Where is Braemar?

Braemar sits in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. In winter, it is notorious for being the snowiest and coldest village in Britain! It is also an extremely pretty village with the River Dee passing through it showing off with some dramatic rapids. There are also some good hotels, restaurants and even a mountain equipment shop where you can hire a mountain bike if you don't have one. As for this trip, we'll be cycling in each day.

Braemar is quite remote. It is served by bus from Aberdeen and Perth - both of which are on the mainline train. However, the A93 road links Braemar up with both cities so it is accessible by road. Braemar is also noted for its Highlands Games each summer and being the neighbouring town to the Royal Balmoral Estate.

We meet for all three days at the Linn of Dee car park which is about a 20 minute drive from Braemar.

About the Trip

These are big and / or remote mountains. It's a Bike and Hike trip. We'll make use of bikes to cycle in as far as we can.

You are welcome to join us for one, two or all three days.

This is a rough outline plan, but the weather will dictate which order we do the Munros on. If you are only joining for one or two days for specific Munros, please be prepared to be flexible as the weather will dictate the exact order we do these in.

Day 1: An Sgarsoch (1,006m / 3,301ft) and Carn an Fhidlier (994m, 3,261ft) lie to the southwest of Linn of Dee. These are extremely remote Munros, accessible from the Tarf Hotel Bothy (coming in from Blair Atholl) or from the Linn of Dee, cycling along the track as far as Geldie Bridge. It's then a fairly rough trackless slog to the summits. These two also have quite a big drop between them (about 300m)! It's a big day.

Total distance (30km on bikes) is 43km, Total ascent 1,050m

Day 2: This is the continuation of the Braeriach - Devil's Ridge. We'll have completed Braeriach earlier in the week and if you're interested in joining us, please see the event page here. Although the whole ridge can be done in a day, you are loking at a day which is really a bit too long and far to include the return journey. Otherwise you will need to stay at Corrour Bothy or wild-camp.

We'll cycle in along a very good track to Derry Lodge. This highly stunning woodland sees a lot of wild camping and is a beautiful area. We'll cross the river and cycle as far toward Corrour Bothy as we can before continuing on foot. The target for this day will be The Devil's Point (1,004m / 3,294ft) which appears as a black intimidating and inpenetrable pyramid. However, a steep but well maintained track will lead us up onto the ridge from behind the bothy. From the col we continue up to Carn Toul (1,291m / 4,236ft) - a bouldery mountain which can be tricky when wet and then a short hop to The Angel's Peak (or more correctly, Sgor an Lochain Uaine at 1,258m / 4,127ft). We'll skirt around Carn Toul on return and drop back down to Corrour Bothy and our bikes.

Total distance including the bike ride: 40km with 1,140m ascent.

Day 3: Monadh Mor (1,113m / 3,652ft) and Beinn Bhrotein (1,157m / 3,796ft) sit behind the Braeriach - Devil's Point in the Northern Cairngorms and can be accessed from Glen Feshie - again with an extremely long walk in. Or from the Linn of Dee. We'll make use of the excellent track in we used on the first day. However, we can't get as far as we turn off onto a pretty poor track for cycling (good for walking). We've only every cycled in about 2km before giving up and ditching the bikes. But although we have a long ascent ahead, it's a spectacular ascent with the views growing more and more magnificent the higher we get.

Including the bike ride, the total distance is 35km, total ascent roughly 1,140m