Craigellachie to Grantown-on-Spey

July 7, 2025

We left the Craigellachie Hotel around 11:15. The two day stay there was a needed break for all four of us.

A few glitches that made the hotel a little less than a perfect experience: The internet was out for a good part of the day Sunday; When Dave went down at 8:05 pm to get something to eat in the pub they had closed at 8 pm and wouldn’t let him have so much as a bag of crisps; At Monday morning breakfast, they were out of almost half the offerings on the menu. I guess if you run a hotel you can understand how these things happen, but it took at little edge off the pleasure of staying in an otherwise upscale place.

Today was the tale of two halves but both were equally great. We started on a long gravel trail for 18 km. I had been worried it was too much gravel (for Jill a little gravel goes a long way whereas Eric could do it all day). But as we all know, there is gravel - and then there is gravel. With Komoot it’s very difficult to distinguish between the two. Will it be gnarly single track with muddy ruts and changes in elevation - or will it be a well-maintained, level trail? So today it was the latter, and we had a wonderful 18 km on an old rail line that passed through a number of small abandoned stations. It was all in the forest which helped minimize the consequences of the windy conditions - wind seeming to be an inevitability in Scotland.

After 18 km Komoot put us up on a small road. The trail had been so nice, we were a little sad, but the road was just as good in its way, as there was no traffic (maybe ten cars the whole time?) and the ride through the forest was glorious. If the temp had been 10 degrees warmer and there had been less wind, it would have been great to camp out!

That morning we had packed a sandwich from the buffet (with permission this time) and we were looking for a place to stop and eat. We had moved away from the river when we got on the road and it was so windy we weren’t finding anyplace suitable. I was mentally accepting the fact we would be finding a bench on the main square in Grantown-on-Spey (our final destination) to eat when we turned into the river again and there was a beautifully mowed bank with a bench. There was a sign in the small parking area adjacent that said “private property” and we were pretty sure this was a private fishing club, so we were uncertain of the etiquette of using their bench. Fortunately, as we were pondering this, a car drove out of the fenced area and we stopped and asked the driver if it was okay for us to sit and eat there. This very nice Scottish gentleman said: “Of course it's alright, and there is a handy bench for you!” Thus feeling like we had done our due diligence, we unpacked our provisions and proceeded to have an extremely pleasant half hour along the bank of the river Spey (Yes, we were in fact eating Spey-side) and we're now protected from the wind. Besides our ham and cheese sandwich on excellent Scottish bread, Eric and Melinda pulled out a Twix caramel bar and a Mars bar and we all got bites. While we were enjoying the beautiful Spey river, a group of kayakers floated by - all very friendly.

After this interlude, we felt like we needed to move, so we packed up and rode the last 6 km into Grantown-on-Spey to the Grant Arms Hotel. Either I or Komoot messed up on the route a bit and our ride in was a bit discombobulated, but we got there in the end.

The Grant Arms was an old Victoria era building (1875) and it was another classic Scottish hotel, slightly shabby, but still comfortable.

Our room was large with a great tub. Our bikes got parked in the laundry room, an adventure in itself; the clerk directed us to bring our bikes in the front door, which looked impossible, because it was a revolving door. We watched as she dismantled the door to make room and we hauled our bikes through the lobby.

Dave was struck with joy when he saw a sign for “Guest Laundry” and it turned out to be right next door to our room. An unscheduled laundry opportunity always cheers him up and there was plenty of time to do it in our afternoon break. Not only that, but the hotel provided soap. Small pleasures when you travel. (Joy? Jill grossly exaggerates my appreciation of having found the resource so close by. I do enjoy the challenges of doing laundry while we travel, but it's still a bit of a chore for me.)

The facilities were free of charge and they even provided laundry detergent.

Melinda was on dinner-finding duty - always a challenge on a Monday night - and she had booked a table at The Craig Bar. This turned out to be a pub that specialized in meat pies. The menu was a list of about a dozen different pies with chips, and nary a vegetable in sight. Dave and I had the “moo and blue” which was steak and Stilton cheese. Delicious. Eric and Melinda had chicken in theirs. We had a spirited conversation with Zach our waitress, especially after noticing she was wearing a t-shirt with the goonies from Astoria, Oregon. (The film “The Goonies” was filmed in Oregon in the 1980s).

Afterwards Dave enjoyed a visit with the bar tender in our hotel: we had ridden by the Tamdhu distillery today, so a dram of Tamdhu 15-year was on for the evening nightcap. (Dave: The Tamdhu was a bit of a revelation. It matched the MacCallan Rare Cask for its smoothness and had beautifully balanced sweetness against the alcohol bite with tropical fruits and vanilla coming to mind. I will definitely hunt this one down when I return to the States.)

Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 2,421 km (1,503 miles)

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Stuart GarrettThose are actually canoeists!
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