Reproduced from www.viewranger.com. Map data: Ordnance Survey ©Crown Copyright and/or database right 2016. License number 100043379.

From campsite retrace back to B976 and follow S to Bridge of Muck and take route S at cairn at NO 366 947 (Mounth Road). Continue S then SE to south of Craig Vallich, then E towards Lach na Gualainn then S at NO 407 909, low slopes W of Mount Keen then SSE towards Glenmark and end at copse SE of Queen’s Well.

OS Landranger series maps: 44

Length: 18.92 km

Total Ascent:  877m

Total Descent: 775m

Max Elevation: 764m

Min Elevation: 200m

Route Profile:

If you are reading this, I’m glad you are still with me!! I leave Ballatar, by way of Bridge of Muck and head south on yet another heritage path known as Mounth Keen.

This route runs from Ballater to Glen Esk, and my walk today takes in pretty much all of that way. The most significant fact of this route is that an English traveller called John Taylor (not of Duran Duran), the poet of King James, wrote that using this route to Mar in 1618 wrote “Up and downe, I thinke this hill is six miles, the way so uneven, stony, and full of bogges, quagmires, and long heath, that a dogge with three legs will out-runne a horse with foure, for we were four hours before we could passe it.”

Now, my route could take on the mountain at 939m, but I am quite happy to take the low route west of the mountain, but given that the track up is a bit of a motorway compared to most mountains, I’ll see how I feel on the day.

My rest stop for the nighht is by Queen’s well, which commemorates the crossing of Mount Keen in 1861 by Victoria and Albert.

See you tomorrow.