Walk/Bike: Speyside Way Fochabers – Craigellachie circuit
The logistics of transport from the beginning at Fochabers and getting back again from my base made this unpractical to do as a ramble but it could certainly be done by bike, so that was my choice.
It was a colder morning than the previous days when I arrived at my starting point at the square in Fochabers. The sky was bright enough with high level clouds but I was under a bit of time pressure as a south to north weather front was promising heavy rain by afternoon. Indeed the good lady sent me a message that it was already heavy rain in Barassie. Hence my early start.
I love biking but it has one big failure that I need to address as it impacted me several times recently. That is I do not have a phone mount on my handlebars so if unsure I have to stop, get the phone out of my pocket, reconfigure and get on with it. But this is bloody annoying and getting from the town square to the proper waymark start was one of those. Up and down streets, alongside dog walkers, no signs to be seen until there was one after the school, yahoo.
I confess that I had not carried out the best preparation. I had looked at the route and noted one possible route blocker for the bike. I had only glanced at the elevation, a glance was not nearly enough as it turned out. And of course the unknown quantity of gates. They get mentioned but would I get past with a bike, that was a big concern? It did not help that my Cicerone guide details it as a south to north trip so I lost a bit of interest reading it. PS: my copy is also well out of date as I found out en route.
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| Attractive rural landscape outside Fochabers |
From my research I knew that it would be hard going at times but it turned out to be a bigger adventure than expected.
Once out of Fochabers I expected a fairly gentle quiet stretch of road that turned out to be a mini mountain stage of the Tour de France. Up and down from the start to Ordiequish Hill and then a vertical descent from the Earth Pillars car park, a hair pin bend and back up an even steeper ascent praying a car did not materialise in front of me.
Through a pleasant forest section then another steep twisting fast descent where I did meet traffic. An old dear in her old Suzuki, in the middle of a narrow road, not expecting me, eyes agog as I flashed passed almost taking her wing mirror off. Of course right on her tail was another Suzuki, this time an old boy whose passenger I briefly noticed had her hand over her mouth, that gave them something to talk about over their scones and as for me it certainly got my heart rate up.
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| Workers on right of bridge and another on for getting equipment across the left and the boat |
Arrived at Boat o' Brig and spent a few minutes resting and watching the workers on the bridge over the Spey. This would be a cold job at this time of the year.
The next bit was my main concern, a set of steps which were narrow and full of fallen leaves, slippery as hell. My heavy MTB does not like being pushed and I shoved my glasses in to my pocket as they had steamed up. Got the bike after a lot of huffing and puffing. No sign left or right?
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| Last sight of the Spey for a while before turning back and heading inland |
Well this is the Speyside Way and the right followed the river, wrong! Thankfully not too far down I did another phone check and turned back.
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| The start of the gloopy section alongside the farm |
This and the following section to Bridgeton Farm was a muddy challenging bike ride but I did not fall off into the gloop, bonus point achieved.
Glad to get on a non muddy track I cycled gaily enjoying the view until I spotted a road ahead which shouldn’t have been there.
Of course I had rode passed the turn off but in my defence there was no signage until after the turn off.
I arrived at the shooting range where the red warning lights were flashing away. The SW sign was posted beside one of the bright lights so I missed the cut off before retreating without some hillbilly getting his pot-shot in.
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| Steam coming out of the Rothes distillery |
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| Start of the worst biking section |
Another challenging section with so much debris hiding the tree roots and the large rocks that regularly kicked the bike off course. If I had came off there was a nasty drop on my right and I got very close to it at times. On the final ascent both tyres spun out and I had to jump off and push but luckily I was almost at the top joining part of the Ben Aigan track system.
I had a wee get my breath back break. I was pleased as I thought that I had done most of the climbing but boy was I wrong.
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| The high point, still looking good over the Moray Firth |
The next section dropped at first then rose and rose. I could see the Spey way below me thinking this is not right the route I should be alongside it. No doubt the farming and sporting estate interests have blocked it.
I was about to descend so went to put on my glasses and discovered that they were not in my pocket I had obviously not zipped it fully enough. Very annoyed as they were not cheap. Frustrated I decided that I would change my planned return route and backtrack via this route.
Even now I thought it was downhill all the way to Craigellachie but far from it. More up and down and on one fast downhill I turned a corner to meet a pair of old codgers on my right side. I was doing around 25mph and they were doing about 5mph so I had to react quickly and just managed to avoid them.
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| Long view of the Telford Bridge |
From here the section down to Craigellachie was longer than I thought so when I reached my finish point I stopped for refreshment and thinking time.
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| My finish point the Fiddichside Inn |
I was annoyed at losing the glasses but the effort of returning over that high ground and the dangers of descending the leafy muddy sections made my mind up. Cheer up, positive thoughts only, need to phone the good lady and tell her my Xmas pressie has been decided!!
I took the main road up to Rothes, stopping to view the old bridge.
A few close passes to irritate me, mainly white van men. Leaving Rothes I took the side road that would run alongside the Spey and eventually get me back to Fochabers. It was much quicker on the tarmac and although it was up and down a lot less so than had I backtracked.
I had been thinking about where I could have lost my glasses. I looked over and saw the Spey bridge where the steps were, one possible location as I had to manhandle the bike up them. About half a mile away so I detoured over to it. Not overly confident I walked up the steps and there they were, half buried, lying in the leaves, wow, what a break.
As I was here I went back via my outward route, climbing up to the summit of Tor Hill before the gradient eased. A few miles later it was down and up hells glen and then it was time for a good downhill run back to the start.
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| Pine needles aplenty |
So that was quite a trip and as said more demanding than expected, my legs were tired at the finish. One I will remember for some time. It was still dry but maybe the rain would have been welcomed to wash down the bike before getting it on the carrier.
Ascent: 761m
Distance: 40.9km
Time: 2.59
Wildlife: Grey Heron; Pheasant; Redwing; Dunnock; Blackbird;
