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The Square in Tomintoul, a green drinking fountain with a figure on top between trees and stone houses.
Morayshire

Tomintoul

The highest village in the Highlands, a neat planned village of 1776 in the Cairngorms, with a grassy square, a museum and whisky all around.

Welcome

High on the northern slopes of the Cairngorms, at 354 metres, Tomintoul lays claim to being the highest village in the Highlands.

Head south-west from here and there is nothing but hill tracks for nearly forty miles.

The village was planned and built in 1776 by the Duke of Gordon, who gathered people from scattered settlements across his estate and hoped, while he was at it, to put an end to cattle raiding and whisky smuggling. He placed it on the military road over the Lecht, and his design survives almost unchanged: a broad main street forty feet wide, running through a grassy square at its heart. The drinking fountain in the Square was added in 1915.

In a corner of the Square, the Tomintoul Museum shares a building with the tourist information centre. Legal whisky has long since replaced the smuggled kind in the glens around, and the village makes a fine base for the hills.

A little further outBen RinnesSpeyside's hill to the north.21 min by roadSee itConcrete trig point overlooking layered hills at sunset
Before you go

A village to walk at any hour; the museum and shops keep their own hours.

Height
354 metres.
Founded
1776.
See
The Square and the museum.
Where it is

In the northern Cairngorms, on the old military road over the Lecht, south-east of Grantown-on-Spey.

Close byThe Cairngorms.
  1. Corgarff CastleCorgarff Castle10 miles13 min by road
  2. KJ's Bothy BakeryKJ's Bothy BakeryThe Mountain Café's new home: a bakery and Kiwi coffee shop on the edge of Grantown-on-Spey, with everything baked on site.13 miles18 min by road
  3. A candle lit among pine cones.Cairn Candle CoThe candlemakers of the Cairngorms, on Grantown-on-Spey's High Street: soy candles with Scottish scents, plastic-free.14 miles18 min by road
  4. Turreted grey castle with ivy-covered wing and yellow flag against a blue skyBallindalloch Castle and GardensThe castle on the Avon to the north.16 miles25 min by road
  5. Glenfiddich DistilleryGlenfiddich DistilleryWhisky at Dufftown.20 miles33 min by road
Directions
ShoppingThe Dell Grocer, Nethy Bridge15 miles
A grand stone house with multiple gables and chimneys stands on a lawn at dusk, a Land Rover parked in the drive under a stormy sky.MorayshireGairnshiel LodgeSleeps 16 · 18 miles
A wooden table and chairs with green cushions stand on a stone patio beside a gabled stone house, a lawn stretching in front.MorayshireLaggan CottageSleeps 8 · 18 miles
Two grey linen sofas face each other across a dark wooden coffee table, checked roman blinds at the windows and a framed landscape print on the wall.MorayshireOld School CottageSleeps 7 · 18 miles
Inverenzie Cottage, AberdeenshireBallaterInverenzie CottageSleeps 4 · 20 miles
Stay nearby

Places to stay near the village, and when each is next free.

A grand stone house with multiple gables and chimneys stands on a lawn at dusk, a Land Rover parked in the drive under a stormy sky.Gairnshiel Lodge
  • Sleeps 16
  • In Morayshire
  • 14 miles from Tomintoul
Free 18–20 OctA wooden table and chairs with green cushions stand on a stone patio beside a gabled stone house, a lawn stretching in front.Laggan Cottage
  • Sleeps 8
  • In Morayshire
  • 14 miles from Tomintoul
Free 18–20 OctTwo grey linen sofas face each other across a dark wooden coffee table, checked roman blinds at the windows and a framed landscape print on the wall.Old School Cottage
  • Sleeps 7
  • In Morayshire
  • 14 miles from Tomintoul
Free 17–19 OctInverenzie Cottage, AberdeenshireInverenzie Cottage
  • Sleeps 4
  • In Ballater
  • 15 miles from Tomintoul
Free 24–26 OctPlaces to stayEvery stay in MorayshireAll our places to stay nearby, to search by date and by who is coming.See them all
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