TILT TO TRUIM

From the River Tilt in Blair Atholl, this route takes you under the great hills which guard the Drumochter Pass: the Sow of Atholl and the Boar of Badenoch, via and its distillery on the River Truim and over the “cofn road” to Laggan. We then follow the upper reaches of the via Newtonmore to .

See overleaf for step by step route instructions. Tilt to Truim

Before you set out: Laggan to Newtonmore • Book accommodation at Arden House We’re now following the upper reaches of the River (www.arden-house.info) or at Tigh-Na-Bruaich Spey and have splendid views of the north western (www.tigh-na-bruaich-kingussie.co.uk) Cairngorm mountains. We stop in Newtonmore to visit the Museum which is • Book dinner at The Cross one of the very few privately-owned museums in (www.thecross.co.uk) or at The Silverfjord . If we have youngsters along with us we’ll (www.silverfjordhotel.co.uk) take an hour or so to go on the Wildcat Hunt and try to spot all the pottery wildcats hidden around Blair Atholl to Dalwhinnie the village. We then have a welcome cup of tea and some delicious home baking in the Tuck Shop We head north for just four miles as the House of or the Newtonmore Grill. Bruar is an essential stop for an early cofee and a browse around the shops. We might have a wee Newtonmore to Kingussie walk to the Bruar falls before heading north again. It’s only a 10 minute journey to Kingussie, so we If we stay on the road to Calvine, we can pop into might feel like stretching our legs along part of the Roger Lee’s studio to see his watercolours, after Wild Cat Trail in Newtonmore, or head to Kingussie which we join the A9. We drive over Drumochter for a wee wander round the Gynack Mill Trail, after Pass, which is guarded by two famous hills which we pop into the Iona Gallery. Comfortable – the Sow of Atholl to the south and the Boar of accommodation awaits us at Arden House or Badenoch and the north. Turning into Dalwhinnie, Tigh-Na-Bruaich and we enjoy a fne dining we visit the Distillery which lies alongside the experience at The Cross or a great pub meal at River Truim. The Silverfjord. If we’d like to meet the locals Dalwhinnie to Laggan over a glass of real ale after dinner, we might pop into the Tipsy Laird during the evening, especially Originally ‘Dail Chuinnidh’, meaning ‘meeting place’, if the weather is nice enough to sit out in their Dalwhinnie is one of the smallest settlements in the beer garden. Aviemore and Upper Spey area. It has never had its own graveyard; burials historically took place in Laggan (which has six burial grounds!) and the old military road which links the two villages is still called the ‘cofn road’. We drive over this road to have lunch at the Pottery in Laggan Bridge. Here we are in the heart of the ‘Monarch of the Glen’ country as seen on the TV series.