Over the last few years, I’ve spent quite a lot of time in Scotland. Of course, studying at the University of Stirling, I primarily explored there along with the nearby cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I did some exploring in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, the Ochills and into Fife. However, other than a 3-day trip from Glenfinnan to Knoydart, I haven’t explored that much of northern Scotland. We rectified that on a recent trip to the Cairngorms.
Funnily enough, the main reason for this trip was Alex’s Christmas present: an off-roading experience at Land Rover in Dunkeld. I bought this for Alex and coincidentally (with no communication at all!) Alex had booked us a two-night stay in Aviemore for me for Christmas! It worked out particularly well on this occasion. Luckily, I’d opted for a gift voucher instead of booking a specific day for the off-roading. Well, I say luckily but I’m already wanting to go back to the Cairngorms so maybe two visits wouldn’t have been a bad thing!
As it’s quite far north, we opted to make a long-weekend out of the trip and left home on Thursday night to travel up to Scotland. We stayed overnight in Perth which was a great way to break up the journey and meant that we had a full day to explore on Friday, reducing travel time. The Travelodge in Perth was our destination for night one and it did the job just fine! Realistically, you’re never going to see everything in a long-weekend but, this was a great amount of time to get a flavour for the area and we’d certainly go back. If you can take the night before to make some headway in the journey, I highly recommend this approach.
Day 1: Culloden and Inverness
As I said, we woke up in Perth on Friday morning and were treated to glorious sunshine. After a slow-ish morning and a breakfast at Wetherspoons, where we took advantage of the local haggis offering, we headed north up the A9. This was a fantastic route. With the blue skies and the sun shining on the snow-capped mountains, it was a brilliant introduction to the trip. We still had about an hour and a half to our first destination but, it wasn’t a bother with the scenery being as beautiful as it was.
Our first stop was one for the book lovers out there. The Logie Steading Visitor Centre is on an estate and features a second-hand book shop, gallery, cafe and gardens. Our main reason for stopping here was, of course, the book shop. It was a great one and I bought myself a little blind-date with a book to celebrate the occasion. Books to me are like souvenirs and so, I like to pick one up on every trip. We treated ourselves to an ice cream (yes in Scotland in March!) and a drink and then headed onwards. It was a nice spot in the sunshine with some fabulous roads on the drive leading to it! You could definitely spend more time here by doing the riverside walk however, it is a little bit out of the way and so, unless garden-centre type places or book shops are your thing you could probably miss that one out.
The main event of the day was our next stop: the Battlefield of Culloden. The site is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and it’s free to explore the battlefield itself. This alone would be worth the trip however, to get a full understanding of the history, I would recommend paying the entry fee for the museum and tour. Now, we’re usually the kind of people that do the ‘free’ options but never pay to go in but, we decided recently to buy membership for the National Trust in England to allow us free parking across many of the Lake District car parks and it has the added bonus of free entry to National Trust for Scotland sites. If you don’t have membership, it is £12.50 to enter and £16.50 if you’d like the battlefield tour, too.
Bonus tip: If you’re thinking of buying National Trust membership, buy the National Trust for Scotland membership – it’s cheaper and you get the same access!
The tour was a real trip highlight for us and I don’t think you’d get the full experience just by looking at the battlefield. For some context, the Battle of Culloden took place on the 16th April 1746 between the Jacobites and the British government. You may be familiar with it from the popular TV and book series, Outlander. However, something I wasn’t aware of until the tour, was that Outlander is a very romantic portrayal of an England vs Scotland battle when that wasn’t really the case. It wasn’t a nationalistic uprising but one based on Protestant vs Catholics and, in fact, the Jacobites were made up of Englishmen, Scots, Irish and the French. They wanted the Bonnie Prince Charlie on the throne instead of King George who they believed should not have been ruler due to his catholicism. The Jacobites managed to march all the way down south to Derby but were forced to retreat back to Culloden, south of Inverness, where they ultimately faced defeat in a bloody battle.
