Braemar to Tomintoul

July 4, 2025

We slept in our little twin beds and woke to rain pounding on the skylight in our garret. The temperature at 7:30 when Dave pulled out the portable teapot was 51 degrees, but felt like 47 degrees, according to the weather channel. Morale was not high. We haven’t had to use our portable teakettle much on this tour but I took Jacquie G’s advice and bought a mug at Tiso. I was happy to have it this morning. Thanks Jacquie.

Here I am in our garret, apparently praying for the water to hurry up and boil.

We made our way down to our bikes after cleaning up the best we could in the public bathroom and stripping the sheets off our beds - hostel style. There was no breakfast so we rode into Braemer and ordered coffee and breakfast at the Bothy Braemer - an excellent warm and toasty place. Unfortunately, as we were ordering, Dave realized he had left his glasses back on the bed at the hostel. I was the one who had stripped his sheets and had not noticed them when I did so. (That’s what I get when I try to do household chores). He had to ride back to the hostel, dig around in the hamper with all the dirty sheets from the hostel. He did find them. Disaster averted. (This is a fairly common drama: yesterday he dropped a glove between the Braemer Highland Center and the Fife Arms Hotel but was able to ride back and find it).

The weather forecast had been for rain all day, but as we started out, it was only blustery, cold and dark, which we are becoming to understand is a downright balmy day in Scotland. We rode by Braemar Castle on the way out of town and then we headed towards Balmoral Castle, one of the private residences of the Royal Family.

The Bothy was a welcomed and cozy coffee shop.

We rode a bit on A93 (the Old Military Road) and then intended to peel off on a parallel gravel road for the last 6 km to Balmoral. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the start of the gravel road there was a padlocked gate. Eric, who loves gravel and was going to make it happen, did a little disassembling and reassembling of the fence, and managed to get us all through.

Eric and Melinda repairing Eric's handy work.

We rode over a very cool stone bridge and then had a magical ride through the Ballochbuie Forest on perfect gravel for this tame rider. It was a well-maintained, not very muddy road. The forest is one of the last remaining remnants of the traditional Caledonian pine forest that covered much of Scotland before mankind arrived. Queen Victoria saved this portion from destruction and it has remained as a conserved forest ever since. I will let the pictures tell the tale.

The path thru the Forrest was in excellent shape.

As we approached Balmoral, the gravel gave way to a paved road.

As we arrived at the border of the Balmoral Estate we saw our first highland coos, and boy were they cute.

Highland cattle, affectionately known as coos, are a breed which originated in the Scottish Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland. They're a hearty breed, able to withstand intemperate weather. They have shaggy coats and both genders sport long horns.

At this point Balmoral Castle was in the distance. Balmoral is a castle acquired by Queen Victoria in 1852 and was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth who summered there every year.

We approached the Balmoral grounds from the little used path which was completely devoid of any other traffic, pedestrians or bikes. As we neared the castle, we gradually saw crowds roaming the beautiful grounds. We continued to ride through. We planned to stop and walk around a bit but when Melinda asked an attendant where we could park our bikes she got the evil eye and a rather sharp response that since no bikes were allowed on the grounds there was no bike parking. This took us aback. When we entered the grounds there were no signs about that. Feeling like American scofflaws, we dismounted and walked our bikes out through the front entrance, seeing many more tourists but no signs saying anything about bikes. Later I looked at the Balmoral website. It says nothing about bikes so I felt a bit vindicated. Dave is pretty sure that if we had tried to ride through the front entrance, they would have objected, so I am glad we did the ride the way we did, through the back way. It would have been a shame to miss the coos.

Komoot then took us on a strange route which involved some interesting twists and turns as we departed Balmoral.

Hidden away from general view, but which we ran across thanks to the rather unorthodox route Komoot put us on, we saw this tribute to Queen Victoria.

We have no idea why Komoot chose to put us on this particular detour from the main road.

Pretty quickly after Balmoral we peeled up a single lane road and headed to Tomintoul. This part of the ride consisted of three climbs, each one a little steeper. The weather was blustery and dark but the rain held off and the scenery was gorgeous, the roads perfect, descents fun, and the traffic light and polite. Why we tour.

Eric reaching the top of a particularly steep pitch.

The women delighted to be done with climb 3.

At the bottom of the beginning of the third climb we stopped at a tea shop which are a saving grace of touring in Scotland. This one was the only convenient option on the day’s tour, and it was located perfectly at km point 35, just before the last and stiffest climb. After fortifying ourselves with a pot of tea (Jill) and brie and cranberry paninis we set off, now into a very brisk headwind, to climb Lecht pass. It was a challenge with gradients of 14 percent and we had some concern about the battery life on Eric and Melinda’s batteries. The winds had whipped up adding to the drama. But we all made it to the top and then had a 20 percent incline as part of the descent. It was an exhilarating day. Scotland has been a great place to tour and we learned Eric and Melinda can climb with the best!

The Ever Ready bunny of climbs--it just keeps on going.

We arrived in Tomintoul a little before 4 pm and Diane showed us to our rooms at Argyle Inn. It was a nice, typical b and b and felt like luxury after last night's hostel, even though we had twin beds. Wimbledon was on and there was a whisky store next door that entertained Dave. We also got fluffy robes - sorry, no pics of Dave modeling his.

I have “assigned” Melinda the dining research and she chose an Indian place that was very good and fun - we had pink gin (Bombay Bramble) in our gin and tonics.

A great day.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,341 km (1,454 miles)

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Mark LongDave, I hope you’re keeping copious tasting notes on all the spirits you’ve been enjoying! We’re looking forward to your thorough debrief.
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