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Loch Muick access road restrictions

Re: Loch Muick access road restrictions

Postby al78 » Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:27 pm

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.
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Re: Loch Muick access road restrictions

Postby Sunset tripper » Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:29 pm

al78 wrote:A consequence of continuous marketing of the scenery and having no other practical way to get to these places other than by car? What do you expect? I've considered staying a couple of weeks in Braemar bringing my mountain bike and doing all the remote and big clusters of munros in the area (east Glenshee, Glen Ey, Lochnagar, Ben Avon, southern Cairngorms, Geldie lodge). To do all that would mean getting to Spittal of Glenmuick and Linn of Dee, but there is no practical way to get to those places from Braemar other than by car. If you stick a car park in a very convenient place to access one or more decent hills and don't have any public transport, you can't really be surprised when everyone and their extended family drives to these places.


Unfortunately the highlands have long been neglected when it comes to public transport and it takes a bit of planning and imagination to do the munros without a car. If using Braemar as a base and you manage to take a bike with you, there are many options for days of different munros. You can cycle into Derry Lodge or the Luibeg Burn and pick off many hills. Also you can cycle into Geldie Lodge and pick of An Sgarsoch and Carn Ealer which are not as remote as they seem after the cycle in.

I went to Lochnagar from the Braemar side last year. You can cycle from Braemar to Glen Callater bothy.

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From the bothy it is a fine walk on good paths most of the way to Lochnagar and you can easily take in another couple of munros on the way. You will miss all the crowds from the Glen Muick route also, apart from a short time at the summit.

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All the best. :D
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Re: Loch Muick access road restrictions

Postby gaffr » Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:16 am

Agree it is not too difficult to come with alternatives.
Must say that before the off-road bikes became available I used my chunky road bike to get to the base of some of the hills.
As you say it is not a problem to get up Glen Callater to the bothy area and then, as it was for me, to reach the outliers of Lochnagar having much earlier got to the main summit from the Coire. For getting in from Ballater, it is a bit longer, but on a proper road surface and you have the nice run down after your walk. Don't know, but with all of these extra bouncers being employed, would it still be acceptable to carry on up the road after the barriers go up?..and could they stop you from going?
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Re: Loch Muick access road restrictions

Postby Scraggygoat » Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:11 am

In the unlikely event they stopped you cycling up the road, you could just cycle the estate land rover track on the other side of the glen via Birkhall.

Last year this wasn’t an option as there was microhydro works blocking the track.
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Re: Loch Muick access road restrictions

Postby Sunset tripper » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:21 pm

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Re: Loch Muick access road restrictions

Postby gaffr » Fri Apr 02, 2021 7:55 am

Cycling up the west side of the Glen...as suggested earlier.
Reminds me of our first visit to Lochnagar. We manged to get a space in the Ferranti folks elderly canvas topped land-rover. I guess that the driver got onto the South side of the River Due and turned up onto the Glen road before reaching Ballater.
Earlier quieter times when maybe an old vehicle was maybe thought to have business on the estate. Whatever we had a camp and enjoyed our first visit to the area when getting onto Lochnagar....the first of several.
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