Fancy walking 24 miles overnight between Forres and Grantown on Spey? The annual Dava Way Ghost Train Walk will be running again this year on the weekend of 18 – 19 June and is looking for walkers to jump aboard.
The walk uses the Dava Way – most of the route follows the old Highland Railway line and crosses the rarely-visited Dava Moor as well as heading through woodland and farmland.
The central section of the walk goes behind the Knock of Braemoray, remote from the road or habitation apart from the now deserted steading at Bogeney. When inhabited it is reported that the train would slow down here, and that the owner’s dog would run alongside the train, catch the daily paper thrown by the engine driver in it’s mouth and return to the steading. But there are other more mysterious train stories from hereabouts concerning sightings of a Ghost Train. Numerous locals retell stories of the lights, noises and smells of a floating train and carriages rushing past. Any night-time scares encountered by the Ghost Train walkers will be dispelled by bacon butties which will be provided at the half way mark.
For more information about the Ghost Train walk see the Dava Way website. Walkhighlands has full details of the Dava Way route.