Wild highland scenery

“The scenery is beautiful here, so wild and grand – real severe Highland scenery, with trees in the hollow. We had various scrambles [near] the boat and along the shore . . .  I wish an artist could have been there to sketch the scene”, wrote Queen Victoria on the 30th of August 1849, describing a visit to Loch Muick in her diary. We also visit the circuit of Loch Muick and the Queen’s secret hideaway today, with some royal history and romance added for good measure,

Loch Muick

Victoria and Albert had been to Loch Muick the year before as well. This was on their very first visit to Balmoral, the estate that was to become the Queen’s beloved residence.

Allt-na-giubhsaich.

Both times they had visited a nearby hunting lodge called Allt-na-giubhsaich. Allt-na-giubhsaich lies prettily in the glen overlooking Loch Muick with Lochnagar, a munro worth bagging, in the distance. It is a lovely group of houses, referred to as “our little bothie” by Queen Victoria.  Well, I would definitely feel like a queen if I owned a ‘little bothie’ like this, and without question my sentiments of the surrounding scenery matched the queen’s , as we stood admiring the scenery of glen and loch Muick.

Loch Muick circuit

The circuit of Loch Muick (pronounce muick as mick) can be done in just over three hours. We met a nice, and very tired, young couple just returning from that walk. It was late in the day, so this walk was not for us today.

On my bucketlist

I have put the circuit of loch Muick on my bucket list, since the circuit of the glen that we ambled and scrambled about on this day has already become a treasure worth remembering. What better place to be than outdoors in Scotland, with dramatic skies, rainclouds drifting away, clouds parting opening up the heavens to throw light on stunning views.  Although, come to think of it, stunning does not quite describe it, because rather than stunned one feels energized in surroundings such as these. All this, with some royal romantic history to boot. Indeed, what better place to be.

Royal history at loch Muick

We spent a little time near the boathouse. Again, picture a young Queen Victoria being rowed accros the loch. She describes it in her diary: “it was picturesque – the boat, the net, and the people in their kilts in the water, and on the shore.”

John Brown

Already in her attendance at that time was John Brown, of whom she would later write: “Perhaps never in history was there so strong and true an attachment, so warm and loving a friendship between the sovereign and servant”. The true nature of the relationship between Brown and the queen, although not known, is subject of much speculation.  In the course of years she often writes fondly of him “. . . the path was very rough in parts & I had recourse to Brown’s strong arm to steady me”. It is after the death of this “one of the most remarkable men”  that she divulges: “The Queen feels that life for the second time is become most trying and sad to bear deprived of all she so needs … the blow has fallen too heavily not to be very heavily felt…” 

Yet, on that day in 1849 when she recorded the beauty of the highlands all this was still far in the distant future. The royal couple would continue to visit the area. It was after the death of prince Albert, the first time that life had become “most trying and sad” that the queen sfound refuge in the newly built house at the head of the lake:

Glas-allt-Shiel

It was here that she mourned her Albert, relating how “sad & lonely” she felt, “thinking of the blessed happy past with dearest Albert, who always had wished to build here, in this favourite spot. I could not have lived again at Alt na Guithasach now, alone, & it is far better to have built a totally new house, but the sad thought struck me, that it was the first widow’s house, – not blessed by him.”

The house at Glass-allt-Shiel still stands and I find it a comforting thought that it was here that this empress of the vast British empire would come to find solace and comfort, whether that was in the strong arms of John Brown or not is immaterial now. Of all the places that were hers and that she could have gone to she chose the wild and grand and severe highland scenery, and there is comfort for any soul in that.  

One day, when I make my bucket list visit to loch Muick I will visit Glass-allt-Shiel. perhaps I will then even stay in the bothy that is to be found in one of the outhouses of the queens house.  I think it is a splendid idea that a bothy, being a mountain refuge where walkers can stay free of charge and have a roof  above their heads, is to be found in the actual place that once housed queen Victoria.

circuit of Loch Muick and the Queen’s secret hideaway today,

It was not only Queen Victoria and me who enjoyed the landscape in this area. Lord Byron has something to say too.

Lochnagar

by Lord Byron

Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses,
In you let the minions of luxury rove,
Restore me the rocks where the snow-flake reposes,
Though still they are sacred to freedom and love.
Yet Caledonia, beloved are thy mountains,
Round their white summits though elements war,
Though cataracts foam ‘stead of smooth-flowing fountains,
I sigh for the valley of dark Lochnagar.

Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy wander’d,
My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid.
On chieftains long perish’d my memory ponder’d
As daily I strode through the pine-cover’d glade.
I sought not my home till the day’s dying glory
Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star,
For fancy was cheer’d by traditional story
Disclos’d by the natives of dark Lochnagar!

Shades of the dead! Have I not heard your voices
Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?
Surely the soul of the hero rejoices,
And rides on the wind o’er his own Highland vale.
Round Lochnagar while the stormy mist gathers,
Winter presides in his cold icy car.
Clouds there encircle the forms of my fathers;
They dwell in the tempests of dark Lochnagar.