Archev's adventures in the Berlingo

[Rolfe]

I've just had a lovely day cycling up (then back down) Glen Roy. Fascinating geological landscape, and I now know what "parallel roads" are. I was a bit tired after yesterday but Hilda coped magnificently.

Fortuitously there was a 50 kW charger  and a nice little tearoom right at the Glen Roy road-end, so I abandoned thoughts of making my own lunch and had their home-made soup while Caliban had his statutory 45 minutes. When I got back I plugged him in again while I loaded Hilda in the back, and that got me to 100%, 215 miles. It's 151 miles home, so I might not need another charge. Except once I get on the M9 fuel economy will go out of the window.

I'd love to stay, I brought supplies for longer, but the weather is going to break tomorrow. Good luck with your trip @Archev. No point in staying out another night for me. And I might have a slap-up dinner in Pitlochry on the way back.

 

[Rolfe]

And from roughing it to the dining room of the Atholl Palace Hotel where I have just ordered the most expensive thing on the menu.

(This is just the starter.)

A car rally ("Miles of Mystery") has just finished here and the car park is full of expensive vintage ICE. I hope nobody takes exception to Caliban's green stripe.

 

[MG Clive]

We all deserve a bit of luxury from time to time @Rolfe

 

[Archev]

I've just had a lovely day cycling up (then back down) Glen Roy. Fascinating geological landscape, and I now know what "parallel roads" are. I was a bit tired after yesterday but Hilda coped magnificently.

Fortuitously there was a 50 kw charger  and a nice little tearoom right at the Glen Roy road-end, so I abandoned thoughts of making my own lunch and had their home-made soup while Caliban had his statutory 45 minutes. When I got back I plugged him in again while I loaded Hilda in the back, and that got me to 100%, 215 miles. It's 151 miles home, so I might not need another charge. Except once I get on the M9 fuel economy will go out of the window.

I'd love to stay, I brought supplies for longer, but the weather is going to break tomorrow. Good luck with your trip @Archev. No point in staying out another night for me. And I might have a slap-up dinner in Pitlochry on the way back.

I’ve chickened out of heading out today. I got blethering and decided I would be running out of daylight. So I’ll re- convene in the morning and double check the forecast; looks better on Sunday onwards.

 

[Archev]

And from roughing it to the dining room of the Atholl Palace Hotel where I have just ordered the most expensive thing on the menu.

View attachment 40240

(This is just the starter.)

A car rally ("Miles of Mystery") has just finished here and the car park is full of expensive vintage ICE. I hope nobody takes exception to Caliban's green stripe.

We’re all desperate to find out what the most expensive thing on that menu was …………?
The suspense is killing us ….
Just like the expense would

 

[Rolfe]

We’re all desperate to find out what the most expensive thing on that menu was …………?
The suspense is killing us ….
Just like the expense would

At least it wasn't (quite) so expensive as Mingary Castle. I have to say though that Mingary Castle was probably better value for money. This was very nice indeed. Mingary Castle was exceptional.

 

[Rolfe]

I’ve chickened out of heading out today. I got blethering and decided I would be running out of daylight. So I’ll re- convene in the morning and double check the forecast (looks better on Sunday onwards.

I wouldn't head out on Saturday if I were you. It looks nasty. (My friend "just keep texting me so at least somebody knows where you are!" sent me a Come Home text this evening when I was already in the restaurant at the Atholl Palace.)

 

[securespark]

Great stories and cracking pictures, thank you!

 

[Rolfe]

Nobody want to know what parallel roads are? Or was I the only person who didn't already know?

 

[Rolfe]

Oh, I forgot the fun coda. I had to park in the overflow car park at the Atholl Palace because all the regular spaces were taken. When I went to leave, a very ordinary ICE car was parked right in the only entrance/exit. There was a small group of people chatting nearby, including a guy with a Lanyard. I approached them and said, "How am I supposed to get out?"

Lanyard man replied (jokingly) "No, no, you can't take a car out of here! You're a car thief! We see you!" He then moved to let me out. Yes, they really had arranged to block the car park exit overnight in case someone tried to steal the vintage cars.

