Читать книгу The Speyside Way. A Scottish Great Trail, includes the Dava Way and Moray Coast trails онлайн

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Sueno's Stone (Beryl Castle) (Moray Coast Trail)

Which Direction to Walk

The trails in this guidebook start from the west and follow a generally north-eastern direction, but can, of course, be walked the opposite way. The Speyside Way has been described from Buckie to Aviemore in other guides, but strangely never before in the more natural and obvious direction, downriver from source to sea. This downstream direction is the better one, as it gives a definite goal or end-point of the walk, at the coast, and is the direction that most walkers travel when following long distance river trails. The other advantage of walking in a north-easterly direction, towards the sea, is that you should have the wind at your back, rather than directly blowing into your face. If nothing else, by walking downriver there is less ascent than walking up from the coast, even if this is quite small over such a distance!

In 1990 a major official spur of the Speyside Way was opened from the upland village of Tomintoul to Ballindalloch. Many may wish to start their Speyside Way journey at Tomintoul, and in the author's opinion the walk from Tomintoul to Ballindalloch is better than that from Aviemore. The main description in this book of the Spur is from south to north, heading towards the Moray coast. Some may wish to follow a ‘horseshoe walk’ north-easterly from Newtonmore/Aviemore to Ballindalloch and then southwards up to Tomintoul; so the Spur is also described in the opposite direction, from Ballindalloch to Tomintoul.