ACTIVE OUTDOORS: Flocking to Kincraig to visit Duke of Gordon's monument

When I have the luxury of sitting in the passenger seat while my better half drives, I’ll often gaze at the Highland scenery, which is spectacular no matter what time of year it happens to be.

Although I personally prefer seeing the Cairngorms in the winter, when there’s a wee bit of snow and the peaks resemble Viennetta, a sun-kissed afternoon is also good – as long as there are no wild fires nearby.

This time it was warm, yet cloudy. Travelling south on the A9 just after Aviemore, I have often wondered about the monument that you can see on the hilltop surrounded by trees so I went to do some research and found that you could walk to it.

Sunday afternoon was looking dryish so the Mrs decided we should go and if the kids can scale Fyrish then they should be able to do this easy enough.

In the car, I pointed out the memorial column to the kids and said that is where we are going today. Their lukewarm response was something along the lines of how far away is it and how long will it take?

We parked at Dalraddy caravan park to pick up the start of the walk on the Speyside Way, going under the railway bridge and turning left onto the Speyside way. Quite soon after you will meet a quiet tarred track, turn right, follow this track for around 400 metres. After turning a corner we took a left fork up a steep slope into some woodland.

We followed this track to a gate and went into the livestock field, filled with what my eldest described as “terrifying sheep”. She insisted that due to that, I had to declare this the worst walk of all time. Just to give a wee bit of context here, she loves sheep dogs – they are her favourite animal on the planet – but she’s hated sheep ever since she had a tumble after a collision with one at Dingwall Mart when she was a year or so younger.

Anyway, the sheep couldn’t care less that we were there and we dodged their droppings as we followed the fence line to the left to the top of the field and went through another metal gate. Turning back there are spectacular views south over Strathspey.

At this point, the estate track is a little overgrown but thins out. The track continues to gently climb through beautiful woodlands and we enjoyed spotting squirrels who were playing in the trees.

The blaeberries we also starting to come out and we picked a few on the way... I say we, but it was the wife and kids. I wasn’t going to risk it especially given the wildlife we’d already seen, as well as plenty of dog walkers.

On the route up the hill, look out for a small path through the heather to your right which takes you to the Waterloo Cairn – this looks like just a pile of stones but once you reach it you can see the other side is a viewpoint overlooking Kinrara House and the Cairngorms. The monument itself was built by the Marques of Huntly in 1815 in memory of the soldiers and officers who fell in the battle of Waterloo.

Returning to the path we continued upwards and eventually we could see the top of the monument and the kids ran ahead. The monument commemorates the last Duke of Gordon who died in 1836 and sits at the head of the Torr and has panoramic views of Loch Alvie and Strathspey.

Here we had our picnic of cheese and pickle sandwiches, crisps, juice and fruit, did some Pokemon hunting on the mobile gaming app and then returned via the same route. This was a lovely quiet walk and we only saw a few families.

The climb was much easier in comparison to Fyrish and although we walked, I’d imagine someone fit enough could run it – but I’d be less inclined to try wheeling it.

At the end is the bonus of the Alvie Forest Food trucks where we enjoyed a snack and refreshment from Cabin Coffee while the kids had fun in the nearby play park.

Route details

Duke of Gordon’s Monument

Distance 3 miles / 5km

Terrain Paths and forest tracks, steep in places

Start/finish Dalraddy caravan site, Kincraig

Map OS Landranger 35 / OS Explorer OL57

A climb from the campsite to a monument overlooking Strathspey

Click here see the route in OS Maps