Day 2: Fochabers to Craigellachie

The official Speyside Way site describes the five-mile route from Fochabers to Boat o' Brig as "a very minor tarred road".

We took a small detour to look out on the River Spey, where I changed boots.


We made it to Boat o' Brig without incident, and took a detour to wander onto the bridge and look over the river again.


According to a posting on RootsWeb:

"The bridge carrying the road from Rothes to Boharm crosses the Spey at the
west of the viaduct (railway viaduct built in 1906). An iron suspension
bridge was built in 1840 replacing the old ferry known as 'Boat o' Brig' but
it in turn has been replaced by a new 235 foot span steel bridge built in
1956 by Banff County Council at a cost of GBP30,000."
Third Statistical Account Moray and Nairn (Collins 1965).

Across from Boat o' Brig, the path immediately ascends through the forest, and indeed, the remaining eight miles from Boat o' Brig to Craigellachie is mostly "over forest roads as it climbs round the shoulder of Ben Aigen through the Craigellachie Forest".

We stopped at a roadside stream/waterfall for lunch, where there were convenient sitting-stones lining the corner of the road.

Unfortunately, the waterfall is difficult to see in a photograph when the camera points into the bright Scottish sun.

Soon afterward we met a German hiker going the opposite way -- the first walker we'd seen on the trail! He warned us of the "slippy" conditions on the spur, and told us his wife was traveling with him by train rather than on foot. He had a clear plastic bag of freshly picked yellow-orange mushrooms, but we didn't try any. (We thought perhaps he would cook them for his wife over a campfire that night, before she went back to her hotel.) Here is a sample of the landscape as we rounded the corner, with the Spey snaking through farmlands.

A photogenic trio further brightens the scene:

As we approached Craigellachie, we spotted a bridge with two turrets on each end.


We passed by the Fiddichside Inn (actually a pub) in our rush to get to our night's lodgings, but noted its prime location on the river for later reference.

Sure enough, we returned for drinks ... after we dealt with Mrs. Bucket and The Crisis of Paying Guests Who Arrive Unexpectedly In Mid-Afternoon Just As They Said They Would Even Though She Has Invited Non-Paying Dinner Guests for the Same Time And Failed to Reserve A Sufficient Number of Rooms. Luckily, the lodge wasn't full (except of Mrs. Bucket's crises and dinner guests), so Mr. Bucket quietly saved the day by steering each of us to a suitable room.

For dinner, we took the recommendation of the Fochaber's running shop owner and enjoyed a good meal at the Highlander despite the chef's absence.

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