 

[decrep]

OK, so I'll bite, what are Parallel roads?

 

[Rolfe]

They're shown on the OS map just like ordinary forest tracks, but fragmented, and broken whenever a burn runs down the hillside. They're also labelled "parallel roads" which seemed odd to me as I'd never heard the term. Even from the road, though, you can see that they're natural, not man-made.

They only seem to exist in Glen Roy, Glen Gloy and Glen Spean, which more or less knocks Darwin's theory on the head, as does the fact that they're so high up. (The rising shoreline thing does exist, but at  much lower altitudes and generally by the coast. q.v. Cumbrae, Cumbria, Cymru.)

i just  love the fully-worked-out Jamieson explanation laid out on that information board.

 

[decrep]

I get the explanation, the shoreline was caused by glaciers blocking the stream.
However this requires the glacier to be moving UP the stream.
This seems very odd, I have a feeling glaciers should be coming from on high and moving downwards?
Only makes sense to me, if there is a higher mountain nearby and the glacier is coming down from that, cutting across the stream?

 

[Rolfe]

They're not calling it a glacier, it was an ice sheet. These glens were on the extreme eastern edge of this ice sheet, which there formed an ice dam. As it got colder the ice got thicker and its eastern edge crept further east and higher up to block the western ends of the glens at a higher level.

The really cool part as regards Glen Roy is the identification of the overflow points at each stage of the process. At first this was the far (eastern) end of Glen Spean, holding the water at 260 metres. The main parallel road in Glen Spean is indeed at 260 metres (although the OS map also shows traces of one at 400 metres, not sure what that is about), and you can follow it all the way east (about 20 miles) to the source of the Spean at the watershed at, you guessed it, 260 metres. (It's complicated, some of it is still a loch, Loch Laggan, and the main river is the River Pattack up there, but you can see the lowest point of the watershed where the water pent up by the ice 20 miles to the west would have spilled over into Glen Mashie and then, in short order, into the east-flowing River Spey. It seems to me that Loch Treig, which is today at 250 metres, would also have been contiguous. That's some body of water. That's not on the information board as it is dealing with Glen Roy.)

Then as the climate got colder, the eastern edge of the ice sheet advanced further east and cut Glen Roy off from its previous confluence with Glen Spean. The water in Glen Roy had to find another way out, which was a higher watershed just to the east, also draining into Glen Spean, at 325 metres. It's perfectly clear on the OS map again.

Then the ice advanced even more, cutting off that drainage route also. Now the water could only escape from the far end of the glen, to the north, and once again you can trace the watershed there between the headwaters of the Roy and the Spey, at - 350 metres.

At each stage the level of this loch was stable enough for long enough to form a shoreline. As the ice advanced the previous shoreline was submerged, but then as the climate warmed again the lower shorelines reformed in their turn, until the ice dam collapsed completely, allowing this huge volume of water to flood back down its natural channel to the west, carving the deep gorge of the River Spey in the process. The three shorelines formed by the ice-pent water were left high and dry.

The board says the water went into Loch Ness, but the Spean today flows into the Great Glen just south-west of the end of Loch Lochy, so I suspect there was something else going on there too, maybe more ice causing Loch Ness almost to fill the Great Glen.

It's quite fascinating, and I think I'll try to find a more comprehensive article about it. Maybe Wikipedia has something.

 

[decrep]

Yes, thanks Rolfe, very interesting stuff, wouldn't it be nice to have a loan of the Tardis for a year or so, and really check all these things out.

 

[siteguru]

If you had the TARDIS you wouldn't need a year. (Think about it).

 

[Archev]

If you had the TARDIS you wouldn't need a year. (Think about it).

That’ll take time

 

[decrep]

If you had the TARDIS you wouldn't need a year. (Think about it).

I know, you could return it before you borrowed it. But you'd still need a year's use

 

[salty]

Hope they've got the GKA (Galaxy Keep Assist) sorted on the Tardis.

 

[Archev]

I know, you could return it before you borrowed it. But you'd still need a year's use

Who rents them out?