Day 79: Balmoral Castle, Royal Deeside to Drumfork Bridge, Perthshire

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

24th March 2021: 108.60km walked today taking the total to 8086.53/8868km. 17% of 86 entries submitting 638.84km.

Today we wander the Balmoral Estate then head south through Glen Muick, which includes Lochnagar on the White Mounth Plateau, before we return north to visit Braemar. Then we head south again along the Old Military Road and the Cateran Trail.

Route 22: Aberdeen to St Andrews

We approach the magnificent Balmoral Castle, once through the ticket office, which is really a grand country house and not a castle. It was designed by Aberdonian architect, William Smith, in Scottish baronial style, constructed of local granite and completed in 1856. It sits in a working estate of 50,000 acres of varying landscape; from river valley to mountain peaks (there are 7 Munros on the estate) featuring moorland, forest, lochs and farmland with herds of predominantly red deer, then Highland cattle and ponies. It is located within the Cairngorm National Park and is within Deeside and Lochnagar National Scenic Area. The estate is privately owned by the Queen and is not part of the Crown Estate, as Prince Albert purchased the estate, not Queen Victoria.

The Farquharsons of Auchendryne owned the castle and it was leased a few times before the royals came into the picture in 1848. They initially leased the castle and estate for 40 years. Queen Victoria found it pretty, peaceful and an escape from the worries of the world, while it reminded Prince Albert of Germany. They found the property too small for their growing family so decided to purchase the castle and its estate, building the structure we see today. The Royals' investment here influenced the revival of Highland culture. Queen Victoria decorated Balmoral with tartan and attended the Braemar Gathering, reintroducing royal involvement in the event; a tradition which continues today.

After Prince Albert died in 1861, Victoria spent more time here, visiting for several months annually until her death. She installed a pyramid cairn to Prince Albert’s memory on top of Craig Lurachain; further cairns and monuments followed, scattered throughout the estate. The castle gardens were opened to the public in 1931, initially for a day a year under the Scottish Garden’s Scheme. Due to public demand, this has gradually increased to every day during the opening season. The public also has access to seasonal hiking and fishing (paid). Since 1987 the castle has also featured on the Royal Bank of Scotland £100 note; ah, that’s why I haven't seen it!

We spend time wandering around the exterior and gardens before taking an estate road southeast towards Easter Balmoral. We pass Craigowan Lodge which is used for important guests, and the Balmoral Estate Distillery just behind it. They produce Royal Lochnagar Single Malt whisky here. We make our way up Craig Lurachain to view the impressive pyramid, as mentioned previously, following the trails to see Princess Helena’s Cairn on Craig Ghobhainn before leaving the Balmoral Castle area.

There are many trails throughout the estate, and we take one of these past estate buildings, through the Woods of Garmaddie for circa 3 kilometres, into Ballochbuie Forest. Here we follow a trail south along the Garbh Allt to view its waterfalls at a charming ornamental cast-iron footbridge, which would not be out of place in a park. It's a beautiful setting and the Garbh Allt Falls, or Garrawalt Falls, although not that steep, are picturesque.

We wander back towards Balmoral Castle to pick up a trail heading south from Easter Balmoral for 12.5 kilometres to the Spittal of Glenmuick. It takes us through the Balmoral Forest, across rickety bridges, and over heather-covered moors with views of the Grampian Mountains. We are still in the Cairngorm National Park here; forests, rich in blaeberries and juniper come late summer, where you’ll also find red squirrels, and moorland where deer, golden eagle, mountain hare, and ptarmigan may be spotted - to name but a few!

We will be climbing 3 of the 5 Munros on the White Mounth Plateau of the Grampian Mountains, walking from the Spittal of Glenmuick to Auchallater, the endpoint, a distance of nearly 25 kilometres! At the Spittal of Glenmuick, we head down to Loch Muick to take in the view before following our route to pick up Allt-na-giubhsaich (stream), then the path toward Meikle Tap (978m). We pass a memorial to Bill Stewart, a climber who died here in 1953, before taking a path along the cliff line, spotting Lochnagar lochan below. We climb up past Cac Carn Mor (1148m) to reach the peak of Cac Carn Beag,‘Lochnagar’ (1155m), the highest mountain in the Grampian range. We have fantastic views over Deeside and the Cairngorms, unlike Queen Victoria who climbed its peak to see nothing at all! The mountain was made famous by Lord Byron’s poem and Prince Charles’ children’s book, ‘The Old Man of Lochnagar’, a story which Prince Charles told his younger brothers. The book was published in 1980 with royalties going to The Princes Trust. Lord Byron wrote of this mountain:

The steep frowning glories of dark Lochnagar.’
‘England thy beauties are tame and domestic
Oh! For the crags that are wild and magestic
To one who has roved on the mountains afar

Climbing down from the summit we join the stalkers path heading west between Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach, meaning ‘Hill of the Beautiful Corrie’ (1110m) and Carn an t-Sagairt Beag, meaning ‘the priest's hill’ (1044m) to the summit of Carn t-Sagairt Mor, meaning ‘Big Priest Hill’ (1047m). If you were doing the full 5 Munros you would head south again from this peak to walk the peaks of Cairn Bannoch (1012) and Broad Cairn (998m). However, we are travelling north to Braemar, so we follow a north-western stalker’s path heading to Loch Callater where we pick up Jock’s Road, an ancient sheep drovers’ route, also once popular with cattle rustlers and whisky smugglers; the whole road takes you 22.5 kilometres through Glen Callater to Glen Doll.

