Loch an Eilein Circuit

Loch an Eilein sits inside Rothiemurchus Forest a few kilometres south of Aviemore, and the Rothiemurchus estate, which owns the ground, describes the path around it as some of the best low-level walking in Scotland: it is flat, well surfaced, and rarely far from the water. The loch’s name, “loch of the island”, comes from the ruined castle standing on a small island near the southern shore. The estate dates the castle to the late 14th century and says it was built as a refuge from the clan war bands that raided Strathspey along the Thieves’ Road on the eastern shore. Wikipedia adds that it is said to have belonged to Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, and that Jacobites retreating from Cromdale in 1690 besieged it, with Grizel Mor Grant holding it against them. A causeway may once have linked it to the shore, and Wikipedia says an 18th-century dam submerged it, though the estate calls the causeway a legend for which no evidence has been found.

The estate gives the circuit from the car park as 5km and allows an hour to an hour and a half, and it stays in Scots pine forest for almost its whole length, part of the old Caledonian pinewood. Red squirrel, Scottish crossbill and crested tit live in the forest, and the estate says ospreys may occasionally be seen over the water, though Walkhighlands records that they have not recolonised the old eyrie on the castle island. Walkhighlands describes a longer round of 7km with 70m of ascent that adds the quieter Loch Gamhna, whose section is muddy in places and not maintained.

From Aviemore it is the easy option for scenery without exertion, and Walkhighlands calls the paths around the loch good. The car park charges, and the estate says it is attended. It is not a walk for a visitor wanting a view from height or any sense of remoteness, because the trees close the horizon and Walkhighlands itself ranks it among the most popular short walks in Scotland. For height without earning it on foot, the Coire Cas car park on the ski road sits at 635m.