Broad Cairn and Cairn Bannock

Sunday 18th February 2024

On Sunday 18th February nine of us (Bill, Alan, Graham, Gillie, Sandra,

Alison, Ruth, Steve and James) and Dan the dog (!) had a beautiful day

walking Broad Cairn and Cairn Bannock. The forecast was for mist on the

tops all day, but the forecast lower down was for beautiful sunshine. In

the hopes that they had got the forecast wrong we carried on with our

original plan and were rewarded with great views down across Loch Muick

(photo 1). We found a lovely sheltered spot out the wind and in the sun

for coffee before Broad Cairn (photo 2). Gillie and Alan then returned,

taking some great photos on route (photo 3) and the rest of us continued

to Broad Cairn and then Cairn Bannock before dropping down to Dui Loch

(photo 4). Although the waterfalls into Dui Loch were very pretty we did

manage to cross the rivers and came out along the side of Loch Muick

(photo 5). We saw two eagles as we set off, one white mountain

hare showing up well against a largely snow free mountain and a few

ptarmigan. We were all very pleased to be able to get up high after

several weekends of high wind speeds, a good day out enjoyed by all.

We saw a pair of eagles on the way up to Broad Cairn but they were too far away for us to be certain about which type of eagle but on the their return Alan and Gillie saw one close enough to identify it as a white-tailed eagle!

Ruth Mitchell