The Fairy Glen is a deeply incised
valley with the Markie or Rosemarkie burn running along the valley
floor. It is wooded with largely deciduous trees. The geans,
birches and rowans make it spectacularly colourfull in the autumn.
The burn itself has some deep pools, rapids and waterfalls the path
runs along the side of it.
The glen is a haven for all types of
wildlife and a typical range of woodland and stream birds can be
seen, including dippers, greywagtails, treecreepers and coal tits.
The woodlands provide shade for a variety of plants wood sorel, red
campion and marsh marigold to name a few. As well as the usual
native species, ash oak and rowan there are several introduced
species that were planted in the 1800's. These include Norway
maple, sycamore and weeping willow. The latter reputed to have come
from Napoleons graveside and explains why the glen was know as St
Helena.
In the glen there are also a number
of sand pillars. These are formed by the erosion of the soft sandy
rock all around an area of hard rock. The hard rock protects the
sandy rock beneath it from water erosion, and so the pillar slowly
develops. Although such pillars can be seen in Europe, they are
extremely rare in Britain.
The coordinates above are for the
onsite parking. At the end of the car park beside the entrance to
the glen is a notice board. you will need to gather information
from here to complete the cache coordinates.
Solve the following questions. Take
the indicated letter from each answer. This letter can be changed
to a number: A=1, B=2, C=3,...Z=26. then apply the indicated
adjustment to get the required number to put into the cache
coordinates.
example: a) What is the second
species of bird of prey mentioned? (6th letter; minus 10)
answer: BUZZARD 6 letter is R which
is transposed to 18, 18 - 10 = 8. put this value into position a in
the coordinates.
The questions.
a) Which species of bat is
illustrated on the notice board? (2nd letter; minus 2)
b) Which trees are the "first to
burst" in spring and the "last to drop" in autumn? (5th letter;
minus 3)
c) Which species of deer is refered
to and illustrated? (3rd letter; minus 3)
d) What is the first bird mentioned
in the "Feathered Friends" section of the notice board? (4th
letter; minus 8)
e) In the "Trees and Plant" section
which 'native' tree is illustrated? (4th letter; plus 3)
f) What species of owl nests in the
glen? (3rd letter; minus 19)
The cache can be found at N57 35.abc
W004 07.def, and is a small lock and lock container.
Oh, and before setting off for the
cache don't forget to greet the fairies, you just never know.