Gilded Trees Over Wild Water

Cameron McNeish pulls on his boots and steps into a reclaimed forest, climbing through trees of golden larch, towering Scots pine and magnificent mountain ash in search of a roaring Cairngorms cascade

 

- Cameron McNeish

The natural miracle of hydrodynamics is best observed in wet weather conditions. Moors and mountains harness the fallen rain, soak it up like a gargantuan sponge, then, by unseen energies, force it up though the surface of the ground in the form of bubbling streams.

The Bruar Water, just north of Blair Atholl, oozes from the soggy plateaux and moors of the great Atholl Deer Forest and flows gently down the empty miles of Glen Bruar before changing character completely. As the ground falls away, the waters become increasingly agitated and turbulent, before crashing and thundering down a deep gorge. At the foot of the gorge the water roars over a series of falls and cascades, before surging through a natural arch in the rock and into the pools below.

A RECIPE FOR GRANDEUR

The river is at its finest during and immediately after periods of heavy rain, and you could do worse at this time than put on your waterproofs and visit the aquatic power of the Falls of Bruar. What makes the scene so spectacular is the simple combination of rock, water and, most importantly, trees, the basic elements that offer grandeur on a magnificent scale.