The previous day I was walking on the north side of the Forest Birse, accessed from the B976 Banchory to Aboyne South Deeside Road at Finzean, so today it was the turn of the south side. I parked at the edge of the single track road around a kilometre from its termination and just west of the private road leading to the house at Burnfoot.
I walked down this road, crossed the Water of Feugh, passed Burnfoot and some ruins, to join the vehicle track above the west side of the Badenhall Burn. This track later split so I took the left hand one, crossed the burn, and headed east before I left the track and climbed south across some cut heather. Then it was through long heather and peat bogs to reach the highest point of the Tump, Baudnacauner, which was somewhere amongst the heather.
The descent west on animal trails and an old quad vehicle track led to some boggy ground which I worked round. Then there were numerous peat hags and I used the dry ones to gain height. More cut heather was crossed as was a new vehicle track to reach the highpoint on the Tump, Cock Hill.
I returned to the new vehicle track and used it to reach White Hill before continuing my descent north across cut heather then rough vegetation to reach a vehicle track that led back to Burnfoot and the start.
- Time taken 3 hours.
- Distance – 10.5 kilometres.
- Height climbed – 465 metres.