Hunt Hill, Glen Esk

Sunday 5th March, 2023

The group gathered in the car park at the end of the public road in Glen Esk, this is also the starting point for Mount Keen. The route took us over the Water of Mark, then passed Invermark Castle. The view from the old graveyard at Kirkton, was stunning looking across the water of Loch Lee with the dark crags of Craig Maskeldie and the steep face of Hunt Hill.

We continued on the land rover track running alongside Loch Lee and stopped for morning coffee at the fork in the track. We took the path which leads to the bridge over the Water of Lee, toward the Falls of Unich.

The path took us though a narrow rocky glen alongside the tumbling river and emerged onto the plateau.

We turned sharp right then traversed deep heather to the col, we saw an eagle on the skyline which distracted us slightly from the steep pull to the summit. The summit was marked by a small quartz cairn. The views were extensive and to the north was Mount Keen whilst to the west was Lochnagar, but with the snow flurries at the summit were views were limited.

As the weather was set for drizzle and snow flurries all afternoon we opted for James' route, which was a quick descent north east along the ridge then down a gradually steepening slope to the Water of Lee. We then retraced our steps along the land rover track by Loch Lee.

During the course of the day we had a few discussions about rickety and closed bridges, but luckily we didn’t find any on our route. On the way home, a few of us stopped for tea and scones at the Glenesk Folk Museum café, really nice people and fine scones.