Clunas Reservoir

The bridge spans the Riereach Burn

It is always hard to be definite about these things when named woods merge into one another, but in area, Cawdor Wood - named after the village and/or castle at its Northern end - covers about two and a half grid-squares and parts of it appear in seven. Some of the wood is a protected area, and some of it is not. The trees on the left side of the track are unprotected, whereas those on the right are. Confusingly, the protected part of this 'ancient' mixed wood is also just named Cawdor Wood by the relevant official organisations. It is officially designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC), one of 200-odd in Scotland. In the hierarchy of these things, this really means that it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with greater protection. The big oak trees further North, along with the rare lichens that grow on some of their trunks, are the main reasons for this. The thing I remember the most about this wood, though, is the unbelievable amount of slugs that were very slowly wriggling their way along the many tracks and paths. The SAC is, very roughly, in the shape of a letter 'q', the land on the right of the track here being part of the tail of the letter, which straddles Riereach Burn. I put 'ancient' within quotation marks above because, although the wood is definitely old, nobody really seems to know exactly how old, tree felling and replanting having taken place throughout the years. There is actually a mention of cows grazing amongst the trees as recently as the 1950s in a report somewhere online.

Trig post and flagpole, (flag flown to warn that a shoot is in progress).

The Riereach Burn (Cawdor estate) looking north towards the Moray Firth.

The ancillary buildings, kennels etc., suggest this is a former gamekeeper's cottage connected with Cawdor Castle estate.

This wall end and old cast iron post dates back to the original enclosure of these fields, c.1850.

This building appears to have been a former dwelling.

Viewed from the bridge that General Wade and his troops trooped over a few centuries ago.....

Widely spaced pines, Cawdor.

Cawdor Estate woodlands.

The start of a long deep gorge through the Cawdor woodlands.

Landrover track at this point is extremely steep and badly scoured, with numerous rocks exposed – making it very hard going on a bike.