Badenoch - Abracadabra

Badenoch is a well known area for me so here were a few days wandering familiar trails, enjoying the place mostly to myself before the busy season begins at Easter. And a chance to grab the tail end of this winter.

The first day was grey, still and clagged in with low cloud. There was not a stitch of snow bar what was perhaps hiding in the clouds on the higher tops. Linked to the train station and encircling the village of Newtonmore, is a wonderful route called the Wildcat Trail. It was a day for walking that route which has great variety to keep your interest when the big hills are hidden. The path starts by following the banks of the Spey which is already a significant river here despite its source being only a little further west from Newtonmore. The path then turns north, away from the river, and wanders across the moors. My favourite section is where the route passes through old birch woods high above the village. On a grey, quiet day with nobody else around there’s a prehistroic atmosphere to the place such that you imagine a pterodactyl might come swooping through the trees.

A pleasant offshoot of the Wildcat Trail is the quiet road up Glen Banchor and I pitched my tent beyond the road end, by the river. A favourite spot. When I unzipped the tent next morning, it was as if some magician had waved a wand during the night and said “Abracadabra”. The place was transformed from spring to winter by a blanket of fresh snow. A westerly gale scoured the hills, shifting yesterday’s low cloud and revealing a stunning panorama of snow-covered peaks in the golden hour of morning sunshine.   

That gale put me off my chosen hill about two-thirds of the way up as I was almost knocked off my feet in the gusts. A lower top had to do this time. Even then, it was a struggle to stay upright in the icy blasts. But the views were superb of winter hills and weather fronts that brought in fresh blizzards of snow, moving over the hills and engulfing everything in their path, including me. 

The snow showers persisted until the evening when I met my friend off the late train. As the skies cleared, we walked out into the black night under a sky sparkling with stars and pitched the tents on a snow-covered meadow by a bend in the river.

The last day saw us set out from Newtonmore in heavy snow to walk over the moors to Kingussie. Big, wet flurries  were ever at our backs. With a blanket of fresh snow, the old woods were monochrome that morning. 

As the trail approached Loch Gynack, tucked away in the craggy hills above Kingussie, the snow underfoot ended and the world magically returned to the mossy greens and purple birch of the first day. An ice-covered path climbed up steeply through the birch then crossed open ground to deposit us on the top of Creag Bheag. It’s a favourite wee hill of mine with a great view. But not today as snow-laden clouds piled through the valley.

Oh for a bit of magic now to clear it away.

Fact File

Start: Newtonmore Train Station

Finish: Kingussie Train Station
Public transport: Edinburgh/Glasgow to Inverness trains stop at Newtonmore and Kingussie

My route: Out of the train station, walk up Station Road towards the village but after the row of cottages on the left, the link to the Wildcat Trail is signed to the left. Follow this across the railway and down to the river where it joins the Wildcat Trail proper. The Wildcat Trail is well signed and encircles the countryside around the village. At the northwest corner of the trail, it joins the road up Glen Banchor. The tarmac road in Glen Banchor ends at a parking place but a dirt track continues west and gives acces to the hills. I only climbed the tiny top of Creag nan Abhag that day in the winds but it afforded great views. I used a faint track initially that leaves to the right just after the copse of trees on a knoll just after the bridge below the road end. For the walk to Creag Bheag, we used the Wildcat Trail to Strone and then took the track signed for Kingussie which ascends to the forestry ahead on the hill before swinging east to Loch Gynack. In the trees at Loch Gynack, there is a signpost for Creag Bheag and trails down into Kingussie.

Tips: Sit-in fishers suppers, including gluten-free, at Joe's in Kingussie at the main crossroads.