Scraggygoat wrote:Braemar is accessible by bus from Aberdeen, the bus service takes bikes in the hold when it’s coach, but not if a regular bus. So occasionally you have to wait for the next one and pray it’s a coach.
Alternatively you can hire bikes from the outdoor shop in the village. Perfectly possible to do those hill groups from the village by bike, you’d get very fit in the process. It would be more efficient to stop at Ballater a couple of days, to do Mt Keen one day and the Lochnagar-Broad Cairn circuit the next, and then relocate to Braemar.
Possible but would likely require fitness I haven't a hope being able to build up too. The glen Ey munros (Carn Bhac, Beinn Iutham Mhor, Carn an Righ, Glas Tulaichean and An Socach), 40 km, 2000m ascent starting from Inverie. Adding another 8 mile round trip cycling from Braemar to Inverie puts that out of my league. The Lochnagar munros (Lochnagar, Carn a Choire, Carn an t-Sagairt Mor, Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn) are best done as a circuit from Spittal of Glernmuick. That route from there is 32 km, 1100m ascent, It is awkward trying to do that route from the north or west, and will involve an 18 mile round trip by bicycle on top of the walking if starting in Ballater. If you want to get to Ben Macdui and its outliers from Braemar, you have a 12 mile round trip to get too and from Linn of Dee, on top of over 30 km of walking and part cycling with 1370m ascent. You might have the superhuman fitness to do all these but I don't. Having a car just makes things so much easier and makes otherwise unfeasible routes possible, which is why most people drive to a car park to access the hills.
I'd rather backpack from Blair Atholl to Braemar and on to Aviemore via the intervening munros.