Take A Hike
Nick Drainey laments the lack of connectivity in this remote area
The splendour of the Angus glens up at Loch Brandy
GOOD path work in recent years means what was often a bog fest followed by an ungainly clamber up a scree is now a more pleasant walk from the Glen Clova Hotel to Loch Brandy and up on to the promontory known as The Snub.
This is countryside that could be called “off grid” – the glen has little mobile phone coverage – even BBC radio is a struggle most of the time. When I arrived, a work-related email landed on my mobile and, unable to use it, I went to the phone box in a bid to make an old-fashioned call, but it was not working and I had to wait until I was most of the way up the slopes before sorting things out. However, if I had been a tourist from overseas and the email related to a hotel booking it may have meant leaving the glen just as I had arrived!
Even that scenario would be mere inconvenience compared to people who live in rural locations, who rely on outdated, slow dial-up connections. This is not important for playing games or stream videos; a vital part of a modern economy is for rural areas to connect with the rest of the world to run businesses, conduct banking or simply order some shopping.
I was able to check my phone while sitting above Loch Brandy as showers swirled in ahead of patches of bright sunshine pushed on by a wind which howled up the rocky face of The Snub. I didn’t really want to but modern life sometimes pushes us that way and, on a misty day, I could have strayed too far away from the corrie edge and become lost on the moorland beyond, in which case a mobile would have been good to summon help.
However people who live in the glen don’t want to
have to climb up high to use a mobile phone, and shouldn’t have to.
We often hear about connectivity and superfast broadband and its importance – in fact we seem to have been hearing about it for as long as the internet has existed. But it is still not here. Proud boasts of 90-95 per cent broadband coverage are not good enough when it means five per cent don’t get it at all. In Scotland that equates to more than 250,000 people, many of whom live in remote locations – not what a modern Scotland should strive for.
Yet, despite a call for more connectivity I was quite pleased as I descended the Broom Shank to the loch, knowing that my phone would not be beeping for a couple of hours as I headed back to the modern world.
● Something a bit more strenuous: Instead of coming back down to Loch Brandy, continue over Green Hill and bag the sprawling Corbett of Ben Tirran with its trig point on The Goet. Return to the glen road via Loch Wharral. ● Very strenuous: Head up to the top of Glen Clova and begin an ascent of the two Munros Mayar and Driesh via the stunning Corrie Fee. Returning down the Kilbo path below the wonderfully-named Shank of Drumfollow. Grid references: Start/finish: NO326731 Point 2: NO340760 Point 3: NO347755 Point 4: NO336751
Next month’s walk goes high above Pitlochry taking in extensive views of Highland Perthshire. The Clunie Path, which has had a bit of an upgrade recently, also retains a little ancient history along the way.