Royal Deeside

We are starting our next trip in Royal Deeside in the town of Banchory. This whole trip is planned around the excellent mountain biking and stunning scenery of this area.

Home for 2 nights is the Banchory Lodge Caravan Park which has a handful of camping van pitches along the river. The staff here are amazing – I don’t think I have ever had such a warm welcome. And the facilities immaculate.

Most importantly, the campsite is close to some fabulous trails. Scolty wood, Blackhall Forest and Slewdrum Forest all merge into each other and between them have a number of big climbs and natural single track descents. I will admit much of the cycling here is a bit technical for me but I managed 33km and 900m of climbing today but the time I added all the loops together. The ferns were really overgrown making some paths quite entertaining to ride.

At the top of Scolty wood is a tower which is a war monument. Worth the climb up as the 360° views are amazing – unless you are in clouds like we were yesterday 🤣. The heatwave clearly hasn’t made it here yet!

Banchory is a lovely little town with a great outdoor clothing shop, 3 bike shops and the amazing off-licence called the Strong Water Co which has a great selection of unusual and traditional Scottish offerings. I am almost wishing we hadn’t bought food to cook tonight as the local Indian restaurants smell great too.

Heading inland a bit further West tomorrow.