Leanachan Marshland

"I'm going to do the horrible walk at Leanachan"

I had a brain numbing desk day today and I needed to clear the head. The dogs were in the car and M had just asked me where I was going to take them. I'm not selling this walk well. You depart from a well made forest road and cut through a forest ride that has been blocked in lots of sections with wind fallen trees. The detours take you through jagged dense sitka commercial forest and finally as the open moorland comes in to view the ground gets very tussocky with ankle deep water in between the raised tufts. Holding a slightly higher contour avoids some of the really worst stuff but I have never come here and managed to avoid my boots being engulfed. Tonight was no exception.
There is an upside of course. The marshland is home to lots of birds, Greylag Geese and ducks dominated tonight, and a deer jumped out of the forest edge just twenty paces in front of us too. You also get fine uninterrupted views to Aonach Mor and The Grey Corries. There is a slow mmoving meandering burn that widens locally to attractive wee lochans and they make an interseting foreground to a photo too. The ground is so flat and low lying that when you are still 50 yards from the water's edge you are already plodding about in ankle deep water and of you stop for more than a few seconds -to take a photo- you start to sink.

I did get a photo at the loch edge but went with this one looking in to the western evening sky because I think it gives you a feel for what this part of Leanachan is like. Its a lovely spot and very well defended.