As it turned out, this route was easy going on tired legs, and also became very pleasant once it got down into Glen Feshie with its scattering of ancient Scots pine trees. Glen Feshie was a favourite haunt of the nineteenth century painter Sir Edwin Landseer. His iconic "Monarch of the Glen" was very probably inspired by a stag that he saw in Glen Feshie. Of course, he probably shot and killed it after his moment of inspiration. He was a friend of Sir Walter Scott and his paintings, like Scott's novels, helped to fuel the romanticized image of the Scottish highlands that took Victorian Britain by storm, leading in turn to the mania for deer-stalking that has left its mark on the highlands right up until the present day. And it all began here (for Landseer anyway) in innocent-looking Glen Feshie.

Pine woods in Glen Feshie