By Car

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Most visitors to Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms travel to our area by car, primarily because our road network is so good and so spectacular. Edinburgh is within a two hour drive (although you’ll want to take longer to enjoy the scenery) and Glasgow is just a little further away.

There are two main road routes into our area. The A93 trunk road from Perth to Aberdeen forms the well signed Deeside National Tourist Route. This road runs north from Perth through wild Glenshee and reaches a height of 670 metres, which makes it the highest main road in the UK. The views are absolutely magnificent as you come down from Glenshee Ski Centre into the Upper Dee Valley.

The other main route is the east – west Highland National Tourist Route that runs along the A944 and A939 from Aberdeen to Inverness through the Don valley and up over the Lecht, a famed wild mountain road. This route also links into the main A9 north-south artery route at Aviemore.

Travellers from the south can also take the well known B974 Cairn O’Mount road that leaves the A90 artery route near Brechin and descends down into the Dee valley near Banchory. Be sure to stop at the breathtaking viewpoint at the Cairn O’Mount summit .

For travellers from the north, there are a variety of quieter routes into our area from the Moray Firth coast. One of the most popular is the A941 from Elgin through the Speyside whisky country to Strathdon. Enjoy the distilleries, but remember that drinking and driving is definitely not recommended.