The museum itself was informative with one wall detailing the Jacobite perspective and the other the governments so you could really see where and how decisions were made on each side. As a really important part of this area’s history, I think this is a must-do when visiting the area. I now want to go away and read some good non-fiction about the battle. I should have picked one up from the museum shop in hindsight.
Being so close, our next stop had to be Inverness. Another must-do for book-lovers is Leakey’s Bookshop. This is a huge atmospheric book shop that sells second-hand titles across a range of genres. I’d be surprised if you don’t walk away from this shop with a new addition to your bookshelf. They are a little on the pricier side for a second hand book but, you expect that from an independent touristy bookshop and this is well worth it. I picked up two new fantasy books; a great souvenir for our time in the Cairngorms.
We didn’t spend all that much time in Inverness after this as it was getting quite late in the day. We considered going out for dinner here and, if you have longer than we did, I think that would be a good option. There is a wide range of restaurants and it’s only a short train ride from Aviemore. On this occasion, we headed back to Aviemore to check in to our Premier Inn.
There are plenty of accommodation options in Aviemore, included chalet/cabin style, b&bs, hostels and hotels. Alex had kindly booked up two nights in the Premier Inn which is well located on the edge of the town. It’s a short ten minutes walk to where you’ll find all the outdoorsy shops, Tescos and the pubs. Aviemore is lovely. It is what I imagine an alpine town to be like: lots of outdoor shops and beautiful scenery in an almost resort-style town. I really liked it here.
One of the highlights for us was the pre-dinner drinks at the Skiing Doo Bar. Don’t be deceived if it looks empty upstairs, head down to the basement level where you’ll find a ski/snow sports themed bar that is great fun! They also do burgers too.
That night for dinner we ate at The Winking Owl pub. I would recommend booking ahead as they managed to squeeze us in about half an hour after we arrived. There is a bar downstairs where you can wait and grab a drink which was ideal. It was well worth the wait, we had a delicious starter and main course; probably my favourite of the restaurants we ate at across the two nights. There was a good range of options, too. I went for the salmon dish whilst Alex went for a classic burger. You couldn’t go wrong, really.
Day 2: Hiking Ben MacDui
Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to the Cairngorms for us without a hike up a mountain. We deliberated quite a lot about whether to head up Ben MacDui as the peak was going to be in cloud and, we weren’t sure if it was going to be possible without crampons or any technical winter gear. However, with the knowledge that we were going to turn back if we were unsure at any time, we opted to stick to the plan. I’m glad that we did. Of course, I can’t say this would be possible on every occasion as it was towards the end of the skiing season and so there was less snow than there had been previously. You must assess the conditions on the day.
The walk begins at the Aviemore Ski Centre at Cairngorm which is in itself worth a visit, even if you aren’t a hiker. To see a ski slope in the UK is such as cool experience and it really does make you feel like you’re in another country. After our walk, we took the Mountain Railway to the top of the slopes which costs £19.95 and is open year round. If you’re a skier, this is incredible value as you can go up and down as many times as you like. But, it’s also well worth it if you aren’t. The views as your ascend and descend are incredible and, if you do something similar in the Alps, it’s going to cost you a hell of a lot more. You’ll be able to visit the highest restaurant in Scotland and there is also a shop to pick up the all-important fabric badge to commemorate the trip. We bought both a Cairngorm National Park badge and a Ben MacDui one.
Back to the mountain itself, Ben MacDui is the second highest mountain in the UK, smaller only than Ben Nevis at 1,309m. Naturally, that makes it the highest mountain in the Cairngorms and it’s not to be underestimated. The path itself is easy going, it doesn’t require any scrambling or technical skills on a clear summers day. When it comes to winter though, the top of the mountain is a bit of a plateau and apparently a boulder field (though I can’t say as it was buried in snow when we walked it). This means that when the summit is in cloud, it can be very easy to get disorientated and lose your way. It was whiteout when we closed in on the summit and, without a compass reading, we wouldn’t have found the trig point. You must have some navigational skills if you’re going to attempt this one.
