Tomintoul community paths leaflet

Cairngorms Paths

Cairngorms Paths Tomin­toul Tomin­toul Trails

Dun­dee Perth B9009 A95 Dufftown Explore the highest vil­lage in the Highlands

Wel­come to Tomin­toul At 1,165 feet (350m) above sea level Tomin­toul is the highest vil­lage in the High­lands. Com­ing from the Gael­ic words mean­ing ​“the mound of the barn” or ​“the barn knoll” Tomin­toul was ori­gin­ally foun­ded in the late 1700’s by the Duke of Gor­don. The Duke’s plan was to encour­age scattered ten­ants to move to a ​“planned” vil­lage. Today the vil­lage still retains this ​“planned” char­ac­ter with its wide main street, square and grid lay­out. Inverness Tomin­toul Cairngorms Nation­al Park Spey­side Way Grant­own- on-Spey Tomin­toul Trails A net­work of paths and tracks leads out of the vil­lage. With some­thing for every­one, these provide inspir­ing views, rich loc­al his­tory and abund­ant wild­life. Fol­low the col­our coded way­mark­ers so that you don’t get lost. Tomin­toul sits with­in Glen­liv­et Estate, part of The Crown Estate, where vis­it­ors are wel­come to explore the paths and tracks on foot, by bike and on horse­back. To find out more about the estate and oth­er walks in the area drop in to the Estate Vis­it­or Centre at the top of the main street. Tomin­toul Cairngorm Moun­tains R. Avon Brae­mar A93 R. Dee A939 A944 Bal­later For inform­a­tion on paths, loc­al events, facil­it­ies and accommodation:

Vis­it­or Inform­a­tion Centres: Tomin­toul: 01807580 285 Glen­liv­et Estate: 01479 870 070 Grant­own-on-Spey: 01479 872 242

Use­ful web sites: www​.glen​liv​etest​ate​.co​.uk www​.glen​liv​et​-cairngorms​.co​.uk www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk www​.vis​it​cairngorms​.com www​.walkhigh​lands​.co​.uk

If you enjoyed ​‘Tomin­toul Trails’ then look out for oth­er Com­munity Path Leaf­lets to help you explore more of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK

