Duncan Harley

There’s a splendidly spectacular circular hiking route around Gight over at Methlick. Known locally as the Braes of Gight, braes they certainly are. Plunging variously down some 300ft to the River Ythan and back up again this is not a walk for the faint hearted and for those more used to the gentle gradients of abandoned railway tracks the walk will fairly take your breath away. Of course, the essence of this trail is its association with the romantic poet, Lord Byron. Byron's mother was of course Catherine Gordon of Gight. ‘Mad bad and dangerous to know’, the poet and adventurer and 6 th Baron Byron died in April 1824 aged just 36 years. In a nod to the burial fate of the poet come artist come visionary William Blake (1757-1827), Byron was denied a final resting place amongst his literary equals at Westminster Abbey. Instead he lies buried alongside the 14 th century church of Mary Magdalene’s in Hucknall. Few, outside Aberdeenshire realise that he grew up in Aberdeen’s Br...

We had a wee gander round Gight yesterday. The temperature hit the mid 20s and the boots trudged some six miles around a circuit known locally as the Braes of Gight. And braes they certainly are. Both Janice and I struggled to complete the circuit. Plunging variously down some 300ft to the River Ythan and back up again makes this not a walk for the faint-hearted and, as folks more used to the more gentle gradients of abandoned railway tracks and the like, it fairly took our breath away. Of course, the essence of this walk is the association with Byron. Not that I am an avid reader of his work; but I am drawn to the man on the back of that epithet ‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know.” With somewhat uninspiring opening lines such as “O Thou! who rollest in yon azure field”, “When energising objects men pursue” and “We do not curse thee, Waterloo!” it’s a wonder that anyone reads Byron nowadays unless forced by academic requirements or perhaps an overenthusiastic zeal for the days ...