Aberdeenshire

Loch Muick

A long mountain loch at the head of Glen Muick on the Balmoral Estate, reached from the Spittal of Glenmuick, with Queen Victoria's lodge of Glas-allt Shiel on its far shore and a circuit of seven miles round it.

Welcome

Nine miles up the single-track road from Ballater, Glen Muick ends in a wide bowl of heather hills, and beyond the last car park the long dark water of Loch Muick stretches away between steep slopes towards the high plateau of the White Mounth.

The great corries of Lochnagar rise to the north.

The Spittal of Glenmuick, where the road stops, has a little visitor centre run by the Balmoral rangers and picnic tables by the burn, and red deer often graze the flats nearby. From here a path of about seven miles runs right round the loch, fairly level all the way, a favourite walk on the whole of Royal Deeside.

On the far shore, among a stand of trees, is Glas-allt Shiel, the lodge built for Queen Victoria and finished in 1868, a retreat from Balmoral where she came to be alone. Behind it the Glas Allt tumbles down the hillside in a waterfall.

Round the cornerGlas Allt ShielQueen Victoria's lodge of 1868 on the shore of Loch Muick, the retreat she called her widow's house, reached on foot along the loch.1 min by roadSee it

Small white house among autumn trees on a loch shore

Before you go

Open at all times.

The road up Glen Muick from Ballater ends at the Spittal of Glenmuick, where there is a pay car park, picnic tables and a small visitor centre run by the Balmoral rangers. The walk round the loch is about seven miles.

Start: The Spittal of Glenmuick car park, nine miles south of Ballater.
The walk: About seven miles round the loch, fairly level.

Where it is

At the head of Glen Muick, nine miles south of Ballater, on the Balmoral Estate in the Cairngorms National Park.

Close byBallater.