Balmoral Castle and the Dee
Minimum Time: 2hrs 30mins
Ascent: 800ft
Difficulty Level: 1 - Easy
Paths: Tracks and paths, no stiles
Landscape: Pine forest and viewpoints above wide river valley
Dog Friendliness: On lead in castle grounds
Parking: Large pay-and-display at Crathie Church
Public Toilets: At start, and Balmoral Castle
(Note: Access available Easter to end July only - Royal Family in residence from August)
While you're there: Entering the castle grounds, youâve already paid to visit the indoor displays. Victoria and Albert liked to combine tartan wallpaper with tartan floors and decorate with thistles. This was criticised even at the time and has now been moderated. Even so, the pictures are interesting for their Victorian gusto and touch of vulgarity.
What to look out for: Look out for statues of animals on the walk - a chamois, a wild boar and a collie. The castle also has some odd outbuildings, including green wooden sentry boxes and a circular game larder decorated with antlers.
Where to eat and drink: The cafÃ© at Balmoral Castle serves Queenâs teas and a pretty good quiche. Ballater has a selection of fine eating places, from the fish and chip shop to the atmospheric cafÃ© at the old railway station (complete with fibreglass Queen Victoria) and the elegant conservatory restaurant at the Deeside Hotel.
Directions:
From the car park, cross the River Dee to the lodge gateway into Balmoral Castle. You must pay to enter the grounds and can also buy a booklet with a map of the marked walks. Shortly, turn right off the driveway on a track that bends to the left as it reaches the river. After 200yds (183m) a path continues along the riverbank. At a yellow waymarker turn left, past a red pillar box to the cafeteria. Go along to the left of the castle to its far end (the east front). This has a plaque of St Hubert, patron saint of hunters. Hubertâs message is actually to spare the deer, though this was lost on Prince Albert. A path runs directly away from the castle, to the right of a sunken rose garden, past the memorials to dogs. At a path junction, turn right through a pinewood to regain the riverside. Turn left on the riverside path. The tall white flowers of angelica grow here, as do lupins, whose seeds are carried here by the river. The path runs up to a tarred driveway, which you follow for 55yds (50m) to a path rising on the left. This crosses another driveway and rises through the woods to a junction with a map showing the estate paths. Turn up to the right on a track that steepens and bends to the left under larches. At its highest point it reaches a T- junction. Turn right for the fine view ahead into the corrie of Lochnagar. This mountain dominates Balmoral. It was a favourite of Queen Victoria and the setting for Prince Charlesâ childrenâs book The Old Man of Lochnagar (1980). The little-used track runs down to join an unsurfaced forest road, where you turn left. A deer fence on the right is threaded with thin laths, designed to make it visible to capercaillie. Injury from flying into fences is a significant reason for the decline of this handsome large grouse, now slowly recovering from near extinction. After a gate in the deer fence, turn right at a triangle junction, up a new forest road. In about 350yds (320m), a wide path turns up to the left and leads to a huge pyramidal cairn. It was raised âto the beloved memory of Albert the great and good; prince consort. Erected by his broken-hearted widowâ. Victoria and six of her children placed stones bearing their initials in its base. It has wide views in many directions, though not to the castle itself, which is concealed by trees. The path continues on the right, descending quite steeply to a corner where trees have been felled to provide a view down the Dee. Queen Victoria raised ugly stonework even on supposedly joyous occasions, and the next cairn, massive and conical, celebrates the marriage of her daughter, Princess Beatrix, to Prince Henry of Battenberg. The path descends through the deer fence to a tarred estate road. Opposite is a rather gaudy dry drinking trough, commemorating General Sir Thomas Myddelton Biddulph KCB. Turn down the road to the tiny settlement of Easter Balmoral. You can turn left to revisit the castle, as the route is about to leave the estate by turning right across a stream and down left to a public road alongside the Dee. Turn right, then left, to a white suspension bridge across the river. Follow the road ahead, until a side road on the left leads to Crathie cemetery. Here are 17th-century tombs with deathâs heads and epitaphs, and the grave of Queen Victoriaâs special friend, the ghillie John Brown. Interest in Brown has been increased by the film Mrs Brown starring Billy Connolly and Judi Dench. Brownâs grave was inscribed by his Queen âthat friend on whose fidelity you count, that friend given you by circumstances beyond your control, was Godâs own gift.â It lies midway between the ruined chapel and the south wall of the kirkyard. The side road continues to the information centre at the end of the car park.
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