Cateran Trail

Day 1: Blairgowrie to Blackcraig Forest, 12 km

We took a train and a bus to Blairgowrie, arriving at lunchtime. It was hot! Mr W bought a midges headnet as he hadn’t brought his and got worried. The person selling it to him claimed there weren’t any midges in the east of Scotland. We thought he was joking, but it turned out he wasn’t - we hardly saw any midges all weekend.

We also got a few sandwiches, it was hot, and I may have had a bit of a diva moment, although I forget why.

We walked about 12 km just into Blackcraig Forest, 2 km after the Bridge of Cally turn-off. I had read another walker’s trail report, who shared his camping coordinates. We were tired after a long walk, unused to the heavy pack-weight, and were so relieved to find the same camping spot and a fairly flat bit of ground, that we didn’t check the water. We could hear the stream nearby, but only once we’d set up the tent did we realise that the stream was in a gorge and inaccessible near where we were. Rookie mistake!

Anyway, a bit of a walk away, Mr W managed to find some water, and we treated it, and it was fine, only that I would have liked to have a wash.

It was an ok night. There was a bit of a slope under the tent, and I kept sliding into Mr W.

Day 2: Blackcraig Forest to Spittal of Glenshee, 24 km

Next morning, we packed up quickly and started walking for a bit until we hit a stream crossing the track. Here, we stopped for breakfast and a wash.

We arrived at Kirkmichael for lunchtime and spend a while outside the brilliant village shop, clearly the hub of the local area. We had some sandwiches and scones, and our water refilled.

From Kirkmichael, we crossed a moor to reach the ‘lunch hut’, a bothy just before the final ascent to the mountain pass. This would have made a lovely campsite with lots of water around, but we decided to cover a bit more ground today.

We walked up to the pass and could see Spittal of Glenshee in the distance on the other side. Halfway down we stopped to camp near a stream on a flat surface with a nice view.

Day 3: Spittal of Glenshee to Kirkton of Glenisla, 24 km

We had a leisurely breakfast of coffee and muesli, broke camp, and descended to Spittal of Glenshee. There were lots of nice camping spots all the way down. Sadly, there was no opportunity to spend any money in the village, so we just moved on. From here on, we were accompanied by the sound of oyster catchers and lapwings, and the smell of dead sheep.

We had to walk around quite a few farms, and this was the only bit of the whole trail where navigation was a bit tricky at times, with markers removed or fallen down.

Lovely walking along Glen Shee though, until we reached Dalnagar Castle, where I rejected a nice lunch spot by a river because I thought we could do better. Unfortunately, this is where a long slog of road walking started, and we didn’t find another decent spot for a few miles.

The road walking ended at Forter Castle. By this time, we were quite tired, and we could feel that today’s destination was close - or should be close! But a signpost informed us that we had to do another 10 km on a circuitous route up a hill, around a loch and across a moor. At least we were off the road.

Eventually we reached Kirkton of Glenisla. We saw the hotel just across the field, but then had to walk quite a dog leg on the trail to get there. My feet hurt quite a bit at this point, so we were very grateful for a nice clean room, a shower, and some lovely cold, clean water from the tap.

We had dinner in the pub and enjoyed watching TV on a comfy bed. Back to civilisation!

Day 4: Kirkton of Glenisla to Alyth, 17 km

This final day was easy. Flat, and not too long. We arrived in good time in Alyth, had a coffee and ice cream, and took the bus to Dundee, which was a surprisingly scenic route. In Dundee, Mr W had a quick look at the RSS Discovery, the 3-master that took Scott to the Antarctic, and then we took the train home.