T he carved face of a cateran stares out of the waymarker before me. Deriving from the Gaelic word ceatharnach , meaning a lightly armed warrior, “cateran” later came to denote the cattle raiders particularly active here in Strathardle, Glenshee and Glen Isla up to the 18th century. The signpost directs me through plantation forest to an undulating moor, darkened by heather and lightened by grassland.
The bushy auburn of a fleet-footed fox stands out like a light tumbling down the glen. There is a rough grandeur to Perthshire landscapes such as this, ringed off from the world by mountains – in this case the snow-sprinkled bulk of Ben Earb and ridgelines of Creag an Dubh Shluic and Meall Uaine. I heat up breakfast by a stream, while a parcel of oystercatchers flutter and squeak above I follow a gravel and trampled-grass path through this silent scene, climbing slowly to An Lairig gate.
This is the lowest point of the surrounding mountain saddle, at 648 metres, but the high point of the Cateran Trail , a 64-mile circular walking route starting and finishing in Blairgowrie. The trail is 25 years old this year. View image in fullscreen The writer, Stuart Kenny, at the start of the Cateran Trail on the River Ericht.
Photograph: Stuart Kenny I’m on day two of the five-stage trail, whose sections range from 81⁄2 to 16.3 miles in length, with stops at the village of Kirkmichael, the Spittal of Glenshee , the Kirkton of Glenisla and the town of Alyth en route. The trail mean.
