Blue Door Walk
In 2023 ASPC held a photography competition, open to members of the public. We were so impressed by the number and quality of entries that we held another competition in 2024.
The response, again, was so good we repeated for a third year – 2025.
Each year we choose twelve “winners” to feature, one per month, as the background for our public website front page. In addition each “winner” receives a modest gift.
Our October winner – Mike Diamond – has given us a very seasonal photograph, full of autumnal colour. I think the location is a well known river glen just on the northern edge of Edzell, in the former County of Angus. If I am correct then this is part of the walk to the rocks of solitude, also known as the blue door walk.
This is a very popular walk, rightly so, with good views of the Angus glens. It follows the river North Esk, upstream. To find out more about the walk look here.
Mike has captured a beautiful day, the brilliant sunshine bringing out the best of the colours in the woodland scene. The Angus glens are not quite so well known, perhaps, in the Aberdeen area, but they are very beautiful in their own right. Glen Isla, Glen Prosen, Glen Clova, Glen Esk, and Glen Lethnot, all provide stunning scenery and ample opportunities for outdoor pursuits.
One small, but interesting, fact is that the postwoman in Glen Clova, in the 1940s, Jean Cameron, requested permission to wear trousers for her round. This may have had something to do with winter weather, but in any event the request was granted. Thereafter, in Postie world, trousers were “Camerons”.
The village of Edzell is an interesting place. It is a planned town laid out on a grid system in Georgian times, replacing the existing village of Slateford. Known, amongst other things for its ruined castle and, a lovely golf course, its most distinctive feature is, perhaps, the Dalhousie Arch on the approach to the village from the South. The Arch was built in the late 19th Century to commemorate the deaths of the 13th Earl of Dalhousie and his wife, both of whom died on the same day.
If you’re interested in learning more about each one of our images as part of our photography competition, then why not take a look at one of our previous submissions, here.