Aboyne on Foot – the Green, the Bridge and Birsemore Loch
A day on foot, from Station Square, Aboyne and back.
The route
Aboyne sits halfway up Royal Deeside, between Banchory and Ballater: a granite village that Charles Gordon, the first Earl of Aboyne, founded in 1671 round an unusually large green, where the Aboyne Games are held.
The railway closed in 1966, and its old station in Station Square now holds shops and cafés. Below the village, Aboyne Bridge has been shut to cars since November 2023 and is open only to walkers and cyclists, and across it, up in the woods on the south bank, lies Birsemore Loch. This day takes it all in on foot: the castle avenues and the Green in the morning, lunch by the river, and the loch in the afternoon, back by the Fungle Road. It's about 5 miles in all, mostly level, with one short, steep bank up to the loch.
Before you go
Book a table for lunch at the Boat Inn
The Boat Inn takes bookings for its dining tables, and a table for about midday suits this day.
The day
Aboyne
A slow day on foot in Aboyne, from coffee in Station Square round the old tree avenues of Aboyne Castle and back across the Green to the Dee for lunch. Then the walk crosses Aboyne Bridge to Birsemore Loch, still water in the woods on the south bank, and comes back over the river to the village by mid-afternoon.
Spider on a Bicycle
A café
Start in Station Square, in the middle of Aboyne, at the old railway station, which closed with the line in 1966. Its buildings hold shops and cafés now, with a car park in the square, and the 201 bus stops at the Victory Hall, just along the main road. Spider on a Bicycle serves speciality coffee and simple food from 10am, Tuesday to Sunday. Courie Courie, the bakery in the same square, has sourdough and pastries from Wednesday to Saturday, 9.30am to 2pm.
35 min on foot
Aboyne Castle avenues
It's about 35 minutes' walk on the Aboyne Community Trust's circuit. It follows the old Deeside railway from the Victory Hall through Scots pines, then crosses the Tarland Road by the castle's West Lodge into avenues of old trees. Look for the Coo Cathedral, a grand former cattle shed, then Aboyne Castle, the Earl of Aboyne's home, a Gordon house since the 1400s, rebuilt from 1671.
20 min on foot
Aboyne Green
It's about 20 minutes' walk on round the loop, down the avenue by the Tarland Burn and past its giant sequoias. Then it's back by the Victory Hall and over the main road to Aboyne Green, the wide lawn the village was built round. The Aboyne Games have been held here since 1867, on the first Saturday in August. In 1715, the story goes, the Earl of Mar called a great hunt at Aboyne as cover for gathering Jacobite lords, days before he raised the standard at Braemar.
12 min on foot
Aboyne Bridge
It's a 12-minute walk down Charlestown Road to the Dee. Lunch is at the Boat Inn, on the riverbank since 1720, once the drovers' inn by the old ferry. Then walk out onto Aboyne Bridge, built of concrete in the late 1930s and set high above the Dee's floods. It has been shut to cars since November 2023 and is open to walkers and cyclists, the only way over the river on foot here.
15 min on foot
Birsemore Loch
It's about 15 minutes' walk over the bridge and along the South Deeside Road, then up a grassy path past Sawmill Cottage and a short, steep bank to the loch. Pines and birches ring the loch, with islands and a red-roofed boathouse. The Queen's Hut by the water, a log cabin said to have been built for Queen Mary, is a private holiday let. Back by the north shore and the Fungle Road, it's about 30 minutes to Station Square.
If it rains
In rain the morning keeps to Station Square, with coffee at Spider on a Bicycle and bread and pastries at Courie Courie, both indoors. The castle avenues are on firm paths and roads under old trees, still a fair walk in a shower, and the Boat Inn has log fires for a long lunch. The path up to Birsemore Loch is rough, with a short, steep bank at the loch that can be slippery after rain. In heavy rain, leave the loch for a drier day and keep to the village and the avenues, with a long lunch by the fire.
Worth a detour
- The riverside path upstream
Before going back up to the square, a riverside path runs upstream from the bridge along the Dee's north bank, down a steep bank from the gate at the bridge's north end. It runs about 1.5 km by the water before it grows too narrow and steep to go on: about 40 minutes there and back to the bridge and the Boat Inn.
Where to eat
The Boat Inn, inn at Aboyne Bridge.
Courie Courie Bakery, bakery in Station Square.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Aberdeenshire.
Photographs by Spider on a Bicycle, Alan Findlay, John Middleton and Amro Hassan via Google