Scotland Road Trip: Grantown-on-Spey (Day 4)

Winding through a once glacial valley, this hike along River Feshie took us through the beautiful Cairngorms National Park.

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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We started the day with an amazing breakfast at Firhall Highland Bed & Breakfast (read our review here). Our favorite breakfasts of the trip were at this place, and we would absolutely stay there again in a heartbeat. We had made our breakfast selections the prior evening from a few standard options as well as some daily specials.

Breakfast started out with two choices for porridge - a standard Scottish porridge or one with yogurt and almonds. On this first morning, Dustin, my in-laws, and I all opted for the standard option, though the following morning I switched to try the other. Both were absolutely delicious and made me think of porridge (or oatmeal, as we’d call it in the US) in a totally new light. The owners of the B&B were happy to share more about what makes their recipe unique; they use three different types of oats, rolled oats, steel-cut, and pinhead oats. The pinhead oats are thicker and need to be soaked overnight but they add a wonderful texture that helps to break up the pasty mass oatmeal often becomes. To underscore how much we enjoyed this, both of our households immediately went in search of these oats after we got home and have been making porridge for breakfast a lot. Dustin and I found some pinhead oats at our local grocery store, and my in-laws ordered the exact brand the B&B used, which they had to order online.

For our main breakfast entrees, my in-laws got the full Scottish breakfast - a feast of meats including the traditional Scottish haggis, eggs, toast, and beans - and Dustin and I each had the strawberry and white chocolate pancakes. Regretfully, we did not think to take any photos of our meal as the plating was simply gorgeous!

I love having a delicious, filling breakfast before going hiking, so we were fully energized and ready to go. We had pre-ordered picnic lunches to take with us - more on that later - so that we didn’t have to worry about hitting the market and packing anything ourselves. We grabbed our lunch bags and hit the road with GPS instructions for the hike we wanted to locate. First we made a quick stop at the local market to get some bottled water since the tap water in the area had an odd taste to it. In general, we are very good about not being wasteful and carry our own refillable water bottles wherever we travel, but in some locations the local water requires that we supplement with purchased water. When that happens, we buy it in the largest bottles possible to minimize waste and pour it into our reusable bottles to haul with us more easily.

From the parking lot,you hike along the road for a bit before going through a gate and turning onto the path.

Eventually the path leads you right next the this winding river.

Heather was everywhere and was blooming beautifully in late June.

Natural forest regeneration is being allowed to progress, and many trees dot the moors.

At other places you can spot planted forests with trees orderly planted in rows. Often this is done for timber production.

“The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

Scottish moors are a mix of low growing vegetation; heather, grasses, and a mix of wildflowers are the most evident.

The curving embankment and the harder to see ruts along the basin show an old river channel that is now devoid of water. The changing course of River Feshie and other rivers is an active topic of scientific study.

We drove south for about 45 minutes to the starting point of a hike along the River Feshie. We had located information on this hike online, and the GPS link with directions got us exactly where we needed to go. Also helpful, we had printed out the step-by-step instructions for the hike that are nicely laid out on the site. Once you get fully into the hike, you’re all set, but there are a few early steps going through gates and making turns that we may not have found as easily without these directions. You can find the site and information we used here.

During the spring melt and other times of heavy runoff, this entire channel will be filled with water sweeping away vegetation struggling to gain a foothold.

While there are many hiking options in the area we chose this hike due to the beauty of the area but also because of its unique geology. Glen Feshie is often described as the “Jewel of the Cairngorms” due to the combination of natural land-forms and thriving ecosystem resulting from their natural forest regeneration strategy. Dustin is always interested in unique geology so when he heard about the braided river channels of River Feshie he wanted to see it for himself. Braided rivers are found in wide flat areas and are characterized multiple water channels and frequent changes in water channel location. Due to the flat geology, and in the case of River Feshie, the massive amount of gravel and other sediment present, a braided river will frequently change its course as the water relocates sediment from one location to another thus forming new water channels. Add to this the striking peaks of the Cairngorms and the beautiful glacial valley the river runs through and we are left with a wonderful location for hiking.

This beautiful U-shaped valley is clear evidence of Scotland’s glacial history. Due to their weight, glaciers carve out well-rounded valleys between mountains and hills.

This V-shaped valley told me our path would soon be intersected by a river. The movement of water creates sharper erosion patterns compared to a slow moving (and very heavy glacier)

The entire hike on that site says it takes 3-4 hours and is 7.75 miles in length. That hike is a loop, but because the step outlined as ‘stage 5’ in the instructions mentions a bridge that was swept away, we already knew we would only be able to get as far as that spot before turning around. Due to cloudy, drizzly weather with a larger storm system moving in, we ended up going 4.25 miles in total and had a really nice hike. We took just over 2 hours on the hike, slowed down by the fact that we stopped a lot to take photos and also ate lunch. The best part was that the skies opened up in a downpour just as we got back to the car so we lucked out!

This taste of hiking in the Cairngorms was just enough to tell me I need to return for more hiking in the area. The scenery was beautiful with rolling hills, marshy bogs, flowers and grasses, the river running alongside our path, and low fog moving in along the mountains and creating beautiful light and an eerie mistiness. Something in the air and weather felt reminiscent of hiking in the Pacific Northwest of the United States although the mountains themselves reminded us of the Appalachian Mountains of the east coast of America.

It is interesting seeing a mix of planted trees and naturally germinated saplings. I imagine this hike will have an entirely different feel in twenty years or so.

Witness the elusive species of Scottish Cow Rock… there was an entire “herd” just to the right. Black lichen covering nearly white dolomite really let our imagination run wild.

Out on the moors we rarely saw other people and could really enjoy nature.

The colors on this hike were spectacular!

After the trail went down a fairly steep embankment to a rocky area near the river’s edge, we decided it would be a good time to stop for lunch. Perched on rocks, we ate some of the packed lunches from the B&B. We had left portions of the lunches back at the car for a snack. The packed lunches were stowed in insulated bags and were incredibly well prepared and full of food. There was a thermos with hot water for our coffee and tea, milk stowed in adorable glass bottles to add to the coffee or tea in ceramic mugs, real cloth napkins, sandwiches, blueberry muffins, chips, fresh fruit, and a dessert wafer (Tunnock’s milk chocolate and caramel, which we fell in love with and bought a few more times along the trip).

Even with rain in the distance, there is always time for a selfie!

At the river’s edge, we ate our sandwiches - two of our group had ordered bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and two had ordered pickle and cheddar sandwiches on baguettes. We came across this pickle concoction a few times on the trip - it’s really more of what I would call a pickle chutney and isn’t something common in the US.

With rain clearly moved in to stay, we decided to have a quiet, relaxing afternoon at the B&B after arriving back there around 3:30pm until we went to dinner at 7pm. Dustin had also twisted his ankle a little on the hike (be mindful not to carelessly step off the trail the ground is very uneven) so he was able to keep off of it and keep it elevated enough that it didn’t impact the rest of our trip, though we did a little less walking the following day as well.

Because the food was so amazing, we returned to Craig’s Bar for a second night. While we had made a reservation the night before, we would have done okay without one. But this second night, we were fortunate to have made one because it ended up being fully packed. Three of us opted for the Moo + Blue Pie again (steak and stilton cheese), and Dustin had a chicken leek and thyme pie.