Anagach Woods and Revack Lodge

As tempting as it was to take advantage of the weather bearing no resemblance to the forecast yesterday morning, we didn’t opt for my suggestion of prolonging our stay in the Lakes so that we could make a third attempt on The Old Man. Instead we stuck with the plan and continued on our way to Scotland, arriving in Grantown-on-Spey after what felt like an inordinately long journey. Contrary to the forecast of heavy rain for almost the whole day through, the reality was that we saw more sunshine than rain (and the hills to the east of the Drumochter Pass, and the Cairngorms, looked splendid in their winter coats).

This morning dawned clear and frosty and we should have made haste to be on our way before any cloud had the chance to roll in, but haste wasn’t made and it was our usual lazy-holiday hour of 10am by the time we stepped out of the door.

Today’s objective was a simple stroll around Anagach Woods. I must have omitted to use the word ‘stroll’ when telling Mick our plan, as he was clearly out for a ‘fast stride’. My little legs worked hard to keep up as we passed through the lovely woods, picking up the Speyside Way to take us to Cromdale Bridge, before heading back upstream alongside the Spey. The fine weather was lasting well:

Blue sky, and the river running high

The rain that fell in the night had obviously been snow on the Cromdale Hills, which were sporting a good dusting, although I couldn’t get a snap to really do them justice:

It may have been a snowy night and a frosty morning, but sitting in the sunshine on the riverbank for an early lunch, it was unseasonably warm.

The pace we’d set was such that if we’d only completed the circuit we had intended, our outing would have been too short, so rather than turning right at Spey Bridge, we turned left and headed south on the Speyside Way, with the thought of a cup of tea at Revack Lodge, where it was surprisingly busy (with the type of lunchers who made us look decidedly under-dressed).

We arrived back at our start point having covered just over 11 miles with 700’ of ascent. It’s a very pleasant walk, but we went poorly equipped and thus had to break the advertised rules: