Next stop on our Caledonian Capers was
a couple of nights in the quiet town on Comrie. Quiet, that is, as long as
there’s no earthquakes.
Comrie
sits on the edge of the Highland boundary fault line and in 1839 was the centre
of an earthquake. As you’ll recall from our NZ blog, volcanic activity is one our interests, as was the Earthquake House in Comrie which has
featured on a number of recent BBC programmes.
In
the early ‘70s Comrie was also the destination for one of my school army cadet
force camps. A couple of years ago I read in the Scots Magazine that the camp had recently been sold to the local
community by the Ministry of Defence during a round of defence cuts. The feature
described the origins of Cultybraggan camp as a prisoner of war camp in the second world war, a fact unknown to
me in my schooldays. Subsequently the camp and surrounding locality became a
major army training camp until its military demise best part of ten years ago.
Revisiting
the camp was a real journey
back in time with much of the site unchanged. An enduring memory, reconfirmed during
the visit, was the stark and bleak accommodation. A long corrugated Nissen hut with minimal external light, a single coal stove, and metal framed bunks
and metal lockers. The only concession to modernity in forty years seemed to
have been the replacement of the stove with three utilitarian gas heaters along
the length of the hut – but then this is the army.
Our
stay also took in a twelve mile walk along the length of Glen Artney, parts of
which had previously been used as an army exercise which I also recalled. Boggy
patches, home to frogs, was another barely changed feature. Wildlife included
three red deer encounters, one of which seemed to delight in watching us
traverse an extremely boggy length of footpath, and red kites. The biggest
surprise was a close encounter with a buzzard, happily snacking on a
freshly-caught rabbit until we unintentionally disturbed it. We’re not sure who
was shocked the most – it or us – as this massive bird took flight within feet
of us.
During
our two weeks in Scotland we saw numerous red kites, such a change from our
first sighting in the Brecon Beacons in the 80s when these birds were close to
extinction in this country. As to buzzards, we never expected to see them as far south as Kent
as we’ve done numerous times this year.
Next
stop, Royal Deeside.
