Walking in Royal Deeside and Scotland - Ballater Walking Festival
Ballater Walking Festival - Royal Deeside -Scotland - Saturday 21st to Friday 27st May 2011
Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms is a hill walking and walkers paradise and this part of Scotland offers some of the best walking in Scotland and Northern Europe. The Ballater Walking Festival is an annual event in the area and there are no less than 24 Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet) in the Braemar and Ballater area alone! The area is great for hill walking amd famous hills and mountain names such as Lochnagar, Morven, Derry Cairngorm, Beinn a Bhuird and the Lairig Ghru all lie on our patch. There are however lots of hill walking experiences for all abilities with literally hundreds of footpaths, trails and walks to suit all levels from the young to experienced and committed Munro-baggers.
Ballater Walking Festival takes place in May and is a popular and major annual event www.royal-deeside.org.uk/RDnews/walkweek.htm
For a list of top ten short walks in the Deeside area please click our page on www.discoverroyaldeeside.com/short-walks-top-10/ and for top ten longer walks www.discoverroyaldeeside.com/longer-walks-top-10/
Whether you want to stroll an easy country mile or so on level ground or get your leg muscles burning on some of Scotland's highest mountains, you'll be spoilt for choice in Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms.
If you would like to join other people to discover the joys of walking in our area, local company WalkDeeside offer guided hill walking holidays with experienced leaders, and shorter day walks built around themes like wildlife, conservation, and hills and mountains. They have excellent local guides and provide a full range of walking experiences. You can find full information at their website at www.walkdeeside.com
There is an excellent range of hill walking gear in the the Hill Trek Outdoor Clothing Shop in Aboyne and they will give excellent information on local walking www.hilltrek.co.uk
Ballater Walking Festival in May is a major annual event www.royal-deeside.org.uk/RDnews/walkweek.htm
The Active Aboyne festival in September has a large number of hillwalking and outdoor activity events www.activeaboyne.co.uk/
A popular information website for walking in the Scottish Highland hills is walkhighlands and details of many Royal Deeside mountain walks are here www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/braemar.shtml
You'll also find a huge range of local walking maps and books in outlets throughout our area. Visitor Information Centres are a good place for vital local knowledge that might lead to some wonderful place you would not otherwise have found. In particular, look out for the "Hill Tracks in the Cairngorms National Park" leaflet produced in association with the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society, whose website at www.scotways.com is another treasure chest of information.
A list of forest walks - many through spectacular Scots Pine forests - is described at out forests page.
In winter and snow conditions if you are venturing into the mountains please consult the Scottish Avalanche Information Service homepage for up to date information at www.sais.gov.uk
For a detailed daily weather forecast for the Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms area provided by the Mountain Weather Information Service visit http://www.mwis.org.uk/eh.php