Digging into the past on Highland walk over ice age features at Littlemill near Inverness
Scoured out by ice and meltwater as a huge glacier retreated tens of thousands of years ago, the landscape in Strathnairn still has stories to share.
Here at Littlemill, it’s a little oasis of calm, home to wildlife all year round thanks to its balanced mix of woodland, marsh and heath.
You can hear the birds twittering in the trees all around and you may even be lucky enough to spot some of the roe deer, as we did on this little walk around the two waymarked trails at the forestry site.
In summer, the kettle hole lochans – formed when the retreating glacier left huge lumps of ice behind that slowly melted – offer sanctuary for dragonflies, while flowers provide food for fluttering butterflies.
Autumn brings an abundance of fungi and when the winter snows arrive, you can almost imagine the cold that created the esker ridges that form a natural boundary to the site. These eskers are linear ridges of sand and gravel deposited by glacial rivers underneath the ice.
The waymarked trails begin at a small parking area just off the A851 close to Inverarnie, where there’s a small village shop if you need supplies. Both routes lead up a steep initial hill to the edge of one of the ridges, where you can go in any one of three directions.
Our plan was to turn right here, following the red route at first, then join up with the blue route where the two meet and complete a circuit of the whole woods. There are other unmarked trails that you can explore if you want to go a little bit further, too.
We’d left it quite late in the day to head outside, so we had to get marching as we made our way along the red Esker Trail that follows these ridges formed under the ice.
The glacier’s creative energy has also brought with it plenty of in-demand sand and gravel, and a nearby quarry works tirelessly to extract it – even eating through the historical Wade road between Inverness and Moy. A detour along nearby tracks means you can still walk or ride this route, but not exactly the same way as it would have been in the past.
Now there are plans for another quarry close to the Littlemill site, with the local community council preparing to object to the scheme.
Littlemill – including parts of the wider areas surrounding the forest – was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1978 (the existing quarry was granted permission before this, in the 1960s) and is of national significance in terms of its glacial features.
Some parts of the esker ridges are up to 40 metres in height and 2 kilometres long. The esker system here is described as being the finest example of its type in Scotland.
It makes for a fascinating wander through the pine trees and the birch and rowan in the more open areas, with erratic boulders left behind by the glacier as you make your way up and down the narrow paths.
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You soon pass the largest of the lochans before a path leads you above another smaller body of water then turns sharply left down through the trees. Reaching a turning area on a forest track, keep following the red markers – passing an erratic – to regain the path that soon leads up onto one of the esker ridges.
Go left here and follow the ridge between thin pine trunks, with quite a steep drop to the burn to the right further ahead.
Keep an eye out for the red markers which guide you left, off the ridge, to drop down closer to the large lochan. It can be quite muddy along parts of this section, but you soon reach a good path again where the red and blue routes meet.
There’s an option to go left here for the shortest route back, but we continued to the right to follow the blue route around the edge of the site.
This leads through the forest to a fork in the path, where you keep left to climb a steep little incline beside a fence separating the area from the quarry. At the top, the path bends sharply left to follow another esker ridge above a couple of small lochans.
The light was starting to fade now, and we watched as the spectacular moon rose between he horizon and a low bank of cloud.
It wasn’t far to go to reach the crossroads of paths above the hill that leads steeply down to the car park to complete this fun and fascinating little circuit.
Route details
Littlemill
Distance 2 miles / 3.5 km
Terrain Uneven forest paths, muddy and steep in places
Start/finish Littlemill forestry car park, off the B851 near Inverarnie
Map OS Landranger 26/27; OS Explorer 416
A gentle walk around a glacial landscape in Strathnairn near Inverness
Click here to see the route in OS Maps
