Ballater and Crathie – Royal Station, Balmoral and Distillery
A day by car, from Ballater and back.
The route
Deeside has been royal since Queen Victoria first came to Balmoral in 1848, and this day keeps to the stretch of the Dee she knew best, between Ballater and Crathie, about eight miles apart.
Ballater was where the royal trains ended, and its rebuilt station still keeps her waiting room. Crathie is where the Royal Family worship when they are at Balmoral, and where John Brown, her Highland servant, lies in the old kirkyard below the kirk. Across the river stands the castle she and Albert built, whose gardens and ballroom you can walk round, and a mile from it is the small distillery that won a royal warrant within weeks of their first visit. Lunch is at the Tarmachan, the café in an old quarry that locals drive out for.
Before you go
Book a bed near Ballater
The day starts and ends in Ballater, and summer beds in and around the village go early, so book as soon as your dates are set.
The nearest of ours is Darroch Learg in Ballater.
Book Royal Lochnagar Distillery
Book a tour for about one o'clock, and be there 15 minutes before it starts; the shop needs no booking.
The day
Crathie
A short day up the royal stretch of the Dee, never more than a quarter of an hour between stops. It opens over coffee in Ballater's old station at ten, turns west to Crathie for lunch among the birches, and ends in the gardens of Balmoral.
35 min at the wheelAbout 17 miles
The Old Royal Station
The day starts in Station Square, at the green and cream station that ended the line from Aberdeen from 1866 until 1966. It was the station nearest Balmoral, where Queen Victoria came in on her journeys to the castle. Rebuilt after a fire in 2015, it keeps her waiting room and a replica of her royal carriage in the Rothesay Rooms café: have your coffee there. Then stroll past the church on its green to the Royal Bridge, which Victoria opened in 1885 where floods had taken two stone bridges.
11 min by car
The Tarmachan Café
It's 11 minutes' drive west on the A93, over the Gairn at Bridge of Gairn and on up the Dee, to Quarry Studios at the eastern edge of Crathie. In the old quarry among the birches, the Tarmachan is a sleek black building by the local architect Ben Addy, open since 2020. Its venison sausage roll, made with game from the local estates, has been on the menu since day one. Give lunch an hour and there's time in hand before the tour.
4 min by car
Royal Lochnagar Distillery
An attraction
Royal Lochnagar, one of Scotland's smallest distilleries, is 4 minutes' drive past the kirk, over the Dee and up Distillery Brae from the B976. John Begg founded it in 1845 and, in 1848, the year Victoria and Albert first came to Balmoral, invited them to look round. Within weeks he had a royal warrant, and with it the Royal in the name. Book a tour for about one o'clock, arriving 15 minutes early; under-eights can't join. The tour ends with a tasting the driver will want to skip.
4 min by car
Crathie Kirk
An attraction
Back over the Dee, it's 4 minutes' drive to the Balmoral estate's car park beside the A93. The granite kirk is a short walk back along the road and up its drive. Queen Victoria first worshipped at Crathie in 1848, starting a custom the Royal Family keep to this day, and she laid this church's foundation stone in 1893. Below it, by the ruin of a 14th-century church, the old kirkyard holds many who served her, John Brown among them, several under epitaphs she wrote herself.
4 min by car
Balmoral Castle
An attraction
From the car park, walk over the Dee by Brunel's iron bridge of 1857 to the Main Gate, 4 minutes, and about 10 more up the drive. Victoria and Albert bought the estate in 1852 and built this granite castle to replace the old house, and it's still the Royal Family's Highland home. A ticket covers the grounds and gardens, the Castle Ballroom, the gift shop and the restaurant; the castle's rooms open only on separate guided tours. Allow up to two hours; in autumn it shuts at four.
If it rains
Most of this day is under a roof: the station café, the Tarmachan, the distillery tour, the kirk, and Balmoral's ballroom, gift shop and restaurant. In steady rain, keep Ballater to the station and a browse of Bridge Street's galleries and shops, and give Balmoral an hour for the ballroom and the gift shop rather than two in the gardens. Royal Lochnagar is the easiest stop to stretch: the shop and the Beggs Bothy Bar sit under the same roof as the tour.
Worth a detour
- McEwan Gallery
At Bridge of Gairn, the A939 leads off to the right, and a few hundred metres up it is the McEwan Gallery, a family gallery of Scottish paintings from the 17th century to now, hung in the house an artist built for the family. It's open all year, but from January to March ring ahead (013397 55429). Allow half an hour.
- Knock Castle
Come home by the south road: from the car park, cross back over the Dee and stay on the B976 east rather than taking the A93, a few minutes longer. Before Bridge of Muick, Knock Castle stands on its knoll on your left, between the road and the Dee: a roofless tower house of about 1600, in the care of Historic Environment Scotland and seen from outside at any time. Pull in at the lay-by on the B976 and walk up the farm track, never drive up it; it's a short climb.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Aberdeenshire.
Photographs by Jake B, Royal Lochnagar Distillery and Andreas Hoof via Google