We reach the Callater Stable Lodge and Bothy at the head of Loch Callater and follow the Callater Burn north alongside Jock’s Road. It is named after John Winter (Jock) who fought the owner of the Glen Doll estate, Duncan MacPherson, for the rights to walk this route in the 19th century. Amazingly, the legal action went to the House of Lords’, which ultimately led to the passing of the Scottish Rights of Way Act in 1887. We reach Auchallater car park alongside the A93 at Auchallater Farm, then walk the road verge north into Braemar.

We push on through the town for now to reach Braemar Castle, the only community-operated castle in Scotland. Built in 1628 by the Earl of Mar as a hunting lodge, it was burned down in the 1689 Jacobite Rising, was forfeited and remained in a derelict state. The Farquharson Clan purchased it from the Crown in circa 1732; the Government leased it from the clan to rebuild it as a garrison in 1748. They added the star-shaped curtain wall to the 5-storey L-plan castle, similar to that of Corgarff Castle, and remained there until 1830. Queen Victoria was entertained here when she attended the Braemar Gathering. It is still owned by the Farquharson Clan but was leased to the local community in 2006; run by a local charity, Braemar Community Ltd, it was restored and then reopened to the public in 2008. It has been used for a few film/TV productions including ‘Prince Valiant’ (1954) and featured on Neil Oliver’s ‘History of Scotland’.

A short walk brings us into Braemar and, as we walk this section, we say goodbye to the River Dee which continues west, and say hello to Clunie Water, formed by 2 headstreams, the Baddoch Burn and the Allt Bhruididh in the mountains. The village is attractive and popular with hikers and climbers. It sits at the foot of the Morrone, a Corbett (859m), popular with paragliders and hang-gliders, and also used for hill racing at the Braemar Gathering. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote part of ‘Treasure Island’ during a holiday here in 1881. You can stay at Treasure Island Cottage, where the writer himself stayed, located in the Castleton area of Braemar.

Before the 11th century, there were 2 separate settlements on each bank of the Clunie Water: Auchendryne to the west, and Castleton to the east. Until the 20th century, Braemar was part of the Mar Estate, and it caused a rivalry between the 2 settlements. It is said that is why there are 2 pubs/hotels (although there are a lot of years between them); The Fife Arms Hotel, in Auchendryne, and the Invercauld Arms Hotel, in Castleton. The latter was built on the mound where John Erskine, Earl of Mar, raised the Jacobite flag in 1715, declaring James III, VIII of Scotland, king.

The settlements sat on an important crossing for the area, the Elsick Mounth, and was defended by the first castle built here, Kindrochit Castle. It was built on the east bank by Malcolm III between 1057-93 and remained a royal castle for around 500 years. It was this king who was responsible for the creation of the Braemar Gathering circa 900 years ago.

As we walk through the village, we pass the Invercauld Arms Hotel (1645), see the meagre remains of Kindrochit Castle across the road from the main car park, then cross the Clunie Water Bridge. We pass the Fife Arms Hotel (1856) and the Braemar Highland Heritage Centre, telling of Braemer’s royal connections and the gathering, before we turn left towards the Braemar Gathering Park.

The Braemar Gathering takes place today at The Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park. The Duke of Fife, owner of the Mar Estate nearby, presented 12 acres of land to the Gathering in 1906, giving it a permanent home. The world-famous Braemar Gathering or Games are held every year on the first Saturday in September and feature bands, pipers, Highland dancers and athletes competing in the Highland Games. The new Braemar Highland Games Centre, housed in the attractive Duke of Rothesay Highland Games Pavilion, opened its doors in 2018 and faeatures an exhibition of the Braemar Games history.

We continue along the road to the Morrone Birkwood National Nature Reserve managed by NatureScot and located on Morrone’s slopes, where they grow rare fauna for the area of birch, juniper and lime-loving herbs. Deer fences have been installed to encourage natural regeneration. We climb to the peak of Morrone (859m) where we enjoy a stunning 360-degree panorama of the surrounding Cairngorm and Grampian Mountains, before descending to the Old Military Road to continue south at Auchallater.

