It's not often in Scotland that you get lucky with a good, high level camp because so often the tops of the hills are scoured by wind or drenched in mist. But this time, my friend and I did get lucky. A perfect, flat shelf of close-cropped turf and mosses sat at 700m on the ridge to Creag Dubh above Kingussie. The uninterrupted view swept south over the Cairngorms and only a gentle breeze rustled the nylon of the pitched tents. A beautiful, early summer evening made for a delightful walk from our tents across the top of the hill to the summit. Mountain hares abounded and the warm air was filled with the thin call of golden plovers.
We'd walked in that morning from the train at Newtonmore. Our walk took us across sheep pasture before following a lovely wooded stream-bed up the hillside and then striking out across the grassy hills. With the evening filled by bagging the peak then making supper, it wasn't until the next morning that I noticed all the jawbones.
A clagged-in morning with no views and an unhurried day ahead, made for a relaxed wander around the camp spot, examining the micro landscape close at hand. At first I just saw one but as soon as my eyes were trained in, I kept seeing more and more. Lots of little jawbones. Given the abundance of mountain hares that we had seen on our walk the previous evening, I guessed the jawbones must belong to them and if something had eaten them here, I guessed that something was a golden eagle. But these were old bones and the eagle's perch was long since abandoned.
Once we were packed up, we walked out a different way, descending eventually into Kingussie. The mist cleared lower down and warm sunshine broke through. The ancient birch woods of Creag Bheag provided welcome shade but wherever the path crossed a clearing, blue damselflies flitted around in the sun. Soon the tops cleared as well and we could look back up to where we'd spent a night on the eagle's perch.
Fact File
Finish: Kingussie
Public transport: Glasgow/Edinburgh to Inverness train
My route: From the main street in Newtonmore, took Strone Road then the track that heads north alongside the Allt na Beinne. Climbed the slopes of Beinn Buidhe then onto Creag Dubh via Carn Coire na h-Inghinn. Next day we followed the Allt Mor down to join the path along the shore of Loch Gynack then followed one of the woodland paths down into Kingussie.