How difficult is the Speyside Way?

Two halves that have almost nothing in common. From Buckie the Way runs west on promenade and shore path to Portgordon, the only genuinely exposed walking on the whole trail, then turns inland onto old railway trackbed where the ballast is coarse enough to be felt through a boot, and into a narrow twisting woodland path on bark and sand to Spey Bay. At the shingle bar of the river mouth it swings south and stays with the Spey on riverside and forest tracks into Fochabers, close, low and enclosed. After Fochabers the character changes completely: roughly 10 km of quiet tarred minor road above the east bank, rolling up to about 150 m and back down, with no services at all on it, before the drop to the Spey crossing at Boat o' Brig and the start of the climb into Ben Aigan Forest. The section ends part-way up that climb. Rothes, which names the far end, lies over the hill and is not on the route.

Navigation: Waymarked throughout with the thistle of Scotland's Great Trails and easy to hold. Two places have a signed alternative worth knowing about rather than a navigation problem: the embankment top at the Birks, which is squeezed between the B9104 and the river and can be bypassed on the road, and the flight of steps at Boat o' Brig, bypassed by following the B9103 for 150 m to the east and taking the first track on the right. The steps leaving Fochabers can also be avoided on the road.

In poor weather: The first 9 km to Spey Bay is the only part of the entire trail with nothing between you and the weather, and wind off the Moray Firth crosses it unopposed; there is no shelter until the wood above Auchenreath. Everything after Spey Bay is the opposite, low and enclosed by trees and the river bank, so it stays still and warm in wind but the woodland and riverside sections hold water and stay soft after rain.

Escape options: Good throughout, which is unusual on this trail. Portgordon (4.0), Spey Bay (9.1) and Fochabers (17.4) all sit on the line with road access. The 10 km between Fochabers and Boat o' Brig is public tarmac from end to end, so a car can reach you at any point on it, and Boat o' Brig has a car park on the B9103. Once the climb into Ben Aigan Forest starts there is nothing until Craigellachie.

The ascent figure is misleading. Almost all of it is in the first two kilometres and the last three, and the 20 km between is dead level. It opens on the forested shoulder of Ben Aigan at about 290 m, the best open view of the northern half, looking north down the Spey valley, then descends through the beech woods of Arndilly, crosses the Fiddich and reaches Craigellachie and its Telford bridge. From there the Way becomes the trackbed of the old Great North of Scotland Railway and stays on it: firm, well drained and fast, hard-surfaced from Carron to Cragganmore since 2021, through Aberlour, over the Spey at Bridge of Carron, past Knockando and Blacksboat and back over the river on the Ballindalloch viaduct. Distilleries and villages arrive at convenient intervals and the walking asks nothing of you, which some find restful and some find monotonous over four hours. A little over a mile past Ballindalloch the trackbed ends, the Way climbs into the Woods of Knockfrink, and the ground turns rough. Rothes lies about 1.4 km off the line on the Ben Aigan descent and the trail does not enter it.

Navigation: Unmistakable once you are on the trackbed. The one junction that matters is at Ballindalloch former station, where the waymarked Tomintoul spur branches away from the main line to Grantown; both are signed Speyside Way, so read the destination and not just the thistle. Note also that Ballindalloch village and its shop are off the route on the A95, not at the station.

In poor weather: The trackbed is the most weatherproof surface on the trail and drains well, though the managers note it can be muddy in places after prolonged wet. The Ben Aigan shoulder at the start is the only open ground in the section, so it carries both the view and the wind, and in low cloud the whole point of the climb is lost. Nothing here is committing.

Escape options: Craigellachie (37.8) and Aberlour (41.1) are on the line with full road access, Carron (46.6) and Ballindalloch (57.1) have road access, and the trackbed is close to the A95 and B9102 for most of its length. Past Ballindalloch there is no settlement until Cromdale, roughly 18 km on, so if a day is going badly Ballindalloch is the place to stop rather than push into Knockfrink.

The roughest, slowest and least forgiving part of the trail, and the route managers and the trail association both say so. From the high ground of the Woods of Knockfrink the Way rolls through forest and farmland above the Spey on rutted, often wet tracks, crossing into the Cairngorms National Park near Mains of Dalvey. Two burns are crossed on stepping stones. What actually governs the pace, though, is neither the gradient nor the mud but the ironmongery: a long succession of narrow squeeze stiles and chain gates that stop you every few hundred metres, with stretches of refuge fencing alongside fields because cattle are likely here. Do not plan this at your usual rate. Around Pollowick above Cromdale the ground flattens and improves, the Way drops to cross the Spey at Cromdale, and the last stretch through the Scots pines of Anagach Woods to Grantown and the old station at Grantown East is level and easy. Advie and Dulnain Bridge, which name the two ends, are both off the route.

Navigation: This is where people go wrong on the Speyside Way. The farmland and forest between Ballindalloch and Cromdale is a sequence of fenced lanes, field edges and partly overgrown tumbledown walls where the line is not obvious, and one walker's account of the full route puts the only wrong turn of their week here. The other place to slow down is Anagach Woods, where a dense local path network crosses the trail and the biggest track is not always the Way. Grantown town centre is signposted off the route at the information boards on the corner of the woods by the golf course, so a walker who wants the town has to take that turn deliberately.

In poor weather: The two burns are crossed on stepping stones and the trail association states they may be difficult in flood conditions, which is the only thing on this trail that can stop a day outright. The forest and farmland ground drains badly, holds water long after rain and is the reason this section eats time; the rutted stretches between Ballindalloch and Cromdale are where a wet week is actually paid for.

