This cache is set along one of
several waymarked forest walks that are accessed from the Glen Doll
car park (parking fee £2 per day)
The circular Donault walk is approx 8km/5 miles long and is
marked by blue bands on the marker posts. Most of the walk is
buggyable along forestry roads but the section on Jocks Road from
just before "Rocky Road" to where the forest opens out into the
glen is narrower and over rougher ground.
This section of the walk follows Jocks Road or the Tolmounth,
one of the old Mounth Roads. The Mounth is a huge area of mountain
country south of the Cairngorms. The area stretches from the A9 at
the Drumochter pass across almost as far as Stonehaven on the
Aberdeenshire coast and south of the Dee. From the car park at Glen
Doll, two of the major Mounth roads are accessed. These roads were
originally hill roads used by cattle drovers. Capel Mounth leads
north to Glen Muick in Royal Deeside and this track, the Tolmounth
crosses north-west to Ballater. The Tolmounth or Jocks Road as it
is more commonly known would not have seen much traffic due to its
inaccesibility for much of the year, however it must have been an
important drove road in months it was possible to cross as the
markets held at either end were held a few days apart allowing the
drovers time to transport the cattle across. The road was also used
by cattle thieves and whisky smugglers to move their ill gotten
gains
In 1745, some 700 Highlanders took Jocks Road on their way to
fight at Culloden. In the aftermath of the battle, refugees
fled to the hills around Jocks Road, particularly the glens of
Clova and Esk.
Cache is a 1 litre lock and lock box
