The River Ericht

Sunday brought a fine warm February day for "Uncle" Kris and I to paddle the Ericht down into Blairgowrie. I hadn't been here since the road north was re-engineered. To access the river there is now a turn off onto the old road through Craighall Gorge. It seemed rather odd to put our boats down in the middle of what used to be a very busy stretch of the A93.

 

A slithery walk down through the woods leads to a put in below Craighall House. I wouldn't like to live there- any shower of rain would have me worrying about landslides.

 

 

The river is a pleasant meander of grade 2/3 water. We were scouting this out for a club trip later on. Though Wheresthewater reckoned this water level was a "scrape" (0.884 on the gauge), there was enough water to keep us well afloat.

 

Fortunately access laws have improved!

There were a couple of bits we walked round.

These bits of kayaking nastiness were followed by a miniature gorge on the way into Blairgowrie. The river gives a fine mix of countryside and views of the big mills that once were powered from it.