Aviemore sits at 214 metres in the Spey valley with the Cairngorm plateau rising to the east, and the walking here divides very cleanly into two worlds. Below the treeline you have the Caledonian pinewoods of Rothiemurchus, Glenmore and Abernethy — flat, sheltered, sandy underfoot, threaded with lochs, and walkable in ordinary shoes almost year-round. Above the treeline you have the largest area of high, arctic ground in Britain, where the weather is genuinely severe and the navigation genuinely difficult.
This guide starts with the woodland walks that most visitors come for, works up through the passes, and ends with an honest account of what the plateau actually demands. Distances are from the centre of Aviemore.
The signature Aviemore walk and, for many people, the best short walk in Scotland. Loch an Eilein sits about five kilometres south of the town in the Rothiemurchus estate, ringed by ancient Scots pine, with a ruined island castle a few metres offshore. The circuit is a shade under five kilometres, almost entirely flat, on a good track, and it takes an hour and a half at a strolling pace. There is a car park at the loch and a small visitor point; on a still day the reflection of the castle is the photograph everyone comes for. See our Loch an Eilein page for more.
Eight kilometres east on the ski road, Loch Morlich is the one with the beach — a genuine sandy shore at 300 metres above sea level with the Cairngorms behind it. The loch circuit is about six kilometres on flat forest tracks, and Glenmore Forest Park around it is laced with waymarked trails of every length. There is a visitor centre, a café, watersports on the loch, and enough tree cover that it works in poor weather. More on the Glenmore Forest Park page.
The reserve entrance is in Aviemore itself, behind the youth hostel, which makes this the walk you can do without moving the car. Birch woodland climbs the crag directly above the town to a viewpoint over the whole Spey valley, with peregrines nesting on the cliffs in season. An hour and a half round trip, one steady climb, and an unusually good return on effort.
The long-distance Speyside Way passes through Aviemore, and you can walk sections of it in either direction as an out-and-back. North towards Boat of Garten gives you nine kilometres of easy river and woodland walking, with the option of returning on the Strathspey Railway if the timetable cooperates.
From Glenmore, the track climbs through the pass towards Ryvoan bothy, passing An Lochan Uaine — the Green Loch, which really is a startling green, coloured by minerals in the water and by the story about the fairies who wash their clothes in it. About ten kilometres round trip from the Glenmore car park, on good tracks, with one moderate climb. It is the walk that gets people from the loch shore into wilder country without committing them to a mountain.
The Lairig Ghru is the great pass through the Cairngorms, running from Rothiemurchus over to Deeside. Walking the whole thing is a serious full-day expedition of well over thirty kilometres with a rough boulder-strewn summit. Walking the approach is not: the track from Coylumbridge through the pinewoods to the Cairngorm Club footbridge and back is around twelve kilometres of beautiful, easy going, and it gives you the mouth of the pass with the plateau rearing up beyond.
The hill above Glenmore, and the best short summit in the area. From the Glenmore visitor centre it is a steady climb of around 500 metres to a cairn with a view over Loch Morlich to the whole northern corrie face of the Cairngorms. Four hours round, on a decent path, and much more achievable than the plateau tops.
The mountain that gave the range its name is the sixth-highest in Britain and rises directly above the ski area. There are two ways up. On foot it is a three-to-four-hour ascent from the Coire Cas car park, steep and exposed, on a path that becomes indistinct near the top.
By funicular is the other option: the Cairngorm Mountain Railway, opened in 2001, is the highest railway in the United Kingdom and climbs two kilometres up the northern slopes to the Ptarmigan station. It broke down in 2018 and did not reopen until 2023, which is worth knowing because a good deal of out-of-date information is still circulating. Access to the plateau from the top station is restricted in the summer season, so treat the funicular as a viewpoint and a café rather than as a shortcut onto the hill. Our Cairngorm Mountain page has the detail.
Ben Macdui, Britain’s second-highest mountain, and the surrounding plateau are within walking range of the ski car park, and every summer people set off for them in trainers. This is the coldest, windiest and most consistently severe ground in Britain: featureless in cloud, with cornices and steep drops into the northern corries, and weather that changes faster than anywhere else in the country. It is superb walking for people equipped and experienced for it, and a genuinely dangerous place for people who are not. If you want the high ground without the risk, book a guide — several operators in Aviemore run guided hill days.
Loch an Eilein, the Loch Morlich shore, the Glenmore waymarked trails and the lower Ryvoan track are all pushchair-tolerant or close to it, and all four have the two things that make a walk work with children: water and somewhere to eat. Our family guide covers the rest.
Winter turns the pinewoods into some of the loveliest walking in Scotland and the plateau into full winter mountaineering terrain. Days are short — barely seven hours of usable light in December — and the ski road can close.
Spring comes late here. Snow lies on the tops into May, while the birch below is coming into leaf, which makes for the best contrast of the year.
Summer brings midges to the woods and the loch shores from June, worst at dawn and dusk in still weather. Repellent and a breeze are the only answers.
Autumn is the best all-round month: the birch turns, the rut brings roaring red deer, the midges have gone and the paths are dry.
Getting to the trailheads. The Stagecoach service from outside the railway station runs up the ski road to Glenmore and Coire Cas, which means Loch Morlich, Glenmore and Cairn Gorm are all reachable without a car. Loch an Eilein has its own car park and is walkable or cyclable from town.
Parking at Loch an Eilein, Glenmore and the Coire Cas ski car park is charged. The Sugarbowl car park on the ski road serves the Chalamain Gap and the Lairig Ghru.
Bikes. Rothiemurchus and Glenmore have an extensive network of forest tracks, and several hire shops operate in the town.
Kit. Below the treeline, ordinary walking shoes are fine. Above it, treat the Cairngorms as you would treat a much higher mountain range anywhere else in Europe.
Aviemore’s walking divides between three trailheads, and knowing which is which saves a lot of driving.
From the town. Craigellachie starts behind the youth hostel. The Speyside Way runs through the town in both directions. Both mean you can arrive by train and walk from the station.
Rothiemurchus, two kilometres out on the Loch an Eilein road, is the trailhead for the estate: Loch an Eilein, the Lairig Ghru approach from Coylumbridge, and a large network of forest tracks. There is a centre with a cafe and a farm shop at Inverdruie.
Glenmore, eight kilometres up the ski road, serves Loch Morlich, the Ryvoan Pass, Meall a’ Bhuachaille and the reindeer. The Coire Cas car park four kilometres further on serves the high mountain.
Loch an Eilein for the classic short circuit; Meall a’ Bhuachaille if you want a summit; the Ryvoan Pass if you want to feel you have got somewhere remote.
Yes, in three to four hours from the ski car park. It is steep, exposed and needs proper kit and a forecast check, and it is not a beginner’s hill in anything other than settled summer weather.
Many. Loch an Eilein, Loch Morlich, the Speyside Way along the river and most of the Rothiemurchus and Glenmore tracks are effectively level.
Around thirty-five kilometres from Aviemore to Braemar, with a rough, high, boulder-covered pass in the middle. It is a full expedition, not a day walk, and most people arrange transport at the far end.
Between June and September, in the woods, in still weather — you will be glad of one.