Escape options: The thinnest on the route. Nothing between Ballindalloch and Cromdale, about 18 km of forest and farm ground with no settlement. The B9102 between Delnapot and Cromdale Bridge runs roughly parallel and is the recommended alternative line for horses and cyclists, so it is also the realistic way out, but reaching it means leaving the trail. Cromdale (75.2) is the first place with a road on the line, and Grantown-on-Spey (80.8) is a proper town a few minutes off it with everything.

The easiest walking on the trail and the point at which the route stops being about the Spey gorge and becomes about pine forest. Old Speyside railway trackbed with a mostly grassy surface runs through riverside farmland with the Cairngorms filling the view ahead, then the Way comes into Nethy Bridge through the old station yard and along the middle of the village. Beyond it the surface changes to built path and forest road through the Scots pine of Abernethy National Nature Reserve, with boardwalk laid over the wet ground near the southern end and one short steep pull on a good surface, before crossing the Spey into Boat of Garten. There is effectively no climbing and no navigation. Two narrow pinch points, behind the Spey Valley Smokehouse and by Balliefurth Farm, and a run of self-closing gates to work through, are all that interrupts it. Dulnain Bridge, which names the start, is about 2 km off the line and the Way does not visit it.

Navigation: Nothing difficult. Trackbed, village street and reserve paths in sequence, all obvious. The gates are self-closing bridleway type rather than stiles and should be left as found. Anyone aiming for a bed in Dulnain Bridge needs to leave the trail deliberately, it is about 2 km off the line and not signposted as part of the route.

In poor weather: Forest shelters most of this section, which makes it one of the more comfortable stretches in wind. The grassy trackbed is slower and wetter after rain than the hard-surfaced trackbed further north, and the Abernethy ground is boggy enough to have needed boardwalk, so expect soft going there whatever the surface elsewhere is doing.

Escape options: Straightforward. Nethy Bridge (90.1) and Boat of Garten (98.0) are both on the line with road access, and the B970 stays close to the Way for most of the section, so being collected is easy anywhere along it. Broomhill is a heritage railway station and not a way out.

The flattest section and by some distance the busiest. It begins on minor road and the Kinchurdy farm and estate track across the open heather of Granish Moor, with the Cairngorms across the strath and almost nobody about, then joins a Sustrans cycle route and the Aviemore orbital footpath and drops straight into the middle of Aviemore. Aviemore is the only real town on the line, a resort with a main line station, and after five days of trackbed and forest it is a jolt. South of it the Way shadows the railway on new multi-user path, roadside path and short lengths of minor road through open birch woodland and grassland, then climbs above the river at Speybank for the run into Kincraig. The walking is undemanding start to finish; what makes the section interesting is how fast it goes from empty moor to retail park and back to birchwood.

Navigation: Easy throughout. The one spot the route managers single out is the awkward passage under the railway bridges on the Aviemore orbital footpath, which includes a step. Part of the section is shared with Sustrans National Route 7, so cycle waymarks and trail waymarks both appear and it is worth reading which is which before following one out of Boat of Garten.

In poor weather: Granish Moor between Boat of Garten and Aviemore is open heath and the only unsheltered ground in the southern half; wind crosses it unbroken. The rest is low, wooded and shrugs weather off. This is the stretch where the Cairngorms are genuinely in view, so low cloud takes most of the reason for walking it, and there is no compensating interest underfoot.

Escape options: The best on the trail. Aviemore at km 107 sits on the route, on the Highland main line and beside the A9, so the section can be abandoned mid-way with no effort at all. Boat of Garten and Kincraig both have road access at the ends, and the Way is within a kilometre of the B9152 and the A9 corridor for nearly its whole length.

The quietest part of the southern half, with the best of the trail's forest walking in the middle and a poor finish. Past Loch Insh and Feshiebridge the Way makes the one real climb south of Ben Aigan, a forestry road up through Inshriach Forest to the Uath Lochans at about 340 m, which is the highest ground on the whole route. Gravel tracks and forest road then roll on through pine and birch above Insh Marshes, a thousand hectares of floodplain between Kingussie and Kincraig and one of the largest inland wetlands in Britain, past Insh and Drumguish to Bridge of Tromie. From there the last 9 km are almost flat: past Ruthven Barracks, into Kingussie, then out along the cycleway beside the A86 to Newtonmore. That final stretch is tarmac beside a trunk road and is a functional way of finishing rather than a good one. Most walkers split this section, and the ground supports doing it at Kincraig or Kingussie rather than anywhere in the forest.

Navigation: The waymarking changes character at the end. Through the forest it is the usual thistle posts, but past Kingussie the route runs on shared cycleway and the signs become horizontal green boards counting down distances to the next town, which one walker found so repetitive they stopped reading them. Inshriach Forest is a working forest with a network of forestry roads and local waymarked trails around Uath Lochans, so follow the trail waymarks rather than the widest track.

In poor weather: The Inshriach climb is the one place on this trail where a wet afternoon genuinely tells: the forest road runs with water and the ground either side is too soft to sit down on, let alone camp. Insh Marshes floods naturally and holds up to 35 million cubic metres of water at capacity, which after heavy rain turns the view from the trail into a shallow loch; the Way runs along the higher edge, so this is scenery rather than an obstacle. The last 9 km on tarmac beside the A86 is unaffected by weather and unrewarded by good weather.

Escape options: Kingussie at km 135 is the best bail-out in the southern half: on the line, on the Highland main line railway and beside the A9. Kincraig at the start has road access. Between roughly km 120 and km 130 the Way is in forest and on estate tracks with the B970 the only road anywhere near it, and Insh and Drumguish are hamlets with nothing in them, so a problem in Inshriach Forest means walking back down to the B970 rather than on.