Scenic Routes 1

Ballater to the Spittal of Glenshee

I recently visited the Highlands of Scotland, and on my way home, and due to something that would normally drive me bonkers, I was fortunately forced to change my route due to a closed road.

This lead me to take the route above that turned out to be one of the most scenic of my whole visit.

So, firstly, I’d recommend it in the direction I took. This is because you are travelling down through the valley, and in my opinion, you get a much more spectacular view.

Route:

It really couldn’t be more simple because it’s all one road. Just follow the A93 out of Ballater and stay on it!

For the first part of your journey, (that reminds me of “A horse with no name” by America) you’ll be following the river Dee on your left. Following on, you’ll arrive at Balmoral castle, one of the homes of the Royal family, surrounded by the Balmoral estate that covers about 50,000 acres. It’s open to the public and you can find details here.

Continue on and you’ll reach the Bridge of Dee. Crossing this will see the river swap to your right-hand side. Immediately after the bridge, the river flood plain opens out to a rather spectacular parkland. It’s tricky to find somewhere to stop, but I briefly pulled in to a gateway and grabbed my drone to take these photos.

Keep an eye out on the right as you continue down the road, because there’s the beautiful Braemar Castle on a bend in the road. If you’d like to stop and take a better look or visit the castle, there’s a car park on the right just after the castle. Find more information here. I wasn’t able to visit because it is closed until April.

You’ll soon find yourself in Braemar if you want a short break before following the A93 out again. At this point, you’ll leave the river Dee as it meanders down from the direction of Inverey. I’m going to pop up this valley the next time I’m in the area.

As you leave Braemar, you’ll be on the left-hand side of the valley with Clunie Water on your right. This part of the route was the real “Wow” part for me. Not a road to speed down, although at this time of year, February, the road was almost entirely deserted and a couple of people were enjoying a whizz up the valley in sports cars.

There are plenty of spots to pull over and take in the view, and as I drove down at little more than 30mph, I took advantage of stopping a few times to fly the drone again.

You’ll cross Clunie Water eventually and the valley becomes more enclosed and turns uphill past Glenshee ski centre. There wasn’t much snow when I drove past unfortunately or I might have been tempted to have a little ski.

Eventually, you’ll drop down into Glenshee, from where you can head South to Perth, or South West towards Loch Lomond.