Monday 18 May 2015

The Cairngorms - Braemar to the Linn O' Dee

Following our visit to Balmoral we decided to head to the Linn O' Dee, one of Archie's top tips, via Braemar.

We made a quick stop off at Braemar castle on the way for a few photos and did a quick cache at the cemetery before taking the road through Braemar that led to the Linn O' Dee.

The views along the road were just spectacular and we had to keep stopping to take photos of the landscape in pretty much every layby we passed, and they were pretty frequent.

The river is just incredible, it was all over the place, meandering through the valley, a real reminder of those old school Geography lessons. Here is a very small selection of the pictures that we took along the way.



After a very slow drive we eventually made our way to the Linn O' Dee, which is where a bridge, opened by Queen Victoria in 1857, crosses the River Dee at a spot where the normally wide river thunders through a narrow, rocky gorge.

It was a really lovely spot. We parked at the car park at the top and made our way down to the river side to watch the water crashing through the gorge.
We also walked across to the other side of the bridge, which is completely different. It was one of the most beautiful spots we have ever been lucky enough to visit. You feel like you are pretty much sitting in the river and, with the warm sunshine and light breeze, we could have just stayed there all day.  Just listening to the sound of the river and feeling the spray, watching the sun sparkle on the rocks.  It really did feel like a very special place.


Eventually, we decided to continue on our travels and made our way back to Braemar, a pretty little village on the river.

We didn't stop long but we did discover the remains of Kindrochit castle, completely different to anything else we have seen in Scotland so far, with not a fairytale turret in sight (that's the church in the background).
There was also a really interesting and poignant memorial to the crew of a Wellington bomber, which crashed, on high ground near Braemar, on a routine training flight in 1942.  All eight crewmen lost their lives.
We'd had a brilliant day so far.  We loved Balmoral.  The Linn O' Dee was one of the most beautiful and lovely spots we have ever come across and Braemar was lovely too ...... and our day was still not over.

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