Alan McQ, Davie C, Dougie, Graham, Gus, Hugh, Jimmy, Paul and Rex
We met at the War Memorial in Straiton as planned with Paul leaving his car in the village and travelling with Jimmy so only three cars were required to transport the nine Ooters to today's starting point which wasn't at Stinchar Bridge as originally intended but a mile or so further along the forestry road where we parked the cars at a locked gate. This would cut down the day's mileage for most of us to just over nine miles. The day was forecast to be the warmest of the year so far and, having applied the sunscreen, we set off at just before 10am for the walk to Tunskeen bothy which was previously done by some in today's group back in August 2019.
The pace was brisk as we covered the distance on the dry, firm forestry roads with ease. After a couple of miles, we took a road on the right which rose above Loch Riecawr and passed by an example of a "rocking stone" where a large boulder was deposited on top of another by a retreating glacier many thousands of years ago. We stopped here for coffee whilst Alan and Graham took the opportunity to climb up onto the rocking stone just because they could. After coffee, we continued along the foresty road to its end and then followed a track all the way to the door of the bothy. On the final approach to the bothy, we could see evidence of the recent wildfire but it was encouraging to see new growth already starting to appear from the blackened earth.
The bothy was found to be clean and in good order so we sat indoors out of the sun to have our lunch. Tunskeen was a working hill sheep farm until the 1930s after which it fell into disrepair. It was the first building to be adopted and renovated by the Mountain Bothies Association in 1965. Some photos of the bothy over the years can be viewed elsewhere on this blog:
http://earlyooters.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-short-pictorial-history-of-tunskeen.html
The way back to the cars followed the same route as the outward journey although towards the end of the day we were well strung out and the four in front took a wrong turning only a few hundred yards from the cars and ended up adding an extra mile to their day. Fortunately, they noticed the cars from the distance and found their way back as it would not have been possible to drive after them owing to the locked gate.
All but Paul took FRT in the Dalmellington Inn where we enjoyed a sociable hour in the beer garden to round off another good day.
