A Wander Through the Den

Today is service and MoT day, not for me but the car, so i dropped it off by 9 o'clock and then ..... 🤔

It's a truly dull, dreich day, I have the camera with me, of course but, the light is terrible, I'll head for the Den and have a wander through, see what I might see.

No point in trying to take scenery shots with a long lens, I have the 180-600mm on the camera so it's going to be phone phots.

There's an almost Jurassic feel about the Den, it's a beautiful, tranquil place that's never really busy and that suits me just fine. 👍

Alyth burn runs through then out and through the town before joining the Isla further out.

The Autumn/Winter colours look wonderful even in this low light. I did have to adjust the default setting for each shot on the phone, just the brightness.

I have no idea how long the car might take, nor have I had breakfast yet so I decided to walk a loop back to town for something. I passed the first bridge, aiming to cross the second to loop back.

The path is just holding together in a few places, the weather taking a toll and wearing it away but it's still fine for a safe, steady walk.

There isn't a soul down here this morning, no surprise really, still fairly early and pretty dank.

I always remember to look back, you never know what you'll see.

There's a few benches dotted about, we've sat with a wee picnic and just enjoyed the quiet and there are always lots of birds around.

These are purely scenes I saw and photographed as I walked.

I crossed at the second bridge and headed up the hill.

The deep greens of the mosses look fabulous, especially on the fallen trees.

Up at the top is where the path forks, on up the Den or back to the first bridge, where I was headed.

There's another bench on the down slope, looks like it is sheltered under the young tree .... it's next to it.

The last downhill stretch to the bridge is pretty steep, a few roots and rocks to be careful of.

Down on the bridge, I looked back upstream and downstream. There's the same bit of path as my fifth shot.

I made my way up the hill from here towards the road and car park, makes another loop 👍You can just see the path uphill on the left below.

I spent a bit of time near the top photographing a Red Squirrel and looking for Nuthatches I could hear, before heading down towards the car park and play area which leads back to the gates.