to have been important meeting-places or even the site of a court in Pictish times.

There’s a similar juxtaposition in the Sidlaws, where Gallow Hill sits next to the high point of the old route between Dundee and Glamis. Both locations seem too chilly and exposed for a meeting place, but ideal for a gibbet displaying the corpse of a highway robber. Or so it struck me at the time.

On, then, up the slopes of Ferrowie, which Dorward links to Gaelic feith ruadh “red mire”, though it didn’t seem particularly red or mirey. From the summit, I could look back at a panorama of Broad Cairn and Lochnagar, and notice that the Allt an Dubh-loch was so full that it showed up as a white ribbon between the two hills. Hmmm. There did seem to be a lot of water in the burns.

Broad Cairn and Lochnagar from Ferrowie
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To get back into the glen, I followed a rough vehicle track past some decaying grouse butts on Ferrowie’s boggy southwest shoulder, The Winnochs. Dorward links this name, rather implausibly, to Scots winnocks, “windows”.  Watson goes with the more believable Gaelic bhuidheanach, “yellow place”, which is pronounced something like “VOO-yen-och”. Here’s a view at the point where I rejoined the Capel Mounth track (Bachnagairn,  Juanjorge and Broad Cairn in the background), demonstrating why I find “yellow place” compelling:

Capel Mounth track descending from The Winnoch
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The route descends in steep zig-zags, eventually reaching a patch of forestry that turned out to have been recently clear-felled.

Capel Mounth track descending into Glen Clova
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Glen Clova from clear-felled area beside Capel Mounth track
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I was a bit disgruntled about this blot on the landscape, until I reached the ford where the path crossed the Capel Burn. Which was in spate. Predictably enough, given what I’d been seeing of the burns around Lochnagar earlier. Rather than taking off my boots and socks and wading across, clinging to the boulders, I realized I had another option—the clear-felling had opened up a rough route down the north side of the burn, by which I could easily reach the bridge on the Moulzie track below me. And then it was just a straightforward march back to the car, along the route I should have taken when I set out that morning.

Fly Agaric, Glen Clova
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* Adam Watson, Place Names In Much Of North-east Scotland (2013)
David Dorward, The Glens Of Angus (2001)

4 thoughts on “Glen Clova: Allan’s Hut To The Capel Mounth”

  1. I am far from an expert on the weather in your neck of the woods during October but you did seem to have a very good day for your trek.

    Is there likely to be an erosion problem with with the clear felling that has been done on that slope or will new trees be planted shortly?

  2. It was a good day, but they’re actually not that uncommon in October. My favourite time of year for the hills. I arrived with the head of the glen completely socked in with low cloud, and a marvellously intense rainbow spanning from one side to the other. But the cloud cleared as per forecast, with the last stuff lingering around the higher peaks for a while, as visible in my photographs.
    I don’t know what the plans are for replanting, but there shouldn’t be an erosion problem–the tree roots are still there, and ground cover has recolonized very quickly. The glens are full of steep grass-covered slopes, interspersed with forestry plantations, and one seldom sees much evidence of erosion on the slopes that have been left unplanted.

    (I’m always amused when historical films set in Scotland have outdoor scenes featuring hillsides covered with neat rectangular plantations of trees, divided at intervals by firebreaks. The “Vikings in Scotland” drama Valhalla Rising seemed particularly oblivious to the jarringly ahistorical appearance of the backgrounds.)

  3. That is good to hear about the erosion. I guess living in a sandy place where slopes will erode and underground salt water will ‘rise’ to the surface at the felling of a tree you become a bit hypersensitive.

    I had never heard of “Valhalla Rising” and looking at its box office returns I see why:-)

    1. Valhalla Rising also involves the characters becoming lost at sea and eventually arriving in a location that a lot of Scots would immediately identify as being on the west coast near Arisaig, with its spectacular view of the very easily identifiable island of Eigg. So when the Native Americans arrive on the scene, there’s quite a strong moment of cognitive dissonance.

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