The Cateran Trail: Day 4 ~ Kirkton of Glenisla to Alyth

Wha' da ya know?

Can you guess?
Big porridge :-D
Gordon Bennett*. It was about time.

* he was of Scottish descent

My room was the one under the eaves

We checked out fairly early, & received our daily instructions from Bob - thankfully no suggestions about a detour :-)
J & H were a bit taciturn as we set off I think there'd been 'a bit of a domestic'

Out of the hotel we walked to the right along the B951, cut through a farm & a field, & went across the cute bridge over the Isla which is pronounced Eye La.
I got this lot from a blog:

It's hard to overstate the historical significance of this bridge. 
You won't find it mentioned in the normal books on bridge engineering history, but it is almost certainly the oldest unaltered reasonably pure cable-stayed bridge in Britain, and I think it might possibly be the oldest surviving example anywhere.

From the other side the Trail went up a fairly steep hill with a cairn on top.
John was steaming ahead, so I hung back a bit & took this pic. Hazel's in blue on the L having a breather (I said it was steep!), & the hotel is the white building by the big tree. 

One of the very straight roads we did late on yesterday runs this side of the line of trees on the right (under the hill with green at the top). It was longer than it looks from here (especially after 14 miles!). The 'sheep-country' is that pale green bit above the line of trees on the left.

Occasionally people would climb the mountain and add a stone or two to the cairn at the top, if only to prove that there is nothing really damn stupid that humans won’t do. Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

While John was checking the route on his map, Hazel walked on, & it was a while before we caught up with her ~ like, lunch time!
John & I went over a wall, & left towards Whitehill Wood ~ which the trail proper skirted to the north.
As a Rule10 was required by yours truly (gotta stop having a potful of tea at breakfast when I'm walking :-@), I went in the wood (Ha ~ any excuse to walk in a wood, eh? ;-p ).
John & I met up at the opposite corner, & on going through a kissing gate & turning down hill through farmland we couldn't see any sign of Hazel below us.
We had had no signal on the mobiles while up the hill, but mine came back when walking down from the wood, & we tried calling her, but with no luck. So John called Bob & asked him to pass on a message.
Meanwhile we'd come to a farm track headed SSE, eventually came to another little wood to the right where we found these lovely guys :-)

Of course, I had to stop & say "hello".
Looking at the colouring, they were probably Clydesdales, & most looked like youngsters.

We followed that track for a fair while, probably about an hour as it continued in more or less the same direction with moor up to our right, & farmland & the Isla to our left.
We also passed a cottage with a sign advertising teas & home-made cakes, but I guess May 16th was still a bit early & there was no sign of any goodies :-( 
Shame, I was getting fed up with muesli bars!

After a bit (& with still no sign of Hazel), the road became paved, had more houses on either side, & went a bit more southerly. As we began to descend, we saw Hazel on the road below us, so marched on even quicker. Given she had stayed ahead for so long, she must have been walking quicker than she usually does?

Eventually we came to a T-junction, took the right, and then a left down past a field with a couple of nice horses in.
Very shortly we came to Hazel who had found a pile of rocks to sit on for lunch ~ it was just after 12. 
I climbed up the pile further to the south & took my long sleeves off in the sun. I was far enough away that they had a bit of P&Q for a chat.

It appeared that we would be headed uphill & off the road within a few minutes of setting off again. 
That was good. 
I wanted to feel grass under my feet as we'd had 2 hours of farm tracks & paved roads.
We walked east along the north side of a hill crowned in trees, & followed the contour round to the south, eventually crossing this bridge.

Next we went down into a field full of bullocks, across the Burn of Auchrannie & up again onto a boggy bit on a hillock. I think it wouldn't have been boggy had it not been for a leaking trough & a plethora of bullocks!

Dropping down to Adormie Farm we went left along the lane ~ more road :-( 
& passed these sheep.

As Hazel said - 

They should have gone to SpecSavers! :-)
Lord knows what the farmer was doing when he sheared this lot!

At the end of the lane ~ where it joined the B954, we went right, & after about 150 yards turned off it & went more or less due south down the Trail as it went through a field & towards a wood.
The Trail was climbing steadily, but heading towards a gap between the Alyth & Loyal hills. The gap turned out to be a lovely gulley, & as the sun had come out it was gorgeously warm in the sheltered hollow between the hills.
And there were trees :-)

I must've been on one, because I ended up at the end of the gulley track well ahead of H&J, but I set off down the metalled road towards Alyth anyway. It was straight down for just over a mile, before hitting the B952. Turning right & going towards the village & our digs, I called to tell them were I was.

Our digs in Alyth were The Old Stables, but I nipped into a cafe for a brew & a cake while I waited for the other 2.
It was still lovely & sunny, so I sat on a wall in the sun afterwards :-)

When they arrived we checked in & ordered breakfast for next day: Porridge all round. This was because Bob had told us the landlady, Eileen, made the best porridge he'd ever had, & usually had a bowl when he dropped walkers' bags off!

John fancied a beer, so we went in the Losset Inn before a walk round the village. This was cute, & I found a place where I could have a paddle in the Alyth Burn. 
Well, me & water. 
You should know by now ;-p

The Losset Inn (which was about 20 yds from the B&B) had looked good for tea, so we congregated there after a wash & brush-up. I had a 1/2 & 1/2 hawaiian & seafood pizza & an ice cream sundae to finish.

The following day's Trail was supposed to be back west to the Bridge of Cally, & then home to Blairgowrie by reversing the 1st 1/2 of Monday's walk. However, Hazel wanted to visit Fornethy House ~ where she'd stayed as a kid when she lived in Glasgow, & I didn't fancy all those bloody roads again, so we agreed John would finish the Trail (a 16 miler), & we would take the alternative 6.5 miler via Drimmie Wood after we'd been to Fornethy & Reekie Linn.

Day 4 was over & it was time for bed for H&J, but before I got there, I met the other 2 guests at the Old Stables, Scottish John & Northern Irish John. 
Isn't it odd how you can be minding your own business & quietly having a read in a comfy seat, when you get hit on by a bloke who thinks that if you're alone you must be desperate for male company.
Really!
Well, time to tell you about Day 5
OAO


Alyth is in Perth & Kinross