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From the square go up Glen Road (opposite the village Hall)
for nearly two miles to the end of the tarmac road at the Shepherds Bridge car
park. At the start of the parking area take the vehicle track to the right,
shown in yellow on the map, which leads up the east side of the Allt a’Chaorainn
(Allt a’ Chaorainn -- the burn of the rowan). As you make
your way up the first part of the path, looking left you will see "Johnny
Blair’s garden", a small eminence that was used as a double palisaded
enclosure in Pictish times. Before passing through the first gate there is, on
the left, a cairn to the memory of "M J Haywood ", the former owner of
the Banchor Estate who was killed in 1993 in a road accident in Uganda.
After 2 miles the vehicle track comes to an end. Go down to
the burn where a cairn and post beside the track marks the way to a footbridge
that crosses the burn. The red bothy is visible on the hillside, but it is not
very red nowadays. The easiest way to approach the bothy is to use the grassy
patches where the heather has been burnt (to give fresh new growth for the
grouse to feed on). As you approach the bothy you pass through the area where
the summer sheilings were. These were crude temporary huts used by the crofters
when they brought their sheep and cattle up to the higher pastures from May to
November. The whole family moved up and examples of these buildings can be seen
at the Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore. The site of the shielings was
identified by aerial photographs taken by the Luftwaffe.
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