The Coire

A magical walk on Dava today in bright Spring sunshine - here and there hollows on the Moor still hold diminishing patches of gleaming snow though it was warm in the sunshine. The Moor was acrid with the drifting smoke of muir burn.

The track to the 'Coire' from Lochindorb crosses open moorland before dropping into an attractive wooded ravine - a renment of an ancient forest (roots are preserved in nearby peat beds) here there are rocky outcrops, huge pines and birches hung with beard lichens beneath which are mosses and ferns. Unlike the silent open moor small birds sang in the trees. See extra.

Just beyond the ravine is a single grey stone building - all that remains of Coirecharcle. The settlement, probably originally a sheiling appears on Timothy Pont's 16th century map and the OS map of 1874 shows field boundaries and a small cluster of buildings of which only ruckles of stones remain.

For a time the settlement was abandoned but a single building has been restored and serves as a lunch bothy for parties of grouse shooters.