Braemar

Why base here

Braemar stands at 339m in the middle of the Cairngorms National Park, and the park authority records that its Gaelic name, Bràigh Mhàrr, meant Upland of Marr and labelled the whole district until about 1870, when it narrowed to the village. Walkhighlands calls it one of Scotland’s highest villages and a superb centre for hillwalkers, the southern approach to the Cairngorms. That is the honest case for sleeping here: Braemar is the base for the Deeside side of the range, for Glen Clunie, the Linn of Dee and the long approaches into the high plateaux.

The one mountain on this site attached to Braemar is also the exception. Lochnagar has its standard route on the south side, from the Spittal of Glenmuick, and the “where to stay” links on Walkhighlands’ Lochnagar page are labelled Ballater, not Braemar. If Lochnagar is the reason for the trip, Ballater is the shorter drive to the start. If the plan is several days among the Deeside hills with Lochnagar as one of them, Braemar works.

On foot versus by car

Lochnagar is a drive, and there is no way round that. Google Maps’ driving directions put the Spittal of Glenmuick car park 24 to 25 miles from Braemar and 44 to 46 minutes away, by the A93 east to Ballater and then the public road up Glen Muick, which Walkhighlands says ends at two large car parks. Walkhighlands lists no public transport to the start. The 201 bus calls at Ballater and nothing runs up the glen, so without a car the mountain is out of reach from here.

Two walks start from the village centre. Walkhighlands gives the Queen’s Drive and River Clunie circuit as 4.5km with 86m of ascent, a carriage drive Queen Victoria is said to have preferred, on good paths throughout. Morrone is the bigger day: a Corbett with a trig point at 859m, 12km and 650m of ascent in four to five hours by Walkhighlands’ figures, returning along the old military road down Glen Clunie. Walkhighlands records Mar Estate stalking on the north-west side between late July and 15 February, with none at weekends. The Linn of Dee circuit and the walk to Derry Lodge start at the Linn of Dee, near Braemar rather than in it, and need a car.

Practicalities

There is no railway. The Deeside line to Ballater closed in 1966, and the nearest way in by public transport is Stagecoach route 201 from Aberdeen, which a 2023 ride report on BusAndTrainUser measures at 58 miles and two hours 24 minutes end to end, with fewer journeys carrying on past Ballater than run to it. The terminus is just beyond the village centre, and the same report found no bus route onward. Balmoral lies between Ballater and Braemar, a 15-minute drive from the village according to the park authority.

By road the A93 comes in from Aberdeen along the Dee, and from the south over the Cairnwell Pass. The park authority puts Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth each within about an hour and a half, which is where the larger shops and the rail connections are. Traffic Scotland publishes the current state of the pass.