Scotland Off the Beaten Track

Highland | Newtonmore | Outdoor museum | ★★★★

We first visited the Highland Folk Museum on a warm afternoon in June 2019, expecting to find an interesting heritage site that might take an hour or two explore. We eventually finished our visit after two days and about 7 hours spent within the gates, and pretty much agreed that this is about the best museum anywhere in the Scottish Highlands. The "museum" is actually a series of three, reconstructed villages displaying Highland life from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, spread along a narrow site about a mile in length. At the west end is Baile Gean: a 1730s township reconstructed to the exact layout (well, a mirror image!) of Raitts, which was the region's original settlement prior to the founding of Kingussie in the 1790s. Next, in the middle is Balameanach, with buildings from the early 20th century. And to the east is another cluster of houses centred around Aultlarie Farm Steading, representing a broad range of dates…

Highland | Aviemore | Half day walk | ★★★★

Nature's alive and well in this verdant haven on the west side of Aviemore. Craigellachie is a beautiful National Nature Reserve, with birch woodland and lochans nestling below crags where peregrine falcons have been known to nest. The eastern fringe is noisy from A9 traffic, but head away from the main road and car engines are soon replaced by birdsong. The reserve map (linked below) shows the main path network, and our circuit explores pretty much all of them, including a steep spur up to the open summit of Craigellachie itself. This is well worth the extra effort: the inhospitable Cairngorms and barren Monadhliath ranges both look awesome from the windswept summit cairn, and even the ugliest parts of Aviemore town centre look OK from this height!


📌 Walk: Aviemore's Craigellachie - falcon's-eye view ★★★★
Start / finish at Craigellachie nature reserve car park at Aviemore Youth Hostel, half a mile south of the town centre, G.R.: …