Allt Bo-Loin

Well the sun didn’t last long.

It was a day spent largely in preparation for return to work or school. With Lucy away home there is no need for the early short walk ahead of Caley’s proper walk. Despite that I pulled on my jacket with precisely that mind-set. When I finally cleared that notion from my head I realised I could just spend a reasonable time with this trip; Caley’s one and only walk.

We hopped the garden fence, crossed the field and went over the top of Maol Ruadh and down the other side to the Bo-Loin burn. There is a small weir further up with a Coanda screened inlet. The natural flow of the burn is somewhat depleted downstream of this though the design constraints of these systems are such that the river habitat should continue unharmed. (I may indulge in a blether about Coanda screens another day.). The structure is the header arrangement for a small hydro electric scheme.
We followed the burn down on its left bank and visited this old buildings. As the eagle flies this is probably less than a mile from our door and yet this is the first time I have been close up to the ruins. There is evidence of once tended grounds and grassy ridges which were probably also walls. A muddy farm track terminates a short distance away and this was likely the original access route leading from the Bohuntin road.
Lower down the burn descends in to a deep gorge where there is a confluence with a bigger burn which rises behind Bohuntin Hill and flows south through the Caol Lairig. We briefly visited the river junction. There was an eerie creaking coming from one particular cluster of birch trees as they swayed in the breeze. I thought it was quite unusual; two separate trunks emerged from the base, rose a foot apart for a couple of metres then one wrapped round the other helix fashion. All the creaking was coming from this one mechanical bond in another wise quiet bit of woodland. (I took a photo but it looked rather dull.)
The day was beginning to deteriorate and we returned home ascending Maol Ruadh again before plodding through the bogs back towards home.