The Dava Way is a walking and biking route that uses the
line of the old Highland Railway between Grantown-on-Spey and Forres. It passes
high over heather moors and open hills but it’s also bookended by beautiful, autumn
woods. As it’s only 24 miles long, we thought there’d be no trouble in delaying
our departure from Grantown on our bikes to let morning rain pass. We were so sure that we would easily make it to Forres before dark. But we were wrong!
The route started well enough out of Grantown, cycling through the woods to climb up onto the moor. But we were soon bogged down in mud, courtesy of the recent wet weather, and progress with loaded bikes was extremely slow. Luckily, there was plenty to divert our attention.
A few miles into the route, the trail passed above Huntly’s Cave ravine, a dramatic cut in the landscape that was almost hidden by dense trees. Above the ravine is Carn-na-Croiche, also known as the Hanging Hill. In the 17th and 18th centuries cattle reiving was rife and Huntly’s Cave ravine was an excellent spot to ambush reivers as they returned to Lochaber and Badenoch with their booty. Those caught here were hung on the Hanging Hill gallows.
Leaving this gruesome tale behind, we cycled up onto the open moor and the highest point of the route. We saw nobody up here and it really felt quite remote. Our trail was crossed by another track which headed out over the hills following a route used in 1690 by a party of Government foot-soldiers. They were heading over to Cromdale to suppress a Jacobite army that had encamped there the previous evening. Despite having to ford the River Spey, they won the battle which held back the Jacobite uprising in the Highlands for another 25 years.
In some places, the track was firmer and we made some progress but in other places the chunky ballast, left over from when the line was in use, slowed us even more than the mud. But we loved being out in the hills on our bikes and were reminded how high we were as we cycled into Heatherbell Cutting. The cutting was the site of many line blockages due to snow and this led the railway company to build its first snowploughs. In 1963, a southbound train out of Forres was derailed here in deep snow. Engines sent to assist ended up being stuck for two weeks in the drifts. Nobody was hurt and the passengers eventually made it back to Forres.
Beyond Heatherbell Cutting, we skirted around the edges of a small hill called Knock of Braemory. At the foot of the hill, we pulled into the Halfway Hut. There was a clue in the name that we were way behind schedule! It was clear at this point that we wouldn’t make it to Forres before dark, especially with the early nights of late October. The Halfway Hut is a former linesman's hut and has been renovated for folk to use for a lunch stop or to get out of bad weather. It had plenty of charm with a solar panel powering fairy lights, so we lingered a while inside enjoying some snacks before getting back on the bikes.
As we descended, we passed into a pleasant landscape of woods and pastures, punctuated with the vibrant golds and russets of autumn colours in the trees and the bracken. Before too long, I found among the pines probably the only dry bit of ground for pitching the tents while Graham found a mains supplied tank at the edge of a field that provided water for drinking and cooking. So that was us sorted for a pleasant evening camping in the woods. Unseen birds twittered in the canopy above and gentle rain showered the tents at some point in the night.
Next day, we cycled the final section of the Dava Way into Forres. It was stunning in places as the track passed through autumn birch woods, their leaves blowing on the breeze like golden confetti. At Forres we turned around but ours was not a return ticket for the Dava Way. Instead, we took a quiet hill road back to Speyside.
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