Loch an Eilein, Loch Gamhna, Lochan Deo and Rothiemurchus Forest
A Walk Beside a Beautiful Loch and Through an Ancient Pine Forest
Below the northern corries of the Cairngorm mountains a great flat plain runs northwest towards the River Spey and the Monadhliath Hills. Much of the plain is densely forested — a thick, impenetrable mass of trees. But a large tract of this vast forest is much older than the regimented lines of quick-growing Sitka spruce and lodgepole pine. Thousands of years ago much of the Scottish Highlands was covered in a thick forest with a healthy undergrowth of birch scrub, juniper, and heather. The principal tree of this vast forest was the Scots pine, reigning supreme on hillside and in glen and offering shelter to such exotic indigenous species as wolves, bears, elks, wild boar, and lynx, while beavers swam in the lochs and rivers and the golden eagle was lord of the skies. Down the centuries man has slowly destroyed the forest, and all that is left are a few remnants scattered through the Highlands. The finest example by far, exhibiting much of the former glory of the ancient forest, is here at Rothiemurchus Forest.
