Spey Bay

This was the most straight forward route that I have walked so far. The route is about 5.5 miles long and takes under 2 hours to complete.

The whole route is made of paths that are clearly visible and it is impossible to get lost. Basically you start walking and keep walking straight until you come to Buckie, no turnings to be navigated (unless you want to go swimming :-) ). The path runs along the coast so this makes the path level, no inclines or descents to be made, just a flat path. At the start of this path you will walk along the edge of the Spey Bey Golf Course, simple. After leaving the golf course, you now have to cross the pebbled beach/banks that run along this part of the coast line, not so simple. The piles of pebbles are incredibly hard to walk on, they slide away from under your feet which can easily throw you off balance and you fall (this happened me, more than once!!) or worse you could twist your ankle. I would guess that you walk about half of the route on these pebbles. 

About the half way point, you reach the Burn of Tynet. The Burn meets the sea on the pebbled beach, not a problem when the tide is out as you can simply walk across the shallow part, the trouble lies when the tide is in. When the tide is in, you have to cross the Burn further up, for obvious reasons you can't walk across. The only way to cross it is to jump. The easiest place to jump is as close to the sea as you can get as the burn is narrower here, but you have to watch the waves and only jump when the waves are small, otherwise you will end up with wet feet! After you reach Port Gordon the paths turn from pebbles to tarmac. The rest of the route is completed on tarmac foot paths, simple. You continue to follow the coast until you come to a turning that will take you past St. Peter's Church and then straight down the middle of Buckie to the finishing point. 

This path is a good route to walk if you wish to see some of the Moray Coasts wildlife. You walk along the coast so this gives you an advantage in seeing dolphins as well as seals, however this depends on the tides. If you are walking in Port Gordon when there is a low tide you are almost guaranteed to see Seals. Dolphins are harder to see and there are no guarantees with them, although I believe that late evening is the best time to see them. No matter what time you walk along this path you are guaranteed to see birds, mainly Seagulls but you can see some other breeds as well.

                      Burn of Tynet

Pebbled Beach

                                                                    Spey Bay

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Craigellachie Nature Reserve and Pattack Falls

I had brought a book called "Aviemore and the Cairngorms: 40 Shorter Walks by Paul & Helen Webster", this little pocket book is a good source if you are looking for either ideas for walks or just wanting short a walk. When my Grandmother came to visit and had expressed an interest in going walking in Aviemore, I gave her the book to look at. From this she picked two walks; Pattack Falls and a walk in the Craigellachie Nature Reserve. Even though both walks are very short, they allow you to view a lot of beautiful scenery within the Cairn Gorm National Park.

It was decided to go to Pattack Falls first, as it was furthest point.

Pattack Falls was the shortest and easiest walk that I have done, a mere 500m on flat ground, taking under 20 minutes to complete (yellow path). The path passes the falls, then after a short walk in the woods, you come to an open heather-ed area with views of the mountains in the surrounding area. The path then slits in two, one route goes further into the woods and to the ruins of the deserted village of Druim an Aird, the other goes back to the car park. (We chose this one). This path went back into the forest and then to the car park. Even thought this was a very short walk, I did enjoy it, the falls where very pretty and this is a worthwhile spot to stop if passing through. 

After some lunch in the Happy Haggis (I love the name!!!) It was time to move onto our main walk in the Craigellachie Nature Reserve.

The Craigellachie Nature Reserve is located behind St Aidan's Catholic Church and Aviemore Youth Hostel. There are a view routes within the nature reserve, simple all ability paths around a pond (the pond seemed to be missing the water), a longer route along the base of the hill and then the longest walk up to a viewpoint on a hill that seems to have no name. We chose to do the viewpoint trail.

A - Aviemore, B - Start/Finish, C - Summit of No-Name Hill

This path is well signposted and is a single track that is mainly gravelled however parts are quite rocky. To begin the walk you have to walk under the noisy A9 via a bridge that goes under the road. The first segment of route is quite unimpressive, mainly due to the "missing" pond; however after this you enter a sliver birch forest. The path runs around the base of the hill and at this point rises VERY slowly. The path seems to stay like this until you come to a water reservoir, then the elevation becomes much steeper in comparison. This part of the route more or less goes straight up the hill. Towards the top of the first hill, you come across some stone stairs. My Grandmother referred to them as "The Stairway to Heaven" luckily she was wrong!!! After climbing these you reach the top of the first hill (about 477m). From here you can see the ski lifts on the Cairn Gorm as well as Aviemore and also surrounding hills/mountains. My Grandmother stopped here but I continued on until I reached the top of the next hill. From the top of this hill (about 542m), you get a better view of the Cairn Gorm. The decent from the hills were surprisingly simple, just straight down. We decided to go back the way we came but you could have followed a few alternative paths to the bottom. 

The completed walk took under an hour and a half to walk and was 3 miles in length.   

I enjoyed both walks, even if they were shorter than what I would normally walk. I would like to revisit Pattack Falls to explore more of the forest and hopefully I will.....

Here are some pictures from the walks:

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Over night Trip including the Ullapool Hill Path

Ross and Comarty, this part of Scotland is amazing, driving though endless hills the views are spectacular, from valleys, to snow covered hills, to the lakes, to the sea, to forests everywhere you look you see endless beauty.....

Once you leave Inverness behind you seem to be transported automatically into fantastic countryside, passing small towns and villages and then into the mountain ranges, completed different to what I am normally used to, city life in Aberdeen or the coastal life in Findochty.  After a few hours of driving and a few stops to take some (bad quality) photo, I arrived in Ullapool for the night. 

Ullapool Hill Path

I was exploring around Ullapool when by accident, I came across this path. I had know idea where it went to or what the mileage was, (there were no signs around) but I decided to give it a go. After some research  back at the guest house, I found out that the path was about 3.25 miles.This path is fairly easy to walk apart from the very top, where it becomes quite vertical, with some loose stones but this is not an huge issue. I was quite unprepared for this walk, the only bit of my gear I had with me was my boots and I did get some strange looks from some of the other walkers, who where kitted out in the correct gear (I was wearing a normal coat and a dress). 

The path is simple to follow, its clearly marked although care is needed as there are a lot of rocks on the path. After about 25 minutes you reach what appears to be the top of the hill, a large flat area. This gives you a great view over Ullapool and the surrounding area. However, at the opposite end of the large flat area, you will see another incline. This path leads to the actual top of the hill. This part of the path is quite steep and has a lot of loose stones/rocks, they aren't much of a problem on the way up but did cause me some issues when making my way down. It only takes about 10 minutes to make it to the top, from here you can see some more amazing views of the hills. I returned the same path that I walked up, there were many additional paths on the hill but I didn't have a map and compass so I avoided these so I wouldn't end up lost. The walk took just over an hour to complete. 

Although there were many small winding roads, the stunning scenery made the routes worthwhile. I wish I had more time to explore on foot, there are many places and hills that I saw from the car were I would love to walk but this trip didn't allow it, maybe sometime in the future I will return........

Here are some photo's from my trip:

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