Club News

February Outings | Social Evenings | Past Outings Archive | Home

(30th March to 2nd April)

Special Winter Backpacking Trip

There were four booked for the annual bothy weekend from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th March. Cornel, Miriam and myself were joined by Miriam’s brother, Frankie for his first (and possibly last) bothy experience.

After a good deal of consultation earlier in the week, we decided to spend the weekend at Glenbuck Bothy, just off the Great Glen.  Cornel did the driving, and with the sunny weather we had a very pleasant drive up to the highlands. The views of the Glencoe mountains were spectacular.  We stopped at the Green Welly for a quick coffee and then it was on to Morrisons in Fort William to stock up with a late breakfast.

We finally parked the car at the Aberchalder swing bridge just North of Invergarry and took a steep track over a hill into Glen Buck and the Calder Burn.  The track was well made as it had been used to install a small hydro scheme near the bothy. Fortunately, the work had been completed and there was little evidence of the pipework.

It took us just over two hours to walk-in and the weather remained bright and sunny. The bothy was well appointed with two downstairs rooms, each with a fireplace and attic rooms for sleeping. It was going to be a very cold night, so we spent some time gathering firewood. We had the bothy to ourselves. Frankie kept us entertained with some old tunes on his mouth organ.

On Saturday the cloud had arrived, but it remained dry. We set off to climb Carn Dearg (N of Glen Eachach) at 815m. We were able to use a hydro track to gain some height, before we made a direct line for the summit.  The wind picked up and the snow on the ground got a little hard, which slowed us down. However, we made it to the summit with the aid of Cornel’s GPS. After a quick photo at the summit, we retraced our steps back down the hill.  A short time later the cloud cleared and we carried on back down to the bothy.

Once back at the bothy we cut up more firewood in preparation for the night ahead. Fortunately it was a little warmer than the previous night. Again, there were no other visitors and we made sure all the whisky was consumed.

On Sunday we were up early, had breakfast, filled in the bothy log book and on our way by 9am. It was a pleasant walk out and we were soon back at the car. A quick change and it was off to Fort Bill for another breakfast and then the long drive home.

Mark Setford

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

On Tuesday 27 February, 18 members enjoyed an excellent meal once again at
the Ivory Hotel, then the business of the Annual General Meeting was conducted.

Reports from the Chairman, Outings Convener, Treasurer and Membership Secretary
were given, followed by a long discussion about the Membership Fee structure of the Club.
It was agreed to introduce new Membership Fees for the current year, and revisit at the next AGM
when Soc and Rec contributions from the two companies are likely to be discontinued.

After a vote of confidence in the 2017 Committee, the 2018 committee was duly elected with no changes.

Finally, the Draft Outings Programme was ratified with no changes.

2017 Outings Statistics      2017 Outings Report      2018 Committee  

Social Evenings

Join us at the Counting House, 2 St Vincent Place, from 7pm on Tuesday 1 May
where we'll be talking (amongst other things!) about past and proposed outings over a small libation or two.

The social evening dates are noted in our Outings Programme, and a reminder will be sent by e-mail about a week beforehand.