Ramblers Group: St Andrews- Craigtoun Walk 17/2/13

 

 

This week the Thursday Rambling Group took at trip to St Andrews as well. We walked from St Andrews to Craigtoun Park. A lovely winters day with a sprinkling of snow in places.

 

 

 

 

 

Once you walk past the duck pond you come upon a "doocot" which is the scots word for a dovecote, which is a structure in which pigeons or doves are houses. The doocot was restored by the St Andrews Preservation Trust.

 

 

 

 

 

We then made our way to Craigtoun Park.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying the views along the way!

 

 

 

 

 

"Great day in St. Andrews district. A light blanket of snow, very crisp, sparkling company!"

St Andrews Walk No.1 7/1/13

The group ventured out for their first walk of 2013 on a very soggy day! We should have taken the goldfish for a walk! We went to St Andrews and walked along Lade Braes.

It's nice a town walk which is suitable in most weather conditions, we certainly seem to have walked there in sunshine, rain and snow! Once you pass a cute wee bridge you come to a lovely duck pond. After we had got ourselves throughly drenched we made our way to St Andrews Museum for a hot cuppa to warm ourselves up!

Welcome to Blairgowrie & the beautiful Belle

Ardblair Trail & Bluebell Woods, Blairgowrie - 8th November 2012

This is an easy, mostly flat walk over approx 6 miles. The Trail was bathed in bright sunshine highlighting the coppers, golds and russet colours surrounding us. We enjoyed shuffling through dried, crisp leaves covering our path and tasted some late blooming brambles (which were blooming bitter!) Although the bluebells were long gone there was a carpet of lovely little pink flowers across the wood. Whilst we were having lunch we met 2 walkers and their friendly, hungry dogs (a cute golden retriever and a glossy black lab) who were keen to sample our lunch. Then we met Belle - a beautiful pointer who decided to abandon her owner and follow us. While we waited for her to return to her owner, Belle had other plans! However, once we started walking on a road we were worried she's get hit by a car so one of our group used his belt to make a lead for her. Thankfully Belle was wearing an ID tag on her collar and was soon reunited with her grateful owner. We recommend this walk - it's beautiful and the canine population seem to be very friendly!

East Weymss - Lower Largo - 6th September 2012

Today we set off an hour earlier to get to East Wemyss in Fife, known for Macduff's Castle which dates back to the 11th century when Macbeth was King of Scotland.  Sadly the castle lies in ruins and is overgrown with nettles and weeds which stopped us from exploring it.  We did however investigate a couple of caves under the castle, hopeful of finding Pictish and Viking drawings which have been found in that area.  Unfortunately the only things we did find were a couple of startled pigeons. 

Due to works on the beach we took a detour through Methil.  This turned out to be a bonus for one of our group, who is a big East Fife football fan and was delighted as we came across their football ground :)

We eventually returned to the beach and continued on to Lower Largo, birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe where we stopped for a cuppa before catching the bus home.

Quarrymill Woodland Park & Kinnoull Hill, Perth - 30th August 2012

We enjoyed a warm and sunny day (hurray!) strolling alongside the Annaty Burn in Quarrymill Woodland Park to New Scone and back.  This walk is easy and flat and there are plenty of benches along the way to sit and admire the views.  On our return journey we stopped for lunch at one of the picnic areas before heading off to The Tower on top of Kinnoull Hill.  This walk is a bit more strenuous but the views from the tower are spectacular and well worth the effort.  The Tower itself looks magnificent perched on the edge of a 725ft cliff and a short distance from the tower there is a stone table which marks out the views on the horizon.

As we were descending the hill via a different route we saw 2 of the 14 sculptures to be found in the park: a squirrel sitting on a tree trunk and a badger hugging a tree stump, which were a lovely surprise.  Today the time flew past far too quickly and we had walked 8.8 miles.

Batty at Balgay - 24th August 2012

Who'd have thought it - bats can be cute and good for your wellbeing!

Connnect...
Twelve of us went to the Dundee Ranger Service event Batty at Balgay on Balgay Hill.   The event gave us an opportunity to get learn more about bats, moths and each other as some of the members in our group were new.  We also met some other new friendly fok, in particular a teenage vampire impersonator who would occasionally run out of the darkness towards us with his arms outstretched and making hissing noises, which was entertaining and thankfully none of us had a weak heart! 

Be Active...
We walked from the bus stop up Balgay hill and enjoyed the view along the way.  We helped in the process of attracting moths by painting the bark of a tree with a heady brew of brown ale, dark brown sugar and treacle which moths like to dine on.  We also walked around outside Mills Observatory with torches and bat detectors listening out for bat calls.

Take Notice... 
Smelling the cocktail for the moths was strong and sweet and smelled predominantly of dark brown sugar which brought back memories of xmas cake (without the brown ale, of course!).  Listening to bat calls which sounded like a series of clicks through our bat detectors as the bats used echolocation to find their food.  We also saw several moths which had been captured the previous night and kept in large test tubes and were due to be released at the end of the night.  Through magnifying glasses we could see the intricate patterns and colours on their wings and bodies. 

Keep Learning...
We learnt that bats only give birth to one baby at a time and no wonder!  Apparently when they are born a baby bat is a third of its mother's weight.  The equivalent for a woman would be giving birth to a 2 stone baby - yikes!  We met a bat carer who was looking after a tiny, cute, furry baby common Pipistrelle bat who was only 8 - 10 weeks old.  We also learnt that bats will eat 3,000 midges, mosquitoes and moths a night.

Give...
We shared our opinions about bats and moths, shared sweets and we gave the captured moths their freedom at the end of the night.  We were also grateful to bats for munching their way through so many of the dreaded midge and mossie population each night :)

Research from the New Economics Foundation - Five Ways to Wellbeing - highlights 5 simple actions which can improve wellbeing.  To find out more, check out www.neweconomics.org/projects/five-ways-to-wellbeing