Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms National Park

A priority for the Scottish Parliament has been the formation of important National Parks. Currently two parks have been formed - Loch Lomond / the Trossachs and the Cairngorms. The former is quite small but the latter is the largest in Britain. The Cairngorms National Park was created in spring of 2003. The Cairngorm/ Grampian ranges of mountains are the most extensive in Scotland and contain most of the highest peaks in Britain. The park comprises most of these ranges and some of the beautiful countryside that surrounds them. It contains three out of the five Scottish ski centres (Glenshee, Cairngorm and the Lecht) as well as the head-waters of two of Scotland's finest salmon rivers, the Dee and the Spey.

More or less central to the park is the fine Mar Lodge Estate, recently acquired by the National Trust for Scotland. Royal Deeside and the royal estate of Balmoral is on the eastern side of the park. The principal towns in the west of the park are Aviemore, Kingussie and Newtonmore and in the east is Ballater. Braemar is just to the east of the centre of the park

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View towards Cairngorms from Braemar, Scotland

View from Braemar towards the Cairngorm Mountains

The large size of the proposed park means there will be many problems to solve because of the great diversity of interests involved. Indeed, the boundaries themselves were decided more on political than on environmental grounds. Much of the area belongs to large estates and is used for sporting activities such as grouse shooting and deer stalking. But there is also some of the finest hill-walking and climbing country in Britain and the needs of the shooting and walking communities do not always coincide. Scottish Natural Heritage have been coordinating and leading the efforts to form the Cairngorms National Park. The new governing body of the Park comprises both appointed and elected personnel. Dr D.Glass of Ballater was elected to represent Royal Deeside.

The Cairngorms park boundaries roughly coincide with the grey line. The west of Royal Deeside forms the east of the park. The eastern boundary is at Dinnet just east of Ballater

There are two main routes running north-south through the Cairngorms National Park. The A9 which runs up the west side is a busy highway, mostly dual carriageway. In contrast the A93/ A939 road which runs up the east side from Glenshee to the Lecht is a smaller more windy road much suited to those who wish to make progress at a leisurely rate amongst glorious surroundings.

There is no direct route between the east and west -except by foot on the Larig Ghru and other passes.

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Introduction	Cairngorms National Park	Glenshee Ski Centre	Golf in Royal Deeside	Ballater Boules
Walking in Royal Deeside	History with Boots On	Walking near Ballater	Dalmochie Lumberjack's Trail	Tarland Walks
	Munros near Braemar	Aboyne Rugby	Photography in Royal Deeside

This website is maintained for the benefit of the residents of Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland by
Ballater (RD) Ltd, a charitable company limited by Guarantee.