Boat of Garten and the Spey

About trip

Minimum Time: 2hrs 15mins Ascent: 197ft Difficulty Level: 1 - Easy Paths: Riverside path, wide woodland track, 2 stiles Landscape: Wide River Spey, pine forest 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 Description: What to look for: On the left as you approach Boat of Garten is an area of fire damaged forest. Two successive fires here have 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. Where to eat and drink: The Boat Hotel, in Boat of Garten, is the original station hotel. Its Osprey Bistro and Capercaillie Restaurant serve traditional Scottish food, freshly cooked. It’s so popular that for an evening meal you probably need to book. No dogs, but children are welcome. Directions: You can walk out on to Garten Bridge for the upstream view, but return to the village end. Villages with the name ‘Boat’ are the sites of former ferries. The 1974 concrete bridge replaced a wooden bridge of 1899, which itself replaced the boat. The Osprey Bistro has a picture of the chain ferry and the newly built bridge above it. 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. The path, one tree back from the river so as not to disturb the fish and anglers, runs through a wood, where monkey flower is bright yellow in the ditches, and past a golden sandy beach. Rest at one of the benches and you might see a kingfisher. The path now 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. 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 impassable, 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 have established their own right of navigation in the river. The riverside path continues through pastureland with gorse. A house blocks the riverside ahead; turn right, at a waymarker and sign, ‘Kinchurdy Road’, and cross a field to a track. Turn left along the track. It runs parallel to the river, which is nearby on the left, then bends right, into a wood of birches and broom. Where it bends left, a path ahead (again signed ‘Kinchurdy 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 cattle grid leads out to another stony track. Turn right, away from the river, through a farm where you take the middle track of three. On the left is Loch Dallas. Follow the track for a mile (1.6km). The Speyside Way joins from the left and, immediately afterwards, the track passes under the granite bridge of the Speyside Steam Railway. The Speyside Way, Scotland’s third long distance path, has finally become continuous from Aviemore to the sea at Spey Bay, with an extension p lanne upriver to Newtonmore. It uses the former Spey railway for much of its length and is a smooth and level walk - the main difficulty is 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 runs through Bridge of Garten to Broomhill, whose station was Glen Bogle in the TV series Monarch of the Glen. Once under the bridge, the main track bends right, signed ‘Kinchurdy Road’; instead turn half right on a stony track that veers to the left into pine woods. Continue for 50yds (46m), turning right at a ‘Woodland Walks’ sign. A narrower track of earth and stones leads through pine and heather. Once more you’re in the regenerating Caledonian Forest. This 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. The track passes two more ‘Woodland Walks’ signposts, where you keep ahead on the main track. At the edge of the village, turn right, again signed ‘Woodland Walks’, and left past the end 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, 0.25 mile (400m) away; a resting point with a view in winter when leaves are down.) The path on the left leads between houses to the village street. Turn right and follow the street round two bends to Garten Bridge and the start of the walk.