The Balmoral Cairns Walk – Albert's Pyramid and Tarmachan Café

The walk

The walk starts from the Balmoral estate's car park at Crathie, beside the A93, where Aberdeenshire Council lists public toilets. Most of the estate's cairns were raised in Queen Victoria's reign, for family events, and this circuit climbs to eight of them.

The estate's own map makes its cairns walk 9 km (5½ miles) with 280 metres of climbing, and Scotland Off the Beaten Track allows about three hours. The paths aren't waymarked and are very muddy in places, and the phone signal is poor: wear boots and carry a map, food and drink.

Keep dogs on a lead: the estate asks for it, and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code asks for a short lead or close at heel from April to July, when birds nest on the ground. The estate shuts the full circuit in August and September, when only the path to Prince Albert's pyramid stays open.

Along the way

1. About 45 min on foot

   The Purchase Cairn

   The way climbs steadily once over the river. A lane drops from the car park past the old kirkyard, where John Brown lies, to the suspension bridge of 1834, now for walkers only. Along the road, turn up Distillery Brae for Royal Lochnagar, right over a small bridge, then left up the private road past the cottages. Princess Helena's cairn is up a rough path on the left; Louise's sits on a rocky knoll. The Purchase Cairn, for the buying of Balmoral in 1852, is a short detour to the right.

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2. About 59 min on foot

   

   Prince Albert's Pyramid

   From there the path goes up and down between the cairns, then makes the day's steepest climb. A spur leads to Prince Leopold's cairn, straight above the castle, then a faint path on the right to Prince Arthur's and on through the pines to Princess Alice's. A steep path climbs to the pyramid on Creag an Lurachain, 442 metres up: dressed granite raised for Albert by his "broken hearted widow", as its inscription says, dated 21 August 1862, the year after he died. It looks out over the pines and along Deeside.

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3. About 34 min on foot

   

   The Tarmachan Café

   Walk back down past Princess Beatrice's cairn of 1885, through a metal gate onto the road you came up. Over the bridge, take the lane straight up to the A93 by the Highlanders Bakehouse, then walk a short way east along the road, which has no pavement, to Quarry Studios. The Tarmachan is a café among silver birches in an old quarry: check its Instagram for the day's hours before you set out. The car park is about 600 metres back along the road.

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