A Walk & Camp in Wind & Rain on the Burma Road & Kinrara Estate, formerly BrewDog's 'Lost Forest'

View across Strathspey to the Cairngorms from the Burma Road

Brew Dog’s ‘Lost Forest’, aka the Kinrara Estate, is no more. Last month it was sold to Oxygen Conservation. Brew Dog’s disastrous attempt at estate management is over. Will Oxygen Conservation be any better? That remains to be seen. So far all it has done is put up an attractive video and some nice pictures on its website along with some fine-sounding words.

Nick Kempe of Parkswatch Scotland, who has done detailed analyses of Brew Dog’s botched scheme, doesn’t have any faith in Oxygen Conservation being much, if any, better, as he says here. I hope he’s wrong but fear he’s right. Brew Dog started with fine words too. What is needed is some detailed planning.

A comfortable camp in wind and rain

I go walking at Kinrara regularly as it’s not that far away and I’ve written a number of posts about my trips, the most recent being in June, and have looked at what Brew Dog has done to the land. My most recent trip, and the first since Oxygen Conservation took over, was an overnight one on a wet and windy late autumn weekend. Just a month after the new owners took over I wasn’t expecting to see any changes.

Autumn colours along the lower Burma Road

There was still much colour in the trees along the lower reaches of the glen as I walked up the estate track known as the Burma Road. Higher up, as the scattered old pines grew fewer, the scene was one of boggy heather moorland. In places I could see tiny planted pines poking up. More dominant were the long high fences Brew Dog has erected to keep deer out of the new trees and the many new and ugly muddy bulldozed tracks.

Not so pretty 

At the crest of the road rain began. I descended towards the River Dulnain intent on stopping at the first reasonable site for a tent I found. This proved to be by the Allt Fionnaich (the stream of clear water). Soon I was inside my little shelter drinking warming hot chocolate. Outside the sky was grey, the cloud low over the hills.

A windy morning

I woke once during the night. A bright moon shone into the tent and there were stars. It didn’t last. At dawn the sky was a sheet of dullness. A wind rattled the tent, flicking condensation off the flysheet. I had thought of heading over Geal-charn Mor, at 824-metres the highest hill in the area, but the clouds wrapping the summit didn’t look attractive and the wind would be much stronger up there so I decided on a lower hill, a minor bump called Cnoc Beag (appropriately, it means ‘little knoll’. At 528-metres it’s actually lower than the top of the Burma Road at 690-metres, which I crossed twice, so that was the high point of the walk.

The old track up Cnoc Beag with the River Dulnain in the distance

The Burma Road led across the lower slopes of the hill. I left it for an old track up the broad north-east ridge that was fading into the heather and hadn’t seen a vehicle in a long time. To the side I could see unnatural-looking lines of disturbed earth where trees had been planted and a long fence that looked as though it would cut across my path just beyond where the track ended. It did but there was a gate. Before BrewDog put up these fences – which wouldn’t be needed if deer numbers were reduced - one of the joys of the area was the vast open space where you could wander at will. This was especially so when there was snow as it was superb for ski touring.

Plantings & fence

The fences didn’t appear to be keeping out the deer anyway. I had heard stags roaring earlier. Once through the gate and on the same side of the fence as the plantings I saw four hinds and noted many droppings and tracks. Maybe somebody left a gate open. (I didn’t!)

A welcome gate

Not far beyond the fence I hope to pick up a path shown on the map as running from the River Dulnain and across the steep northern slopes of Geal-charn Mor to the high point of the Burma Road. I did find the path but it was just an indentation in the heather and soon vanished into boggy ground. Heavy rain started falling. The wind grew stronger. The going was slow and rough, all tussocks and holes. Eventually I gave up trying to follow the line of the path and took a direct route to the Burma Road. There were some streams to ford. My feet were soaked anyway.

The faint line of the 'path' before it disappeared completely

Relieved to reach the smooth road I speeded up and soon felt warmer. As I crossed the high point four runners came up towards me, the only people I saw all trip. One was in shorts. Just the sight made me shiver.

Back to the view across Strathspey to the cloud-capped Cairngorms

Lower down I could again gaze across colourful bracken and woods to dramatic clouds swirling round the Cairngorms.

I made a little video of the trip. Much shorter than I intended due to the wind and rain.

Kinrara is Oxygen Conservation’s second estate in Strathspey. Earlier in the year it bought the Dorback Estate further to the north-east, where there is another Geal Charn. I went for a walk there in March. I must go back to see what, if anything, Oxygen Conservation has done.