Country diary: It is a privilege to find peace in nature this autumn | Francis Hayes

Dunblane, Stirling: We must never take for granted that we can visit wild, splendid places like this wooded gorge, in all its November bestFew soles trample this upper glen and the dwindling track as it skirts the Wharry Burn's gorge. Those that do are rewarded with a ravine of surprising drama. At the head of the chasm, where fallen trees and gravel bars accumulate, the burn is placid. But here, at the lip of the first cascade, the water squeezes between two sandstone boulders, accelerating into a racing white flume, hissing with second thoughts.I leap the gap between the boulders, to where the only trails belong to the deer; to where the only prints are cloven. They trace secretive routes, brushing through bracken fronds and around the silent trunks of the broadleaved woodland - beech, elm, ash and birch. Continue reading...