We rejoin the A93 by crossing Fraser’s Bridge, built by the Major in 1752 to hold the Military Road. Between Auchallater and Glenshee Ski Centre you can also leave the road to follow The Monega Pass, the highest of the Mounth Roads which passes over the summit of Little Glas Maol (973m), once used by drovers and smugglers as it was a less busy route compared with Jock’s Road, which runs parallel to it.

We walk carefully along the verge of the A93, which follows the Clunie Water, for nearly 9 kilometres to arrive at the Glenshee Ski Centre. It is located just north of Cairnwell Pass at the head of Glen Shee. The A93 here is the highest A road in the UK and is a popular route for car rallies and motorbike clubs. The centre is the largest ski resort in Scotland and Britain’s largest snow sport resort featuring 22 lifts and 36 runs over 40 kilometres. It is home to the most challenging black run in the UK; the infamous ‘Tiger’. Leaving the Glenshee Ski Centre we say farewell to Aberdeenshire as we cross the boundary line into Perth and Kinross.

As we go down the A93 we pass what used to be called the Devil’s Elbow, where the old military road had 2 hair-pin bends with a 33% gradient. It was straightened out with the building of the new road but, prior to that, it was so steep that buses going towards Braemar unloaded passengers at the bottom who then had to walk to the top, and the AA maintained a layby for overheating engines.

From the Devil’s Elbow, we continue on the A93 south through Glean Beag, with the Allt a Ghlinne Bhig River and the mountain, Carn an Daimh, on our left and Ben Gulabin on our right.

We soon arrive at the Spittal of Glenshee where the Allt a Ghlinee Bhig, Allt Ghlinn Thatneach and Glen Lochsie Burn meet to form the Shee Water. This is really where Glen Shee actually starts. The Gaelic for Glen Shee is ‘Glean Sith’ which translates as the Glen of the Fairies. There are various theories about where the word Spittal comes from. Some believe that it is a corruption of the Gaelic word meaning narrow pass between the hills, while others believe it comes from the hotel which was run by monks from Coupar Angus Abbey to provide shelter and hospitality for travellers from 961 AD. The hotel more recently built on this site has been destroyed by fire, firstly in 1959 and then in 2014 and has not yet been rebuilt. In the village, there is a standing stone behind the church which is at an old meeting place called Dun Shith or Hill of the Fairies. There is also an old humpback bridge built by Major Caulfield in about 1750 when the military road was built, which has now been bypassed, and the new bridge is called the MacThomas bridge, named after the local clan.

At the Spittal of Glenshee we join the Cateran Trail. The trail is named after the Caterans, groups of Highlanders who existed between the 1300s and the 1600s who supplemented their income by rustling cattle from the relatively prosperous glens before driving them back to upland areas. After a raid there was often a battle where the rightful owners tried to recover their cattle; the Spittal of Glenshee is where one of these battles took place in 1606 where the Caterans were defeated. It was from this time that cattle thieving began to wane.

The Cateran Trail follows the Shee Water past Diarmuid’s Tomb. It is said that Diarmuid O’Duibne, who was one of the legendary Fionn Macumhaill’s most trusted warriors, is buried in this mound and that the 4 standing stones point across to Ben Gulabin to mark the place of his death.

We pass Glenshee Outdoor Centre before we reach Broughdearg, where there are another pair of standing stones and a lime kiln. When we reach woods, we follow the edge of them and pass Dalnaglar Castle. This is thought to have been built as a hunting lodge in 1864 for the banker of Queen Victoria, Lord Clyde, and was designed by the same architect as Balmoral Castle.

Across the Shee Water from here is the historic Cockstane, Clach Na Coileach, which was the ancient meeting place of the Clan MacThomas. Current members of the clan still gather here regularly.

From here we leave the Cateran Trail and reach the B951 where we head southwards towards Cray.

If we had kept on the Cateran Trail, then not far east from here is Forter Castle. This castle was built in 1560 by James Ogilvy, 5th Lord of Airlie, as an L-plan tower house. The main reason for its construction here was to fortify and protect the entrance to the Balloch Pass to Glenshee. His grandson, the 7th Lord of Airlie, was created the 1st Earl of Airlie by King Charles I at York in 1639, but because he refused to sign the National Covenant, Forter Castle was burned down in 1640 by Archibald Campbell, the 8th Earl of Argyll. The Ogilvy family then moved to the nearby Cortachy Castle. Forter Castle remained empty for nearly 350 years before it was purchased in 1988 by Robert Pooley for £15,000. It was then restored and is now available to rent as holiday accommodation.

Continuing on our way though, we reach Cray and after passing a disused church, we turn left to head on the single-track road towards Blacklunans along the side of Mount Blair. This road first passes Cray House, a hunting lodge, and then Mountblair Lodge, before reaching Borland, a farm which specialises in native breeds, including Highland and Belted Galloway cattle and Hebridean sheep.

Just past Borland we reach Blacklunans, where we cross over the Black Water using the Drumfork Bridge, which was built in 1878, which further upstream was called the Shee Water.