WALK 1O CULBOKIE WOODS 25TH MARCH 2024

Off to the Black Isle for this week's walk. Culbokie Woods, to be exact. We have never walked here before, so it was all new to us.
So new, in fact, that we were somewhat taken aback to find that some significant works had been going on and the car park was a bit of a quagmire. Who knew what the walk would be like once we started walking?
Certainly, the entrance to the woods was a bit on the guttery side.


It wasn't long before it got a bit better, though.


 The walk description said that we would come to a burn in a deep cutting, which we did. It was actually deeper than it looks, but it was pretty overgrown, so it didn't appear as deep as it was in real life.
The burn's Gaelic name is An Garbh Allt - the rough burn - which seems pretty descriptive.



The burn issues from Culbokie Loch., which is rather more marsh than loch.



Apparently, you should be able to see Herons fishing here, but they were nowhere to be seen whilst we visited. There was a buzzard soaring high overhead, though.


The path started to deteriorate after we left the loch. Jumping over the the mud and water was a bit harsh on the knee at times!


Unexpectedly, we came across a little sign for the John O' Groats Trail. This is a long distance trail of almost 150 miles length, running from Inverness to John O' Groats. The trail is not complete and is still a work in progress. I did not know it was a thing, nor that it would pass through Culbokie Woods, but it does.


We were not going to walk that far, but the route did go to the car park where we had parked. The route was through some nice woodland, skirting some open farmland to the east.


Some bracket fungus on a rotting stump. I don't know whether it is edible, and I'm never likely to try and find out. The consequences of mistakes are a bit severe to take the risk.


Not content with having to leap over mud and water, we had to do a bit more obstacle negotiation.


Evidence of the tree felling taking place in the woods, which had led to the guttery nature of the car park and some of the pathways. No, I didn't count the rings!


That was the end of our walk in Culbokie woods. It will not go down as a classic, but it was still nice to go somewhere different and to get a bit of fresh air. It was also a bit of a trial for the brace, which I think it managed to pass.

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