The Wildcat Trail around Newtonmore
The Wildcat Trail around Newtonmore is promoted in the leaflet Newtonmore Paths and on two websites. Newtonmore Paths is one of a series of leaflets under the general title of Cairngorm Paths. Six Newtonmore Paths are listed and the Wildcat Trail is the longest and described as strenuous.
According to the leaflet
The Wildcat Trail is an iconic orbital path through woodland, moorland and alongside rivers, offering wonderful views. Narrow uneven earthy paths, some rough, stony and muddy. Some sections across grassy fields with livestock present. Gates and a railway crossing.
The Walk Highlands website describes the path
Link
and there is a very good description of the path on the Wildcat Centre website. Link
I started and completed the circular walk from the car park of The Highland Folk Museum. My wife was demonstrating spinning at an events day there and I had six hours to myself and our dog while she was busy. The weather was excellent.
The Wildcat Trail does a large loop around Newtonmore with excellent paths and one minor road. Being summertime the path was dry, but vegetation and trees in leaf by the River Calder prevented good views of the river. The section along the River Spey was a little disappointing because the river is only seen in one or two places, again because of thick belts of trees. Two minor diversions were made from the official route. One to visit the Craggan Viewpoint above Newtonmore and the other to see a Hut Circle in a clearing in the woods north of the town.
The achievement of the designers of the walk is to join up and create paths so close to Newtonmore without hardly seeing the town at all! You can see this trip plotted on a map on the Geo-trips page Link .
- When
- Sun, 18 Aug 2024 at 11:43
- Grid Square
NN7199- Chosen Photo
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