Braemar Scotland

Day 31/Scotland 8

Travelled:112km

Stay: Balmoral Castle carpark N57.0401 W3.2162

Visited: Braemar, Mar Lodge Estate (National Trust non-member £3/day parking fee)

The sun was shinning and the sky was blue and so we headed up into the Scottish Highlands and we were not disappointed. Our sat-nav took us along some country roads less travelled , passing a couple of lochs and then up and over a col with a ski resort. 

Then down we drove onto Braemar, a village settlement close to the course of the River Dee. With an altitude of 339m it had an Alpine atmosphere. There were some significant sized hotels, a castle and a few shops including a outdoors/bushwalking shop. We decided to replace our contraband Swiss pocket knife with another (needed an emergency corkscrew) but this one has a shorter blade and more importantly not lockable. 

After a stroll around we made our way 9miles out of town to Mar Lodge Estate, now owned by the National Trust and is part of the Cairngorms National Park. As with most places there is a long history but in short, one of the Earls of Mar forfeited the estate because he was a Jacobite in 1716. It passed through a few more owners until 1889 when it was owned by Queen Victoria’s grand daughter and who consequently came to visit. Unfortunately years of farming, logging and hunting have taken its toll on the land but the National Trust is working on bring it back into balance. We had a good chat with the park ranger and then set off on a lovely walk along the river, through forests and moors. 

There are miles of tracks to explore in the area, we saw many doing multiple day hikes. It is also a popular destination for those who want to “bag Monroe’s” (These are hills over 3,000 feet). As we aren’t ‘baggers’, we decided to venture along the road to Balmoral Castle. We were lucky to dag the last motorhome allocated overnight parking spot.

 Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal family since 1852, purchased by Prince Albert (Queen Victoria’s husband). It is privately owned by the royal family. Queen Elizabeth uses the castle every year for an Autumn stay. There are 150 buildings on the estate including a malt whiskey distillery producing the Royal Lochnagar Single Malt.