The whiteout plus the snow-turned-ice ground made this a real adventure. We were constantly having to dig our boots into the snow and crampons would have made this easier but, we managed it nonetheless. And okay, we didn’t get the summit views, but you could still get a feel for the immensity of the nearby mountain range and the views down to Loch Morlich that were well worth the day.
You’ve got to be sensible and make sure you’re not taking unnecessary risks but this was an epic mountain day and one of my favourite walks I’ve ever done…ever, never mind just in Scotland. All in all it was around 16.5km with 786m elevation gain (thanks to the car park being well above sea-level!).
After our trip up the mountain railway, we headed back to Aviemore for dinner. Because we’d only just managed to squeeze into the pub the day before, this time we booked ahead at the Cairngorm Hotel. This is a hotel that also has a restaurant and bar. It being a Saturday night, the pub and restaurant were incredibly busy and booking was definitely the right choice. The atmosphere in here was fantastic with very typical Scottish decor. This was another solid pub outing and a good option if you’re staying nearby .
We were both quite tired after our day in the mountains so, we headed back to the hotel for our third and final day in the Cairngorms.
Day 3: Aberfeldy and Land Rover Experience
I was so sad waking up with the knowledge that this was our final day in the Cairngorms after such a lovely trip but, there were still some more great moments to come.
On Friday, when driving up the A9 towards Aviemore, we had spotted the Ruthven Barracks, visible from the road. This looked really interesting so we decided to stop off on our way to breakfast on the Sunday. These are old army barracks that were built during the 1700s with a stable and garrison. They are one of many stone fortress’ in the area that were built following the Jacobite uprising to keep a military presence, maintain law and order and enforce the Disarming Act of 1716. The Jacobites tried to take the barracks in 1745 and failed but were later successful. Of course, they had to surrender them once again following the loss at Culloden. You only need half an hour or so here, but it’s worth stopping if you’re passing through.
We had opted not to have the Premier Inn breakfast that morning and instead drive back further south to Aberfeldy. We had hoped to explore a bit more of this area, in and around Pitlochry but, we’ll have to save that for another time. We stopped off at the Fika coffee shop for breakfast which was lovely and then visited the Watermill Bookshop and Cafe. I didn’t purchase anything from here this time but, it’s another fantastic bookshop in the region. Finally, we went to see the Black Watch Memorial. The Black Watch were enlisted after the Jacobite rebellion to keep an eye on the Clans in the Highland, notable because of their black tartan. Their first regimental parade took place on the opposite side of the river to this memorial but, it was decided that the park here was a more appropriate place to put it instead.
We had to rush off from Aberfeldy but it is an area that I would like to revisit. We were cutting it close to the wire for the Heritage Experience we had booked at the Land Rover Experience site in Dunkeld. This was Alex’s Christmas present as he has always liked the old Defenders but, I had the best time doing this too. We both took it in turns with the instructor Alan to drive a 2012 Land Rover Defender 110 off-roading. This included driving in a woodland area, through mud, water and grassy banks. It was epic! These experiences are quite experience so we had a 1 and a half hour slot but we still got a good sense of the vehicle and what driving off-road is like. The capabilities of the 110 were insane! I won’t go into too much detail here but, if you have a car lover in your life, this is the perfect gift. I wish I could do it all over again. The instructor was fabulous and helped us through in a way that made it much less intimidating for me and I was thrilled with the off-roading I managed. It was an incredible end to the trip.
All that was left to do was drive back home…
We really did both have a fantastic few days and I would love to do it all over again. If you find yourself with three days in the Cairngorms, I wouldn’t change our itinerary at all.
Have you been to the Cairngorms? I’d love to hear your recommendations of what we should do next time!
Amie x
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