AA Breakdown Cover
Loyalty benefits
5-star car insurance
Enjoy 5-star-rated insurance and access to offers from AA Rewards, which saved our members more than £4.5m in 2010. What's more, many new customers pay £250 or less to insure their car with the AA.
Get a quoteRetrieve a quote
Savings
Whatever you want from your savings, whether you want to set a little something aside for a rainy day or you're planning for the future, we can help you make the most of your savings.
More information
Ski holidays
Severe weather
A walk past the Queen's memorials to her husband, servants and dogs.
Distance 4.8 miles (7.7km)
Minimum time 2hrs 30min
Ascent/gradient 800ft (244m)
Level of difficulty Easy
Paths Tracks and paths, no stiles
Landscape Pine forest and viewpoints above wide river valley
Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer 388 Lochnagar
Start/finish NO 264949
Dog friendliness On lead in castle grounds
Parking Large pay-and-display at Crathie Church
Public toilets Balmoral Castle
Access available Easter to end July only - Royal Family in residence from AugustWrite a review of this walk
1 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) bear left on a path that continues along the riverbank. At a yellow waymarker turn left, past a red pillar box to the cafeteria.
2 Go round to the left of the castle to its east front. 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.
3 Turn left on the riverside path. The tall white flowers of angelica grow here, releasing a smell like aniseed; there are lupins too, 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.
4 Turn right for the fine view ahead into the corrie of Lochnagar. 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, and now almost extinct, large grouse. 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. from where there are panoramic views.
5 The path continues on the right, descending quite steeply to a corner where trees have been felled to provide a view down the Dee. 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 shop in 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.
6 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. The side road continues to the information centre at the end of the car park.
Balmoral Castle became a royal home in the days of Queen Victoria, when Prince Albert would blaze away at the deer out of the castle windows, regardless of the plaque of St Hubert on the east front. Though he was the patron saint of hunters, the message is actually to spare the deer. The castle is still a favourite home of today's royal family. The mountain of Lochnagar dominates the castle and was a favourite of Queen Victoria. Her great-great-grandson, Prince Charles, also admires it and made it the setting for his children's book The Old Man of Lochnagar.
Along the walk you can see the huge pyramidal cairn that was raised 'to the beloved memory of Albert the great and good; prince consort. Erected by his broken-hearted widow'. 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.
Queen Victoria raised ugly stonework even on supposedly joyous occasions, and the next cairn, massive and conical, celebrates the marriage of her daughter, Princess Alice, to Prince Henry of Battenberg.
The end of the walk is marked by a visit to Crathie cemetery. Here are 17th-century tombs with death's heads and epitaphs, and the grave of Queen Victoria's special friend, the ghillie John Brown. Interest in Brown has been increased by the film Mrs Brown starring Billy Connolly and Judi Dench. Brown's grave was inscribed by his Queen 'that friend on whose fidelity you count, that friend given you by circumstances beyond your control, was God's own gift.' It lies midway between the ruined chapel and the south wall of the kirkyard.
Entering the castle grounds, you've 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, mostly stags in landscapes, and precious objects show a Victorian gusto and a touch of vulgarity that's refreshingly different from today's taste.
You will pass some quite unexpected statues of animals. In the course of the walk you should spot a chamois, a wild boar and a collie dog. Also of interest are the castle's odd outbuildings, including many green wooden sentry boxes and a circular game larder which is decorated with antlers.
The café at Balmoral Castle serves Queen's teas and a pretty good quiche. The nearby Inver Hotel offers bar meals (dogs welcome). Ballater has a selection of fine eating places, from the fish and chip shop to the elegant restaurant at the Deeside Hotel.
Driving school
Up to half price sale – from £99pp