Introduction

Welcome to the second page of the tour around the Cairngorms where we get to the actual tour itself. We started at Pitlochry, although it is possible to start from any part of the route. As previously stated, a car or other mode of transport is required to complete the whole route as public transport is infrequent.

Pitlochry - Braemar

We left Pitlochry Town Centre on the A924 towards the villages of Moulin, Kinnaird, Kirkmichael. The village of Moulin isn't far out of Pitlochry, and is closely followed by Kinnaird where a small diversion can be made to the Edradour distillery which prides itself on being the smallest distillery in Scotland. Tours of the distillery can be made although your advised to check the website for opening times.

After this, the road heads up and over the hills before dropping into Glen Brerachan. While the scenery is nice, and various standing stones and memorials can be found along the road, there isn't actually much to visit on the road for the tourists. Even the rivers are fenced off, so you can't stop to see if there are any fish in them. However, this seemed to apply to most of the scenery/rivers along the route. I presume too many tourists would spoil the landscape, hence they fence it off to protect it.

 The next village is Kirkmicheal where the road splits with the A924 continuing to Bridge of Cally and Blairgowrie (one of the places we didn't get time to visit).

 We took the B950 which cuts across to the A93, the Braemar road.

The first village on the A93 is the Spittal of Glenshee which is just off the main road (a good place to stop for the toilets if you can't wait until you get to Braemar). This small village seems to consist of a pub/restaurant, outdoor sports shop (particularly skiing) and a couple of hotels/B&B's.

After this, the A93 climbs up to the Glenshee Ski centre. During the summer, the Ski centre looks a desolate place with no activity at all. All the slopes looked like mud slides with no greenery. One can only imagine what it's like in the winter when the snows arrive. After this the road drops down to the village (or small town) of Braemar. (The highlight of the drive over this stretch of the road was getting to see our first mountain hare. It didn't hang around for a photo though).

Braemar

The village of Braemar is a lovely place that is our first longer stop on the tour. When we visited it was fairly quiet with only a few tourists about. The tourist information is housed in a small courtyard that include a few craft/gift shops. The difference here is that your not overwhelmed with gift shops (all selling the same goods).

There are a few cafes/tearooms/restaurants in Braemar, all of which weren't bad price wise. However when we arrived it was still too early for lunch (after our hearty breakfast), so we were content with a drink from the newsagents (which was also the post office I think).

Once again, this village probably really comes to life in winter, when all the skiers arrive.

However news reports from the previous winters have indicated that the warmer climate is now causing less snow in Scotland which in turn means that many of the ski centres are now having to consider closing. While this may benefit the wildlife in the area, one can only imagine how badly it would affect the local economy which probably relies on this income in the colder months. We can only wait and see.

Other attractions around Breamar include Kindrochit castle, Braemar castle and the Braemar Highland Heritage centre. More information on Braemar can be found at the Braemar Guide website.

Well that concludes Page 2 of this tour. The next part of the tour (Braemar - Ballater) can be found on Page 3.

All the pictures on this page were taken by myself.. Larger versions of the photos are available if you wish to use them for a project or web page yourselves. You are free to do this, but please mention this web page as the source for the photos. Thanks for your cooperation..