Snow Roads Scenic Route - Scotland
In this blog I’ll be talking about an epic road trip through the Cairngorms, could this be better than the NC500?! Or could this be the perfect starting point?
So if you watch our films on YouTube you’ll have already seen us do the ‘Snow roads’. It’s a 90 mile road trip on the Old Military Road through the beautiful Cairngorms. The route starts at Blairgowrie and if you're lucky, unlike us.. Ends in Grantown on Spey. For reference we did the road trip in January when some areas along the route had heavy snow!
Ok, so on the first night we planned to stay in a car park in Blairgowrie centre, but we didn't..
I don’t know what it was, but we didn’t get any ‘wow’s’ about the place, maybe we just didn’t explore it enough, I don’t know. But we moved on to a mega spot for stargazing.
///unheated.tried.scanning
(Throughout this blog I will be referencing ‘What3words’ so you can see the exact place we stayed)
‘what3words' is an easy way to identify precise locations. Every 3m square has been given a unique combination of three words’
You can visit the website or download the app, it’s completely free!
It was pitch black by the time we got to the little car park so we took a few photos of the stars (on the iPhone 13 Pro Max) and headed to bed. The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast, and saw a gate to a small trail. This was where we filmed the start to our vlog, it’s called Clach na Coileach, it’s said to symbolise the moment a cockerel confronted the tax men in the 15th century.
From here I planned a 3 day itinerary of things to do and see along the ‘Snow roads route’. Starting with;
Devil's Elbow Viewpoint.
The devils elbow is a route between Glenshee and Braemar. ‘Elbow’ refers to a double hairpin bend on the old road. This was one of Scotland’s most dangerous roads until it was bypassed, the road is still open to cyclists that want to take on the challenge.
The famous road has been brought back to life by creating the viewpoint for tourists to admire the stunning scenery around it, and stunning it was!! Especially in the snow, it looked magical. As we parked up, on the mountain on the opposite side of the road behind us was full of Red Deer slowly making their way across, we managed to shoot the drone up for a closer look.
Next stop was
Glenshee Ski Centre.
This would have been a perfect day for skiing but we had an itinerary planned so it was a quick stop off to get the sledge out! We bought the sledge in Aviemore a few weeks back, planned to use it and the snow disappeared! So this was the perfect opportunity, it was thick with snow. Even Lilly had a go. After all the excitement, our feet were soaked and our hands were turning blue with cold so we headed back to the van for a good warm up
Braemar
What an unexpected surprise! We parked up, I think it was probably the main car park.
///answers.sidelined.assembles
One of the beauty’s of travelling during the winter is being able to park up in places that would be absolutely heaving in the summer. We jumped into the back of the van and cooked up some dinner before heading out to see what Braemar had to offer.
Right next to the car park was the old castle ruins of Kindrochit Castle, you can walk around the old castle walls and picture how it used to look with the help of the information signs dotted around
We carried on walking over a small bridge into the village, it was so picturesque. After a quick google, I found a hike!!
Just out of the village you can follow a path into pine woods. I can’t even explain how amazing this place is, the pine trees were lined up perfectly, the smell was just wow. If you follow the path up you get to the summit of Creag Choinnich where you can find outstanding views over Braemar and the Cairngorm mountains.
We planned to see Braemar castle but unfortunately for us it was closed for renovations.
Next on the itinerary was the Scottish pyramid, it was getting late in the day so we planned that for the next day. We got on Park4night and found a park up just off the road further up the old military road, alongside the River Dee. ///sleeping.hammocks.thigh
We woke up to an absolute white out, it was like a winter wonderland!
After a little play in the snow and Lilly nearly getting buried in the snow we carried on the road trip.
Scottish Pyramid.
This place is a must see! It’s one of Scotland's hidden gems, a pyramid in the woods.. Who would have thought!?
We parked up at the Royal Loch Nagar distillery, the man very kindly said we could leave the van there and pointed us in the right direction for the pyramid. (I’m not sure on the usual parking regulations) We left Lilly in the van, tucked up in bed watching her favourite series on Netflix - Benidorm as the ground was covered in thick snow, too cold for her little paws. (Yes, Lilly is a dog)
We headed through Balmoral estate, the houses/cottages reminded us of the cosy cottage on ‘The Holiday’ Christmas film. We came to a gate, leading us through the woods. Beware, if you’re doing this in the snow like us, be more sensible with your shoe choice! It’s a steep(ish) incline part way up that is tricky when it’s slippery. First you come to a Cairn that looks like an upside down ice cream cone, keep walking!
We finally made it up to the Pyramid, it just looks so bizarre but amazing at the same time. The pyramid is actually a memorial to the late Prince Albert. Apparently in the area there are actually 11 cairns all relating to the Royal family.
We took a few photos around the pyramid and the stunning scenery around it, then headed back down to Lils. Before getting back in the van we took a quick look inside the distillery, we saw a bottle of whiskey for over £3000!! Crazy.
Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve
We headed slightly off the route to see the Muir of Dinnet nature reserve, if you're doing this route I’d highly recommend it! Motorhomes & Campervans can stay in the car park for 1 night free of charge, they have a water tap, toilets and even a chemical waste point. We made use of the facilities, and explored what the nature reserve had to offer.
You need to do the Burn o’ Vat trail!!! It is epic! You follow the signs for the waterfall, walk through the rocks, squeeze past a hole into a huge cave! Hanging from the cave walls were the biggest icicles I’ve ever seen, and as you walk further in you can see a waterfall! We had to send the drone up to give you a better understanding of the size of the cave.
Across the road from the car park is a loch, you follow the path probably around 15 minutes to get to loch Kinord. When we got there it was all frozen, in the loch is castle island. The island used to be a castle hence the name, but has no remains unfortunately.
This is when it all turned bad.
We got back to the van to carry on through the itinerary, we still had so many amazing places to visit that we were so excited about. We send the drone up for a shot of us driving out the car park as a bit of b-roll for the vlog. What we didn’t realize was that we were parked next to a huge rock, as Jordan drove out of the parking space, turning towards the exit, we scraped the whole bottom back panel and warped the metal. (Luckily we got it fixed the week after, we bought a new panel off eBay and our friends at Clay City Autos welded it on for us)
We remained positive and put the damage to the back of our heads, as we headed further up the snow roads we could see why they are named the snow roads…. It was throwing it down with snow. We drove through the breath taking mountains, at points we couldn’t see the road for snow. We got to Cockbridge, after stopping and laughing at the sign for about 15 minutes, immature I know. The road ahead was closed.
Typical of us, we carried on driving as we wanted to make it up to the Lecht.
It was getting dark at this point, and of course.. The road was closed. Our road trip had to come to an end.
We turned the van around on a sketchy bit of road and headed back down the mountains, still throwing it down with snow. For this part, you need to go and watch the vlog
Part 1 https://youtu.be/kNhUPZkaNdU
Part 2 https://youtu.be/2orNHksgYZU
We almost got stuck up the mountains and almost hit 20 Red Deer that came out of nowhere on the road.
