Dance The Glens of Angus 2562

Cutting like dead-end thoroughfares into the fastness of the lonely eastern Grampians in the county of Angus are the great glens of Isla, Clova, Esk and Prosen with the lesser glens of Doll, Lee, Lethnot, Mark and Quharity. With the exception of Glens Esk and Lee, approached from the town of Edzell, the glens fan out like spokes from the hub of the town of Kirriemuir, the birthplace of Sir James Barrie.

While the Glens of Angus all line up rather parallel to each other, each is marked with its own individuality.

Glen Esk, to the north, is a douce, verdant strath following the North Esk until Loch Lee is reached and then the mountains close in dramatically near the towering cliff of Craigmaskeldie and the Water of Unich tumbles through its great gorge.

Lord Airlie’s castle of Cortachy stands at the entrance to Glen Clova, a glen wild and rocky, abounding with Alpine plants, which follows the South Esk until it meets the White Water at Glen Doll. Halfway up the glen, near Loch Brandy, is the village of Clova. In June of 1650, Charles II, as yet uncrowned, landed in Scotland from exile and after pledging to support Presbyterianism he escaped from the Covenanters in an event known as “The Start” and took refuge at Clova. The support he expected from his Royalist friends proved weaker than he had estimated and, when his hiding place in a village cottage was discovered, he was returned to Perth where he was crowned on 1 January, 1651, but not before he had formalised his pledges to the Covenanters.

Glen Prosen, through which Prosen Water flows, lies to the south of Glen Clova and is not as wildly grand. A mile up the glen, beneath Tulloch Hill, is a sandstone fountain erected in memory of Captain Robert Sott and Dr Edward Wilson who perished during their expedition to the South Pole in 1912. Nearby is the cottage where the two explorers planned their ill-fated Antarctic trip.

Glen Isla, on the River Isla, is the southernmost of the Glens of Angus and skirts the Angus-Perthshire border. Glen Isla is noted for its many rare plants.

O to dream, O to awake and wander
There, and with delight to take and render,
Through the trance of silence,
Quiet breath;
Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,
Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;
Only winds and rivers,
Life and death.
– From “In the Highlands”, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)