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A939 take care on road B9136 Bridge of PAvon Cnoc Lochy Tomin­toul Trails to DA Carn Diamh NORTH half mile one kilo­metre Urlar­more Camp­dal­more take care cross­ing road Vic­tor Gaffney View­point A939 steep paths with steps Bridge of Avon Link Descrip­tion: Essen­tially a spur from Tomin­toul Cir­cu­lar Walk through wood­land and farm­land to the old Bridge of Avon. The bridge was built dur­ing con­struc­tion of the mil­it­ary road in 1754 and was ren­ov­ated after the new road bridge was built in the late 1970s. The bridge and pic­nic site give an excel­lent vant­age point for view­ing this lovely river and its wild­life. Dis­tance: ¹³⁄₄ miles (3km) ONE WAY Approx Time: 1 hour Start: Main Square Ter­rain: Mostly paths and tracks but with road cross­ing. Short, steep sec­tions with steps. Tomin­toul Cir­cu­lar Walk Descrip­tion: Cir­cu­lar walk through coun­tryside around the vil­lage giv­ing fine views to sur­round­ing hills and oppor­tun­it­ies to see wader birds in spring. Path also links to Spey­side Way Spur and Bridge of Avon. See map. Dis­tance: ²¹⁄₂ miles (4km) Approx Time: ¹¹⁄₂ hours Start: Main Square Ter­rain: Mostly quiet lanes, paths and tracks but with main road cross­ing. One steep sec­tion with steps. See map for details. Tomin­toul Coun­try Walk River Avon Cults Ford­mouth P Museum & Vis­it­or Inform­a­tion Centre St Brid­get Con­glass Water i P Adven­ture TOMIN­TOUL Play­ground Del­nabo Descrip­tion: A pleas­ant cir­cuit along­side the River Avon which passes Queen Victoria’s View­point over­look­ing Glen Avon. Dis­tance: ⁴¹⁄₂ miles (7 kms) Approx Time: 3 hours Water of Ail­nack Start: Main car park in vil­lage. For a short­er walk use Queen’s View car park. Ter­rain: Minor roads and tracks. Spey­side Way Tomin­toul Spur Descrip­tion: Pass through wood­land into fields which often con­tain live­stock. Please take care not to dis­turb farm anim­als and keep dogs on a lead. On reach­ing minor road the Spey­side Way con­tin­ues north to Glen­liv­et. How­ever, you can retrace your route back to the Square or return to Tomin­toul via minor road and B 9008 to give a cir­cu­lar route with fine views as shown on the map. Dis­tance: ²¹⁄₂ miles (4km) cir­cu­lar route Approx Time: 1 hour Start: Main Square Ter­rain: Farm track and rough path, crosses open farm­land, minor road with mostly no foot­way. P Queen’s View Altrava Kep­poch River Avon Dela­vor­ar Birch­field road track path toi­lets car park P view­point all-abil­it­ies trail & inform­a­tion centre i Milton Bridge of Con­glass P B9008 THE CROWN ESTATE Glen­liv­et Estate Inform­a­tion Centre & A939 Old Mil­it­ary Road Tom na Bat Enjoy Scotland’s out­doors respons­ibly SCOT­TISH take respons­ib­il­ity for your own actions respect the interests of oth­er people care for the envir­on­ment. KNOW THE CODE BEFORE YOU GO OUT­DOOR ACCESS CODE out​door​ac​cess​-scot​land​.com Please keep dogs on leads around live­stock All­tach­beg Delachule to Glen­mul­liach Forest 1 mile Wood­land Nature Trail Descrip­tion: Short trail with vari­ety of labelled nat­ive trees and shrubs to allow you to brush up on your iden­ti­fic­a­tion skills! Dis­tance: one third of a mile (0.5 km) Approx Time: ¹⁄₄ — ¹⁄₂ hour Start and fin­ish: Glen­liv­et Estate Inform­a­tion Centre, south end of vil­lage. Ter­rain: Sur­faced paths with slight gradi­ents in places. Suit­able for wheel­chairs and bug­gies. Old Mil­it­ary Road Descrip­tion: March, walk, cycle or just dawdle in the foot­steps of 18^th cen­tury red­coats along a sec­tion of old mil­it­ary road. Lovely views over the Con­glass val­ley and farm­land to Ben Rinnes. Dis­tance: ¹¹⁄₄ miles (2kms) ONE WAY Approx Time: ¹⁄₂ hour each way. Start and fin­ish: Glen­liv­et Estate Inform­a­tion Centre, south end of vil­lage. Ter­rain: Rough forest track. Based on Ord­nance Sur­vey map­ping with the per­mis­sion of the Con­trol­ler of HMSO. © Crown Copy­right 2011. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence Num­ber 100049979. Map and text © CNPA 2011. Photo cred­its: CNPA, The Crown Estate and Mike Drury, Whisky Castle.

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Wild­life In the spring and sum­mer the wet mead­ows around the vil­lage are noisy with the calls of wad­ing birds, such as lap­wing. The Nation­al Park con­tains the most import­ant inland breed­ing sites of these waders and the fields around Tomin­toul are a cru­cial part of this success.

Red­coats and Reiv­ers Posi­tioned near the cross­ing of the River Avon, Tomin­toul has always provided an import­ant stop­over for weary trav­el­lers, cattle drovers and sol­diers. Fol­low­ing the Jac­ob­ite rebel­lion of 1745 the mil­it­ary road arrived in Tomin­toul carving a line in the land­scape link­ing the forts at Cor­garff, Brae­mar and north to Fort George on the coast, bring­ing occu­pa­tion to these wild lands and quelling the insur­gents. Even in peace­ful times cattle drovers had to be wary of reiv­ers (rust­lers) steal­ing cattle away through the passes back to the west­ern Highlands.

Trav­el­lers and Tour­ists With its warm high­land hos­pit­al­ity, Tomin­toul has always been a wel­come rest­ing place for tour­ists. Queen Vic­tor­ia paused on her travels in 1860 and was so taken with the view over the River Avon that she wrote about it in her High­land diar­ies. Today vis­it­ors can find out about the vil­lage at the museum and vis­it­or centre in the square, and enjoy loc­al shops and tearooms.

EST. 188 Glen­fid­dich Glen­id di The wood­lands around the vil­lage are rich in flowers, birds and anim­als. Home to roe deer and red squir­rels, the woods are alive with birds such as red­starts and spot­ted flycatch­ers in sum­mer and ablaze with ragged robin and dev­ils bit sca­bi­ous. If you look hard enough you’ll find del­ic­ate heath spot­ted orch­ids. The rivers are a great place to see birds like dip­pers and grey wag­tails hunt insects above and below the water.

Let the Games begin! Tomin­toul Games are one of the old­est tra­di­tion­al high­land games in Scot­land. People come from miles around to test their strength at the games on the third Sat­urday in July. A great fam­ily day out and a chance to have a go!