Boat of Garten and the Spey

Along the banks of the great river, with a pinewood return.

Distance 5.7 miles (9.2km)

Minimum time 2hrs 15min

Ascent/gradient 197ft (60m)

Level of difficulty Easy

Paths Riverside path, wide woodland track, no stiles

Landscape Wide River Spey, pine forest

Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer 403 Cairn Gorm & Aviemore

Start/finish NH 945191

Dog friendliness Dogs not welcome on riverside - use track on right

Parking Small pull-in at east of Boat of Garten village, next to bridge

Public toilets Boat of Garten

Write a review of this walk

Directions
Background
Information

1 You can walk out on to Garten Bridge for the upstream view, but return to the same end. At the village end of the bridge, on the upstream side, a small kissing gate is marked 'No Dogs'. It leads to a riverside path upstream, which runs along the edge of the riverside field, with views ahead to the high Cairngorms. Giant knapweeds grow here, thistle-like but without the prickles.

2 The riverside path continues through pastureland with gorse. A house blocks the riverside ahead; turn right, at a waymarker and sign, 'Kinveachy Road', and cross a field to a track. Turn left along the track. It runs parallel to the river, which is near by on the left, then bends right, into a wood of birches and broom. Where it bends left, a path ahead (again signed 'Kinveachy Road') could be used to shorten the walk drastically. The main route keeps on along the track. It rejoins the river at a deep reach of smooth water, and runs through meadows. With the fishing lodge of Kinchurdy ahead, a gate leads out on to a wider, stony track.

3 Turn right, away from the river. On the left is Loch Dallas, where mallard and other ducks can often be seen. Follow the track for a mile (1.6km), passing a dead birch tree with many bracket fungus growing on it. The Speyside Way joins from the left and, immediately afterwards, the track passes under the granite bridge of the Speyside steam railway.

4 Once under the bridge the main track bends right, signed 'Kinveachy Road'; instead turn half-right on a green track that veers to the left. On the right is Geordie's Yard, with an interesting collection of old bicycles. Ahead a gate leads into pine woods. Walk round it and continue for 50yds (46m), turning right at a sign, 'Woodland Walks'. An earth track leads through pine and heather. Once more you're in the regenerating Caledonian Forest.

5 The track passes two more signposts, where you stay on the main track ahead. At the edge of the village, turn right signed 'Woodland Walks', and left at the corner of a football pitch. Near Boat of Garten's main street, a further Woodland Walks signpost points to the right, to another junction. (Here a right turn leads to the Fairy Hill viewpoint in the forest, ¼ mile/400m away.) The path on the left leads between houses to the village street. Turn right and follow it round two bends to Garten Bridge and the start point.

Villages with the name 'Boat' are the sites of former ferries. The 1974 concrete bridge here replaced a wooden bridge of 1899, which itself replaced the boat. The Osprey Bar has a picture of the chain ferry and the newly built bridge above it.

The Spey is one of the great rivers of Scotland. It wanders across its wide strath (mountain valley) in great meanders, in the style of a mature river. In fact it's still 650ft (198m) above sea level. At times of storm or snow-melt it became impassible, and it was only after it was bridged, during the early 19th century, that northern Scotland became fully accessible.

For centuries before that, the river was itself a highway for the floaters - the men who brought the logs down out of the forests of the Cairngorms. Today, canoeists, much to the annoyance of the salmon fishers, have established their own right of navigation in the river.

At the beginning of the walk, the path, one tree back from the river so it doesn't disturb the fish and the anglers, runs through a wood, where monkey flower is bright yellow in the ditches, and past a beach of golden sand. Rest a while at one of the benches and you might see a kingfisher.

Later, the route is joined by the Speyside Way, Scotland's third long distance path, has finally become continuous from Aviemore to the sea at Spey Bay, and an extension is planned upriver to Newtonmore. It uses the former Spey railway, closed by Dr Beeching in the 1960s, for much of its length. It's a smooth and level walk, where the main difficulty may be in negotiating the various distilleries alongside the route.

Here, however, the Way has been evicted from its track by the Speyside Steam Railway, reopened for tourists. It now runs through Bridge of Garten to Broomhill, whose station is Glen Bogle in the TV series Monarch of the Glen.

The woodland of the walk is part of the Caledonian Forest, which is described as semi-wild. It was planted fairly recently, but is now being allowed to regenerate of its own accord. Thickets of young trees are thinning themselves by natural wastage, gradually creating a more open style of woodland.

Where to eat and drink

The Boat Hotel, in Boat of Garten, is the original station hotel, once popular with Victorian sportsmen. Its Osprey Bar and Capercaillie Restaurant serve fresh game and salmon, also haggis. It's so popular that you usually need to book. No dogs, but children are welcome.

What to look for

On the left as you approach Boat of Garten is an area of fire damaged forest. Heather and pine are the only plants resinous enough to burn while still alive and growing. The fire here has blackened the trunks and consumed the heather undergrowth, with bilberry now growing in its place, but the trees have survived, losing only their lower branches.