NSC Outdoor Adventures

Activities    Activity Breaks

Kirkmichael - Spittal of Glenshee

(Cateran Trail section 2)

Distance: 13km/8 miles. Ascent 550m.

Walk Duration: 6hrs
Spaces: Maximum 10, minimum 3.

Notes: Strenuous. Hillwalking gear required. Packed lunch required.

Maps: Landranger 43, Explorer 387

Scotways Route 159

Stage two of the Cateran Trail includes its highest and most remote section.  After some easy walking through the farmland and woods of Strathardle the route starts to climb after Enochdhu.  Soon it leaves the forest and takes to the open moorland in the steps of Queen Victoria.  Lunch may be taken at the Upper Lunch Hut; a wooden bothy erected at the site where Victoria stopped for a picnic on 13^th October 1865.  According to her diary there was a slight delay because the kettle had been forgotten!  After lunch the path steepens until it reaches An Lairig (mountain pass) at 649m.  Here the view is superb as we look down towards the Spittal of Glenshee at the junction of Glen Shee and Gleann Beag, with Ben Gulabin and the higher peaks beyond as a back drop.

Cateran Trail