Morrone: Another ‘First’

It was a driech start to the day. Waking up to wet ground and dull skies, I opted to have a lie in starting my day later than usual with breakfast in The Bothy. I opted for a rather decadent porridge with cream and maple syrup. I then had a browse in Braemar Mountain Sports, treating myself to a new waterproof running jacket. No excuses for not going out in the rain ever again! It’s my favourite colour (red), the only downside to this being that I’ll look like a running tomato when I exert myself too much!

Post breakfast I relaxed for a bit and read my book. I felt slightly melancholy, the thought of doing ‘nothing’ for a day while on holiday not sitting entirely well. I could be doing nothing at home!

The day was starting to brighten up so I browsed Walkhighlands to review my options. I fancied a bit of a challenge but nothing too long after yesterday’s efforts as my feet have small blisters on the side after wearing my boots yesterday. Putting on my trusted Altra Lone Peak running shoes felt okay, no rubbing, so I lathered on the sunscreen (Sudocrem on my feet), filled my water bottles, and I was good to go!

Morrone Revisited

Morrone, a corbett accessible from Braemar village, is a hill I’m familiar with having been up it several times, most often in winter as it’s short enough to get up and down in daylight hours without the need for an early start. In many ways it’s quite mundane, the ‘furniture’ on top doing nothing to add to the appeal, but if that can be put to one side there are some good views to be had.

First Up: The Duck Pond

The route leaves the village centre and heads up a minor road to the duck pond. This is just shy of a mile and I’m pleased to report that I did run all the way up here!

Thereafter, the choice was to continue up the hill for Morrone or veer off the planned course for the Morrone Birkwood Circular. I’ll be honest, the circular was tempting as it’s flatter, but the challenge of the hill prevailed.

Going Up

The path was initially through the trees, a skinny wee track where a couple of folks I met stepped aside to let me past. The running didn’t last for long beyond this!

The path opened up to become a more defined, bigger track, and the views opened up too. I jogged very short bits and walked more briskly than I usually would when hill walking, raising my heart rate nicely until I stopped for the next photo opportunity.

The path became more stony and rough providing a good reason to walk.

This was short-lived with the track improving again relatively quickly, smoother bits along the edges. Despite this, I continued walking for the most part. I’m not convinced the energy I’d have expended running would have been proportionate to the effort required!

Before I knew it I’d reached the row of cairns that keep us on course in the winter and the mast at the top was in sight! This gave a grateful pause for photos – thanks to Ali’s Sunday tutorials I’ve become a dab hand at propping the camera up on rocks and using the self-timer!

Moving on, feeling refreshed from the pause if a little chilly from the breeze, I tried to run a bit more to reach the summit. A strategy of focusing on a rock / patch of heather / feature just slightly ahead helped me play a wee mind game to keep me going for a bit. Ultimately, I walked again, finally reaching the rough summit marked with windshelter cairn and mast. Reading the Walkhighlands route guide I feel less perturbed by the mast ‘spoiling’ the hill when learning that it was originally built to support communication of the Braemar Mountain Rescue Team.

It was a little chilly on the summit with quite a strong breeze so I didn’t hang around for long.

WalkHighlands Route

The Walkhighlands route forms a circular that we most often choose to ignore, the landrover track down being a little boring as a walker. Today, however, it was perfect for my needs.

Initially, I headed towards another small top, following a good path. This being slightly downhill made it very pleasurable to run along after the uphill exertion.

I reached the next top pretty quickly and was happy looking back to where I’d cone from.

I paused briefly to admire the views of the surrounding Cairngorms.

A Quicker Descent

No great surprise, the descent was so much quicker, although still slow in terms of hill running, my technique lacking. At times I felt more relaxed, allowing my arms more freedom to support the flow. I need to work on the legs and relaxation though as I could feel myself leaning backwards, using my quads to support braking, something I’m sure to regret tomorrow! On the upside, practice makes perfect and we’ve all got to start somewhere so it can only get better over time. Most importantly, I had fun and enjoyed it!

Safely down, I stopped to admire the views again before tackling the minor road section back to Braemar. My quads went to jelly at this point, highlighting the stress that I’d put on them coming downhill.

The Return Leg

The minor road took me back to Braemar running alongside the river and past the golf course. I was slowly tempted to get into the river, it looked so tempting!

However, not fancying the idea of walking back through Braemar drookit, I resisted temptation and arriving at The Bothy, coffee and a scone won over heading back out with a towel!

Dinner at the Braemar Bistro

Fair chuffed with my efforts, I treated myself to dinner at the Braemar Bistro. A great way to end the day!