Glen Girnock

Ian Cordiner

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Starting by the side of the B946 road between Ballater and Balmoral Castle, this walk winds its way over open moorland in the hidden valley of Glen Girnock passing the ruins of some old farms on the way.
Within site of Balmoral Castle and the Royal Lochnagar Distillery, the route then leaves the moorland and enters a woodland section.
After passing a small group of houses it then rises to open grassland with good views over Deeside. The walk then descends alongside the edge of a wood, passes through more trees before rising gradually away from the Dee, skirting a piece of very marshy land. It then returns to heather clad moorland before returning to the start. Great panoramic views of the surrounding hills are a special feature of this walk.

Scotland - Northeast Scotland - Aberdeenshire - Braemar and Balmoral

Features

Birds, Flowers, Great Views, Hills or Fells, Moor, Mountains, River, Wildlife, Woodland
01/09/2014 - Paul Kingdom

I agree this is a superb walk with fantastic views both towards Lochnagar and the Central Cairngorms whilst walking through wonderful heather clad moorland. Walkers should note that there are two ladders over deer fences which are both about 8 feet high and require a certain amount of agility. Whilst we were able to get our Springer Spaniel through gaps in the fence I fear that larger dogs would have considerable difficulty. Due to the ruts caused by timber extraction we preferred to walk the road from waymarks 11 to 12.

26/11/2013 - Colin Young

This is a superb circular walk with wonderful hill views but easy gradients. It traverses a considerable diversity of countryside - woodland ,moorland and rough grassland. The path at waymark 5 is very clear now and the line of it can be seen crossing the main track several metres in advance. Timber activities after waymark 11 have created deep wide ruts - fine for walking on when frozen but doubtless to be avoided in wet weather!