Wednesday, October 16, 1861.
To our great satisfaction it was a most beautiful morning. Not a cloud was on the bright blue sky, and it was perfectly calm. There had been a sharp frost which lay on parts of the grass, and the mountains were beautifully lit up, with those very blue shades upon them, like the bloom on a plum. Up early, and breakfasted with Alice, Louis, and Lenchen, in our room. At twenty minutes to nine o’clock we started, with Alice, Lenchen, and Louis. The morning was beyond everything splendid, and the country in such beauty, though the poor trees are nearly leafless.
Near Castleton, and indeed all along the road, in the shade, the frost still lay, and the air was very sharp. We took post-horses at Castleton, and proceeded up Glen Clunie to Glen Callater, which looked lovely, and which Albert admired much. In a little more than two hours we were at Loch Callater—the road was very bad indeed as we approached the loch, where our ponies were waiting for us. After walking a few paces we remounted them, I on my good “Fyvie,” and Alice on “Inchrory.”
The day was glorious—and the whole expedition delightful, and very easily performed. We ascended Little Cairn Turc, on the north side of Loch Callater, up a sort of footpath very easy and even, upon ground that was almost flat, rising very gradually, but imperceptibly; and the view became wonderfully extensive. The top of Cairn Turc is quite flat—with moss and grass—so that you could drive upon it. It is very high, for you see the high table-land behind the highest point of Loch-na-Gar. On that side you have no view; but from the other it is wonderfully extensive. It was so clear and bright, and so still there, reminding us of the day on Ben Muich Dhui last year.
There rose immediately behind us Ben Muich Dhui, which you hardly ever see, and the shape of which is not fine, with its surrounding mountains of Cairngorm, Brae Riach, Ben Avon or A’an, Ben-na-Bhourd, &c. We saw Ben-y-Ghlo quite clearly, and all that range of hills; then, further west, Shichallion, near Loch Tay; the mountains which are near the Black Mount; and, quite on the horizon, we could discern Ben Nevis, which is above Fort William.
Going up Cairn Turc we looked down upon Loch Canter, a small loch above Loch Callater, very wild and dark. We proceeded to Cairn Glaishie, at the extreme point of which a cairn has been erected. We got off to take a look at the wonderful panorama which lay stretched out before us. We looked on Fifeshire, and the country between Perth and Stirling, the Lomond Hills, &c. It was beautifully clear, and really it was most interesting to look over such an immense extent of the Highlands. I give a very poor description of it; but here follows a rough account of the places we saw:—
To the North—Ben Muich Dhui, Brae Riach, Cairngorm, Ben Avon, Ben-na-Bhourd.
To the East—Loch-na-Gar, &c.
To the South-West—Ben-y-Ghlo or Ben-y-Gloe, and the surrounding hills beyond Shichallion, and the mountains between Dunkeld and the Black Mount.
Quite in the extreme West—Ben Nevis.