The Giant's Chair walk from Dufftown's Clock Tower

A walk · Dufftown

Dufftown – An Old Kirk, the River Dullan and the Giant's Chair

2 miles1½ hours

free parkingdogs on a leadtoilets

James Duff, 4th Earl Fife, laid out Dufftown in 1817 beside a far older place: Mortlach, in the hollow of the Dullan Water, where there was a church long before there was a town.

This walk goes from the new town to the old, and on up a wooded glen where the river has worn the rock into shapes with giants' names.

Where it starts

Start at the free car park just off the Square in Dufftown, a few steps from the Clock Tower.

Directions to the start

Is it for me?

Tap who is coming, or the day you have, for the answer on this walk.

Before you go

On the path

An hour and a half: a signed circuit of 2 miles, or 3.2 km, with about 60 m of climb. Tarmac, gravel and grass, up and down, with short steep sections, some flights of steps, a kissing gate and rough ground near the Giant's Chair. A river glen with a rough stretch near the Giant's Chair: keep children close there.

Good to know

All year, in daylight. Dogs on a lead on the town streets and through the kirkyard. Public toilets by the Square, near the start. Graded moderate by Moray Council. Some rough ground beside the Giant's Chair, short steep sections, flights of steps and a kissing gate.

The walk

The Giant's Chair walk is a signed loop of 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Clock Tower in Dufftown's Square and back, with about 60 metres of climb. The walk's own page allows an hour and a half. It is on tarmac, gravel and grass, with short steep pulls, flights of steps and rough going near the Giant's Chair. The loop crosses the Dullan by a footbridge just past the Giant's Cradle, and a walking guide reported that bridge shut in July 2025. Check with the contacts on the walk's own page before you go; if it is still shut, turn at the Giant's Chair and come back the way you came.

The tower was built between 1836 and 1839 as the town jail. As the town tells it, its clock once stood in Banff, where in 1700 the sheriff moved it on so that the freebooter MacPherson hanged before his pardon arrived.

Mortlach Church, below the town by the Dullan, goes back by tradition to a community St Moluag began in the late 500s, among the earliest Christian sites in the north-east. Look for the watch house of the early 1800s, where men guarded fresh graves from body snatchers, and, in the lower kirkyard, the Battle Stone, a Pictish cross-slab whose cross is still clear.

Dufftown Distillery, by the river south of the kirk, is where the walk turns up the wooded glen. The Linen Apron, a waterfall on a side burn by the path, is at its fullest after heavy rain. Near the far end is the Giant's Cradle, a pothole the water wore into the rock and has since left high above itself. Near it is the Giant's Chair, a face of rock cut by the Dullan's floods. The loop comes back into the town by a minor road.

The kirkyard is open to walk round; to see inside the church, check with the parish first.

Back at the Square, BEINN Coffee & Books on Balvenie Street is a bookseller and speciality coffee shop; check its hours on its own site. Toilets at the Albert Place car park are open all year.

If it rains

In heavy rain, keep to the town and Mortlach kirkyard, and leave the glen for a drier day.

After the walk

Something to do with the rest of the day, and dinner, nearest the end of the walk first.

With the rest of the day

Dufftown's clock tower rising at the end of a parked high street, Moray

0 min by roadThings to doDufftownA granite Speyside town laid out in 1817 round its clock tower, the self-styled malt whisky capital, with six distilleries in and around it.

0 min by roadA shopBEINN Coffee & BooksA coffee shop with a bookshop behind it on Balvenie Street in Dufftown, open every day from eight.

Dufftown station sign mounted on a wooden shed with railway carriage alongside

3 min by roadThings to doThe Keith & Dufftown RailwayBritain's most northerly heritage railway, running old diesel trains through the whisky country between Dufftown and Keith, with cream teas on board.

The Glenfiddich Distillery sign beside whitewashed buildings and a stone wall

4 min by roadThings to doGlenfiddich DistilleryThe family-owned distillery at Dufftown that William Grant built by hand in 1886, with tours, tastings, a cafe and the Malt Barn.

Worker in red shirt steams whisky casks beside a warehouse boiler

7 min by roadThings to doSpeyside CooperageA working cooperage near Craigellachie, making and mending whisky casks since 1947, with a viewing gallery above the coopers at work.

A cast-iron arched bridge with castellated stone towers spans a rocky river gorge, pine-covered cliffs rising on the far bank.

9 min by roadThings to doCraigellachieA small Speyside village where the Spey meets the Fiddich, with Telford's graceful iron bridge of 1814, two distilleries and the Speyside Cooperage close by.

For dinner

Sidings Cafe in Dufftown, 3 minutes by road. A cafe in two 1950s railway carriages at Dufftown station, serving light lunches, home bakes and cream teas for the heritage trains.

The Fiddichside Inn in Craigellachie, 9 minutes by road. A tiny, unspoiled riverside pub outside Craigellachie, built for railway workers in 1842, with a garden by the Fiddich and a fine shelf of drams.

Aberlour Hotel in Charlestown of Aberlour, 11 minutes by road. A family-run hotel on the square in Aberlour, in the middle of whisky country, with nineteen rooms, home cooking and a bar full of Speyside drams.