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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis was followed by a sign that had no threats of punishment or declarations of liability, and that assumed adults could behave responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The walk started out with a little history\u2014a monument to the last public hanging on the estate, in 1630, that was erected in 1755. I didn\u2019t visit the monument; it was too early in the day for a diversion. I wasn\u2019t clear whether it was a celebration of capital punishment or of the end of it.The last public hanging in Scotland was in 1868, the last judicial hanging in 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, I passed this sign. I knew from my route planning there was a gun range nearby, but I didn\u2019t know whether it was a military installation or a recreational venue. It was the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t clear to me whether the path was closed after May 12 or just on May 12. As I pondered, a couple walked by without a glance. I stayed on the road just to not be a rule-breaker, but I ran into them two miles up the road. They said the prohibition was only for that one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rivers that form the watery spines of glens are wide and big at the bottom of the glen, where they leave to join a larger watercourse or flow into a loch or reservoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019re fed by streams (\u201cburns\u201d) coming off the hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sheep were much in evidence, as we\u2019re signs of previous inhabitants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I roused this lamb from a lie-down in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This one was all clipped and ready for the Westminster Sheep Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I passed the named destinations on the estate sign\u2014Marble Lodge<\/p>\n\n\n\n and Forest Lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesser buildings raised their brows to glimpse walkers on the gravel road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sun was out and it was warm, almost hot. On one side of the river was (almost) treeless luxuriance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And on the other, signs of catastrophic wall slump and scree fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stopped several times for water and gorp, and once for an unscheduled lie-down from which I awoke with the first deep snore. If I\u2019d taken my boots off I would have gone back to sleep. But I got up and \u201ccracked on,\u201d as they say here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was going to stop at a place called the Falls of Tarf for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a footbridge there from the days when bridges in the middle of nowhere were endowed with unnecessary beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t early, but it was still light. The place where I started the Challenge is 1 degree of latitude south of Juneau, Alaska. The place where I stood was only a little farther south\u2014and the days we\u2019re getting longer. So I decided to crack on to the next place with good pitches, the ruins of a lodge about 3 miles up the trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shadows grew long and I grew tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A barely gibbous moon appeared over the hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I passed a section of the opposite hill that someone someplace undoubtedly thinks has a message left by space aliens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The wonderful thing about walking up a whole glen is that you witness a basic lesson in geography. The farther up you go, the smaller the river becomes. Eventually it\u2019s a brook, and then nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I never have the presence of mind to look for the nothing. But I do notice when, all of a sudden, I\u2019m walking beside a stream flowing in the opposite direction. As they say here, I\u2019ve \u201cgone over the watershed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after I noticed that I\u2019d reached my destination, one of Scotland\u2019s \u201cdangerous buildings.\u201d Never was I happier to court such catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I set up my tent, had chicken tikka out of a foil bag, and a wee dram of Old Poultenay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n