A round of Ryvoan

RYVOAN bothy holds a few memories for me, connected to a west-east backpack across Scotland. My walking partner Clive Tully and I stayed there overnight in the 1980s when it was just a very basic, stone-floored shelter with none of the mod-cons it has these days.

Whenever I pass the bothy I always think of that extremely wet backpack when it rained for at least part of almost every day on our 11-day walk.

And raining heavily it was again as I geared up for this mountain bike circuit round the Meall a’ Buachaille ridge.

Leaving the big Loch Morlich car park near the Glen More Reindeer Centre, I made my way along the cycle path to Glenmore Lodge.

The track beyond to An Lochain Uaine, the Green Lochan, is well surfaced and the cycling is easy. As I stopped to take a picture at the lochan a collie dog came to greet me and dropped a stick at my feet, entreating me with his expression to throw it. Just then his owner appeared and he was off in a flash – having the benefit of someone else’s attention.

I cycled on, rather more slowly on the much rougher track leading to the bothy, which sits in a beautiful spot. Meall a’ Buachaille rises behind to the west, while the east is characterised by mile upon mile of mountain and moorland leading to Deeside.

With the rain still pounding down I rode off north past the bothy in the direction of Forest Lodge, some four kilometres away.

On a day like this concentration was needed to steer a line through muddy ruts and puddles. The forest track continues parallel to the River Nethy, unseen below on the right, to a three-way division. A quick check with the map revealed that I should go straight on to the right, ignoring a sharper right track going down to a ford on the river. At a gate I turned left along a good Land Rover track, bypassing Forest Lodge and past a grand house called Cuchanlupe to reach the minor road below Tore Hill.

Quite a few kilometres of road cycling lay ahead and at last the rain had stopped. The bike and I were in a pretty muddy state! I turned right in the Nethy Bridge direction and at a junction turned left to round the other side of Tore Hill and on to Loch Garten, past the RSPB osprey centre to reach the B970. I could speed up for the next six kilometres before more rough stuff to Loch Morlich. The B road passes through Street of Kincardine, Glencairn, Auchgourish and West Croftmore.

Just after Croftmore is a track on the left, opposite a National Cycle Route sign. It’s easy to fly past this turn so I kept a close eye out for it. The track climbs past Kincardine and Milton cottages and continues above An Slugan gorge. It demanded some effort to stay on the bike here on the stony uphill track and I found it easier to give in and push once or twice. The track eventually reaches the top of the pass and there’s a great view across to the Northern Corries of the Cairngorms, which had a dusting of snow – the first I’d seen this autumn.

A welcome downhill stretch brought me to a junction where I turned left for Badaguish. The track passes through the outdoor centre and another left turn took me under Meall a’ Buachaille back to the start.

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