I’m planning the route I’ll be taking in a couple of weeks (off-road, self supported) & have a choice to make between two options I’ve seen for the middle section at Kingussie. Any local advice would be welcomed!

Option 1:
Kingussie -> SE to Glenfeshie -> Geldie Burn -> Braemar -> Balmoral

Option 2:
Kingussie -> NE forest to Feshiebridge -> Glenmore Forest Park -> Tomintoul -> join trail to Balmoral at Invercauld House

Any thoughts? Cheers!

Option 1 was what I did on C2C couple years back. Well Newtonmore to Ballater, but guts are the same.

I found it a lovely route; there was a minor hiccup (bridge out) in getting over to Glen Feshie, and the track through the Glen Feshie watershed can be lovely or a nightmare depending on how wet it’s been, but it was the longest section of our C2C and was well worth it. Couple of tricky sections as far as taking the right path / line in Glen Feshie is concerned, can end up on the ‘wrong’ side very easily!

Have also done the section from Glenmore round past Tomintoul and southwards as part of a Tour de Cairngorms – navigation isn’t a problem, river crossings aren’t really a problem but would say it’s more of a doubletrack slog for the most part, and the climb over from Tomintoul to Braemar / Invercauld is a killer.

Carrying on past Braemar we headed through the forest to Ballater and then South

Thanks, useful info. Reckon I’m leaning towards option 1 (my original) at the moment, then ending in Stonehaven rather than Montrose as the latter seems to have a lot of road for the last 50km or so.

+1 for option 1

I found it a lovely route; there was a minor hiccup (bridge out) in getting over to Glen Feshie

That would be the shonky bridge

+1 for option 1

There is a bridge just as you pass a lodge with cattle grid as you come out of the wooded estate road. I’m sure its now marked as the last possible bridging point.

coupled with the fact stoneys a nice place and montrose frankly is a dump (apoligies in advance to your montrose folk ….but it is )

awesome cheers Terry. Route almost fully planned now. Gonna be a beauty 🙂

Part ways up Glen Feshie I remember an active landslip (think big scree + tree trunks) with a narrow path across. If you don’t like exposure it could be nasty. Otherwise – cross with care.

There’s a pic on druidh’s blog, somewhere.

There’s actually two landslips.

At NN862901, the estate track now crosses the river, twice, on a flatter piece of ground below the landslip. That means two very wet river crossings. The path over the landslip here is passable with care if you get off and push.

Around NN850913, the old path can now bypassed by fording the river around NN851907 which connects up with the road/track down the west side of the Feshie. Again, it’s possible to push your bike over the landslip without too much of a problem.

P1040212 by druidh_dubh, on Flickr

ah, useful info thanks. I’m putting together a route that’ll hopefully be suitable for repeatable ITT rides in the future. A bit of hike-a-bike isn’t such a bad thing on a route like this, but obviously I’ll be able to decide on a suitable final route once I’ve actually ridden it. Hope to have the time to ride it in both directions too.

BTW, what is your route to Kingussie? I might have a suggestion for you there too.

Current plan is this, but I’m waiting for some other feedback too. Anything you can suggest would be great.

Kyle of Lochalsh -> west around southerly end of Loch Duich then follow coast in semi-circle south then east -> Glen Garry -> Fort Augustus -> Corrieyairack -> Kingussie.