There are loads of marked walks in the forests – we decided to try the Highland Boundary Fault Line trail (they have marked where the actual fault line is- more memories of O-Grade geography). It’s supposed to take 3 hours to go 4 miles- it only took 1 hour 15 minutes, either we’re much fitter than we thought or they were a bit generous with the time estimate (the latter seems more likely considering how quickly I got out of breath)! It was very steep on way up but had a more gentle winding slope on the way down- we should’ve done it the other way round! The nice weather meant we got a pretty clear view from the top. Before coming back to Scotland I had forgotten how beautiful hills and mountains are!
View from the top from the conveniently placed pinic bench
They’ve built an adventure park for adults/ big kids in the forest - the Go Ape trail – with Britain’s longest zip slide (I have some nephews who'd love it!). Sadly it wasn’t open for the season yet - we were planning to go back to try it out but at £25 per adult, maybe not! We did consider flinging a scarf over the wire and going for it!
I was hoping to see some red squirrels or deer but I think we were too noisy. There are also ospreys in the forest but the visitor centre was shut so we couldn’t find out where to go to see them (although they usually keep the nesting sites secret so people can’t steal their eggs). We have, however, seen some interesting wildlife since we moved here including red kite (reintroduced after persecution), kestrels, bats (including one in the corridor at work), weasels and deer. I think we might have seen a pair of eagles too near the castle, but they could have been some other large bird of prey.
Tree covered in lichen and mosses (looks like snow!), Queen Liz Forest Park.
It’s not getting dark now till after 4.30pm - yippee. (This is my first Scottish winter for 7 years and Michael’s first ever so we are watching its progress with interest).
Flood update! The River Forth has gone down quite a lot now and is looking less likely to flood. Neither of us has lived this close to a river before (30 feet away) and it’s a bit unnerving!
