Walk 7 Craigie Law and Crock
Walk 8 Tulloch Hill, The Goal and Hill of Couternach
Walk 9 Cat Law and Long Goat
Walk 10 Knachly and Hill of Spott
Walk 11 Hill of Strone and Driesh
Walk 12 Broad Cairn and Cairn Bannoch
Walk 13 Tolmount and Tom Buidhe
Walk 14 Driesh and Mayar
Walk 15 Cairn Broadlands and Craig Mellon
Walk 16 Ferrowie and Lair of Aldararie
Walk 17 Ben Tirran
Walk 18 Green Hill, Boustie Ley and Ben Reid
Walk 19 Dog Hillock, Finbracks and Manywee
Walk 20 Hill of Glansie
Walk 21 Tamhilt and Hill of Mondurran
Walk 22 Hill of Wirren and East Wirren
Walk 23 Mount Battock and Mount Een
Walk 24 Hill of Cat and Hill of Gairney
Walk 25 Mount Keen
Walk 26 Craig Maskeldie and Hunt Hill
Walk 27 Capel Mounth
Walk 28 Tolmounth
Walk 29 Firmounth
Walk 30 Mounth
APPENDIX A Walk summary table
APPENDIX B Useful contacts
Ladder Burn and the Mounth Road from Glenmark (Walk 30)
The Tolmounth rising over open ground above Glendoll Forest (Walk 28)
INTRODUCTION
A bird’s-eye view over the glacial bowl of Corrie Fee and Glen Doll (Walk 14)
The five main glens of Angus – Isla, Prosen, Clova, Lethnot and Esk – radiate from the fertile plains of Strathmore deep into the southern ranges of the Cairngorms National Park. Each has its own distinct character and together they offer walkers exceptional variety.
Glen Clova is the most popular. From the car park at the end of the public road, Glen Doll and the valley of the River South Esk offer access to a clutch of Munros. Many walkers make a beeline for the contours above 3000 feet, but there are lots of less well-trod paths awaiting quiet exploration, ancient stalkers’ paths and drove routes, like Jock’s Road, the Capel Mounth and Kilbo Path, providing ways through and over the hills.
Lurking below the high tops, U-shaped valleys with precipitous slopes soaring to airy ramparts of crags and cliffs and deep corrie lochans, such as Loch Brandy, offer physical evidence of the glacial power that carved out this landscape many millennia ago. The rocky amphitheatre of Corrie Fee, above Glen Doll, is one of the best examples of a moraine landscape in Scotland and is home to scarce alpine plants.
To the south of Clova, Glen Prosen is a sparsely populated valley, offering a less-frequented approach to the Munros of Driesh and Mayar while, setting out from the landmark Airlie Monument, the line of low hills separating Prosen from Clova is one of the area’s finest ridge walks.
Glen Isla is the most westerly of the Angus glens and is a land of contrasts. Following the River Isla upstream from the waterfalls at Reekie Linn, the terrain is initially relatively benign, gently undulating slopes carpeted in commercial forestry and rough pasture hiding artificial fishing lochs and reservoirs in fell-like folds. At its northern end the glen has a much wilder atmosphere as it tickles the craggy underbelly of Caenlochan Forest where hill tracks and stalkers’ paths rise to the summits of Glas Maol and Creag Leacach.
Shorter glens radiate out from Isla’s main spine: Glen Damff and Glen Finlet link with Prosen, while remote Canness Glen and Caenlochan Glen probe deep into the mountains.
Heading northeast, back over Prosen and Clova, Glen Lethnot is the least visited of the Angus glens. Wild and lonely, the valley offers a tempting choice of tracks and paths on to lower hills.
Water of Mark flowing through Glen Mark; conservation work has been undertaken here to encourage spawning salmon (Walk 25)
Completing the set, Glen Esk lies on the southern edge of the Grampian Mountains. It is a long, snaking valley, 15 miles of twisting tarmac ending just short of Invermark Lodge, a classic mid-Victorian shooting lodge overlooking Loch Lee. Sloping up from the road, an army of hills forms a frontier between Angus and Aberdeenshire. All worthy of ascent, they steadily gain in height until Mount Keen, the most easterly of Scotland’s Munros, is reached. Below the tops, a network of ancient byways is now the preserve of walkers and backpackers.
As diverse as they are, with their own unique characteristics, the Angus glens combine to offer the walker a rich blend of landscape, geology and natural habitat, encompassing high mountain peaks and lower hills, glacial valleys, corries and moraine, natural and managed forestry, lochs and man-made reservoirs, cascading upland burns and gently meandering rivers. Not only is the scenery exceptionally varied and the views nothing short of awe-inspiring, but there is also a great profusion of plants, birds and wildlife.
While they may feel rugged and remote, all five glens are remarkably accessible and, thanks to the A90, are within easy reach of Dundee. Despite this, they remain a relatively peaceful and crowd-free escape for walkers. The routes offer a selection of moderate to challenging hill and mountain walks suitable for capable hillwalkers.
Landscape
The Angus glens are a product of the Ice Age, glaciers the architects of both upland and lowland terrain. In their wake, these snaking rivers of ice left behind well-sculpted peaks, deep U-shaped valleys and cavernous armchair-like corries.
While
