Glenshee – A Clan Stone, an Old Bridge and the Devil's Elbow
A few hours.
The route
Glenshee carries the A93 from the Perthshire farmland up to the Cairnwell Pass, and its stories sit right beside the road: a clan's gathering stone, a soldiers' bridge, a warrior's legend and the bends drivers once dreaded.
It makes an easy morning by car, with lunch at the top of the pass.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Larch House, 9 miles away. Sleeps 6.
Then Faunoran House in Crathie, 13 miles away. Sleeps 10; next free Sun 25 Oct to Tue 27 Oct.
The day
Glenshee
A morning of old stories up one glen, from a mossy boulder in the birches to a high pass where the road once climbed in hairpins, with something warm to finish.
About three hoursAbout 0.5 miles on foot
The Cockstane: Clan MacThomas' Ancient Gathering Stone
An attraction
Pull in off the A93 by the green iron gate just south of Finegand, where a board tells the story, and a grassy path leads a minute or two to Clach na Coileach, the Cockstane. It's the gathering stone of Clan MacThomas, whose clan takes its name from Tomaidh Mor, Great Tommy, who settled beside the Shee Water around 1470. The stone's name comes from a later chief, McComie Mor, who saw off the tax men taking a poor widow's hens; her cockerel flew up onto the boulder and crowed. The clan still gathers here every three years.
More about The Cockstane: Clan MacThomas' Ancient Gathering Stone
About 10 min by car
The Spittal of Glenshee
The Spittal sits at the head of the glen, where the burns off the hills join to make the Shee Water, with Ben Gulabin rising steeply above. Park on the rough ground beside the kirk, on the north side of the bridge. The kirk was built in 1831 and still holds services, and a prehistoric standing stone rises on the low hillock just behind it. Beside it, the humpbacked bridge carried Major William Caulfeild's military road from Blairgowrie to Braemar, begun in 1749, and is thought to date from between 1749 and 1763. Across the water, a mound with four standing stones is said to be the grave of Diarmuid, one of Finn MacCool's warriors, killed by a magic boar on Ben Gulabin.
About 10 min by car
Devil’s Elbow Viewpoint
An attraction
About a mile below the top of the pass, the old road climbed the Devil's Elbow, a double hairpin at about one in six. A straighter road now runs beside it, and from the viewpoint's car park by the A93 you can trace the old bends below. The viewpoint is Connecting Contours, a Snow Roads artwork by Daniel Smith and Philip Zoechbauer. A path curves into the hillside to a long, curved seat, drawn from the contours of the landscape, looking south down the glen the way you've come. It's high and open up here, so bring a warm layer.
About 5 min by car
Tea@TheShee
Lunch
Tea@TheShee is the ski centre's café at the top of the pass, a little further up the A93, with the big car park beside it and spaces in front for blue badges. Parking is free for the first 50 minutes; for longer there's a £4 charge for the day, paid by the QR code on the signs or in the café. The menu is made fresh each day: breakfasts, soups, pies, burgers, sandwiches, salads and cake, with vegetarian and gluten-free choices, and the burgers come from the butcher in Braemar. It's licensed.
If it rains
Every stop is a few steps from the car. On a wet day, the café at the top is under cover.
Glenshee Café & Gift Shop, a café in Blairgowrie.
Photographs by Christoph Löffler, Alexandre Curvat, Osman S. Khan and Joao Lampreia via Google