Prior to an ascent of Morrone on Saturday morning we spotted two Black
Grouse and two White-tailed Eagles. While I have seen Black Grouse
previously in the Southern Cairngorms, this was the first time I have seen
White-tailed Eagles.
Black Grouse in a tree:
White-tailed Eagles:
After the
sheer delight of seeing two White-tailed Eagles, we parked in the duck pond
car park for an ascent of Morrone. I last ascended Morrone on 31st December
2014 and before that on 6th July 2002.
Hill: Morrone
Date: Saturday 27th February 2021
Company: Myself and Kate
Distance: 6.7km, Ascent: 480m
From the car park we followed the track leading towards Morrone. The
start of the walk is waymarked with a sign advising "Morrone 2 Miles".
Despite significant snowfall in the past two months, the hill was almost
devoid of snow due to the high temperatures of the past week.
View
towards Braemar from lower slopes of Morrone:
During
the ascent we were treated to lovely blue-sky views looking back towards
Braemar and beyond to Beinn a' Bhuird and Ben Avon.
Braemar view:
Ascending
Morrone:
Given it
was such a lovely day it was somewhat surprising to see so few people out on
the hill; during the entire ascent and descent we met only three people.
I suspect many have been discouraged from ascending Morrone in recent
weeks due to not only the non-clearing of the car park but also the
barricading of the car park entrance with mounds of snow. To get into the
car park I kicked-down what remained of the barricade.
I am getting fed up of the
shitshow that is lockdown and how it has created so many "you must do this"
and "you can't do this" assholes on Social Media. Even during the
ascent of Morrone, on posting-up a photo to Twitter, I was told by some
random that I should be
at home and not out on the hills.
Large snowpatch:
Braemar
from marker cairns:
View east
towards the Lochnagar range:
Unfortunately, as per on previous ascents of Morrone, the summit was capped
in cloud.
Approaching the summit of Morrone:
Morrone
Trig Point:
We spent
around ten minutes at the summit taking photographs.
Kate atop the
summit cairn:
If one
thing during this walk demonstrated the sheer madness of lockdown, and the irrational
heeding
of national rules with no application of common sense, it was the fact the
summit emergency shelter was locked. A shelter built in memorial to someone
who died of exposure. Sorry but whoever locked this emergency hut is a
slight mis-spelling of this hill. It's acceptable for people to now
die of exposure (locked hut) because of the almost zero risk that someone
could
catch Covid from going inside the hut. Sheer madness resulting from
scaremongering propoganda from the UK Government, Scottish Government and
especially from the media.
Emergency Shelter:
From the
summit we returned to the car via the same route.
View during
descent:
On
reaching the car we next set off to see if we could spot some adders. We were
fortunate to spot one basking in the sun.
While these pictures look
real close please note that my lens has a minimum focal distance of 3.5
metres so they were taken from quite a distance back.