Ballater, Craigendarroch and Bridge of Gairn

Until the latter half of the 18th century, Ballater was nothing more than brooding moorland. Somewhat ironically, this royal town owes its existence to a staunch Jacobite, who narrowly escaped execution following involvement in the Battle of Culloden.

Colonel Francis Farquharson, Laird of Monaltrie, returned to his homeland after a 20 year exile and learned of the remarkable healing properties of the water's at nearby Pannatich, where in 1760, an elderly woman was miraculously cured of scrofula by bathing her sores and bandages in a bog to which she was guided by dreams. The enterprising laird soon established a lodge on the site of the well, the beginnings of a spa town known as 'Baile challater', town of the wooden stream. With the help of a local luminary, Sandy Dunn, he laid out a good of streets and building plots on the black moor.

Completed in 1808, the remote spa town thrived. Tourists began to flock to Deeside, much to the alarm of Dr Joseph Robertson, an Aberdeen historian and journalist, who bemoaned the influx of incomers and proclaimed that the glens would be "desolated by cockneys and other horrid reptiles".

The building of the Deeside railway attracted even more visitors. The spruce little Station Square became the scene of frequent fashionable arrivals and departures, as members of the European aristocracy, as well as heads of state and eminent lords and ladies, made their way to the Balmoral Estate. The Shah of Persia came here, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia arrived in September 1896 to be hailed by 100 men of the Black Watch, before setting off with his retinue in a torchlight possession of five imperial carriages.

In 1856, plans were muted to extend the railway line to Braemar. These were vetoed by the Queen who objected to it running so close to her "dear paradise" of Balmoral. Ballater's beautiful preserved station remained at the end of the line.

Craigendarroch, north of the town, presents a steep climb through a chiselled dome of red granite crags, deeply wooded with oak, pine, beech and aspen. The name means 'hills of the oaks' and the magnificent specimens that remain here have endured several devastating gales and two woodland fires since World War II.

The view from the summit of Craigendarroch is awe inspiring. Ballater has spreads out as a model village far below. The Royal Bridge, opened by Queen Victoria in 1885 to link the town with the South Deeside Road, is the fourth attempt to span the River Dee here. The previous bridges were all swept away by the river when it was in full spate. Thomas Telford built the most elegant structure, whose five graceful arches stood until the great flood of August 1829, when they became so jammed with fallen trees, drowned cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, and the water was dammed to such a great height, that a thunderous crack shook the bridge's very foundations and the whole thing collapsed into the deluge.

The narrow opening of Glen Muick is to the right. When Queen Victoria first visited Balmoral, in 1848, she fell in love with the glen and wrote in her journal that the name meant 'darkness' or 'sorrow'. This was wishful thinking; Glen Muick means 'Valley of the Pigs' and owes its name to the wild boars that roamed the ancient Caledonian forests.

Further off to the right are the peaks of Balmoral deer forest. The highest is the dramatic 3,700 foot high ridge of Lochnagar, immortalised by Byron and which was once climbed by Queen Victoria. The area is now a nature reserve run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Balmoral Estate.

Round the northern slopes of Craigendarroch is the Pass of Ballater, a deep narrow gorge, which was once the only entrance to the Braemar highlands. Peregrine Falcons, sparrowhawks and buzzards hunt through the precipitous corries, and the pass is a source of semi-precious stones - garnets, topaz and a peat coloured quartz called Cairngorm. Some of these stones are huge; one specimen found locally measured more than two feet in length. Along the edge of the pass, the white heads of cotton grass dance among the masses of purple heather.

You descend again into the valley of the Dee. Near the ruined shell of Glengairn church is Saint Mungo's Well, dedicated to the patron saint of Glasgow. An annual fair was held in his honour on the nearby hillsides of Abergairn. The people of Gairn were an isolated community, and prey to superstition; there was a widespread belief that those who failed to attend the Feast of St Mungo, held on the longest day of summer, would not live to see the following year.

The church was last used for public worship in 1799. It was left to crumble amid the stones of its graveyard, mute Witnesses to the lives of those who once created a thriving community here. Inside the roofless church, the stump of a mature ash, crudely fashioned into a giant chair, puts out new suckers.
The return to Ballater follows the bank of the impetuous river Dee, in places a haze of pale blue naturalised lupins. Aquilega, broom, globe flower, bistort and delicately perfumed pink and white dog roses add a rich palette of shades to the riverbank scene. The Dee is the epitome of the highland river, the sporting playground of eight generations of Royals. The sight of the effervescent waters, amid a vast amphitheater to snow capped mountains, bring to mind the nostalgic words of Queen Victoria who wrote "it always gives me a pang to leave the Highlands".