Four hundred feet. That is the whole argument of this trip and the only number worth memorizing before you agree to it. The rest of the cairngorms vacation package an hour from the road follows from it: what you eat for six days, how much wine is reasonable, whether you bring the heavy boots or wear them, and how late in the day you are willing to start walking. A mile and three quarters is nothing. Four hundred feet with a week of food is a decision.
The hut is stone, single story, three bunk rooms and one long room with the stove at the end of it. Sleeps eight, and we let it to one party at a time, so the eight are people you chose. It stands at about 2,150 feet in a north facing corrie, with a burn running forty yards from the door that freezes at the edges by late November and runs brown for two days after heavy rain. There is no road up there, no track a vehicle could take, and no line of sight to anything with a roof on it.
What people underestimate is not the walk. It is the shopping. Six days of dinners for four adults is a surprising volume of tins, and the last supermarket sits twenty minutes away by road in Aviemore, before the transfer, before the trailhead, before the path. Parties who plan the menu at home and email the list ahead do this well. Parties who improvise at the shop end up standing in the parking place at four in the afternoon repacking bags on the tailgate, and that is a cold place to make decisions in October.
- Step
- An hour on foot , An hour
- How far from the road
- The hut sits one hour on foot above the last public parking place, a mile and three quarters of stalkers path with four hundred feet of ascent, and no vehicle of any kind reaches the door.
- What the distance costs
- The path is dry stone and compacted grit for the first mile, then loose grit and two water bars near the top; empty, it takes thirty five minutes, and with six days of food on your back it takes fifty five to seventy. A full week of food, wine and a change of boots runs 35 to 45 pounds per person, and most people split it across two loads or pay for the arranged pony and quad carry at the trailhead, which takes bags up on the Saturday afternoon only and brings nothing down. If the estate closes the track for stalking, usually a scattering of days between mid August and the third week of October, the walk in shifts to the eastern approach: two miles, six hundred feet, and roughly twenty extra minutes under load. In hard snow the same path becomes a two hour walk with poles and the carry service does not run at all, in which case the booking moves to another week at no charge.
- Nights
- 6
- From
- $2,340 per person
- Shape of it
- hut in a corrie, an hour up a stalkers path
- What is in the figure
- Six nights sole use of the hut for your party; bunk mattresses, pillows and one wool blanket per bed; bottled gas for the two ring stove and the water heater; peat and dry logs for the stove, delivered before arrival; filtered water tank filled to capacity; drying room with a paraffin heater; one arranged pony and quad carry of bags on arrival day, up to 90 pounds for the party; a printed path description with the ascent broken into thirds; return road transfer between Aviemore rail station and the trailhead, two people minimum.
- What is not
- All food and drink for six days, which you buy in Aviemore and carry or send up; airfare to Scotland and any onward rail; a second bag carry, whether on arrival or departure; any carry down at the end of the week, which is always on foot; boots, waterproofs, poles, torch, midge net and sleeping bag; mobile coverage, which stops about half a mile below the hut; electricity, since the hut has none beyond a small solar lamp circuit; hot showers, since the water heater feeds a sink and a hip bath only; a guide, a cook, and any transport once you are up there; anything a mountain guide would normally be paid for, including navigation on the plateau above the hut.
- Who it does not suit
- Do not book this if you cannot carry 35 pounds uphill for an hour on loose grit, or if wheels of any kind are part of how you move. There is no vehicle access, no wheeled path, no landing point, and no way to shorten the walk. Anyone who wants to arrive, unpack and sit down within twenty minutes should look at a trip in the at-the-door band instead.
Granite, grit and a path built for ponies
The path was cut for stalking ponies, which is why it climbs at a steady grade instead of going straight up. Dry stone underfoot for the first mile, well drained, wide enough for two. After the second burn crossing it turns to loose grit with two water bars laid across it, and that last third is where the ascent lives: roughly 260 of the 400 feet are in the final half mile.
The corrie itself is granite, scoured and rounded, with a floor of heather, blaeberry and bog cotton in the wet hollows. Above the hut the ground steepens into boulder field and then onto the plateau, which is arctic in character and holds snow in the gullies into June some years. The plateau is not part of the package and we do not put anybody on it; what we sell is six nights at the hut and the corrie floor around it, which is walkable ground in ordinary boots.
Water comes from the burn through a sand filter into a tank, and the tank is filled to capacity before you arrive. Eight people using it normally will not empty it in six days. Two people who like long soaks in the hip bath might, and then the refill is a bucket walk of forty yards, several times.
Which weeks give you the corrie and which take it back
Midge season is the honest constraint. From roughly the last week of June through the end of August, still evenings at 2,150 feet bring midges in numbers that end outdoor cooking. A breeze above about 6 miles an hour clears them entirely, and the corrie catches wind more than the glen floor does, but you cannot order wind. Bring a net.
Winter is a different trip in the same building. The path holds hard snow from January, the walk in doubles, and the carry service stops running because the pony ground is unusable.
- Late April to mid June
- Longest daylight coming in, no midges yet, snow still in the high gullies, path dry and fast
- Late June to end August
- Warmest, up to the high 60s Fahrenheit on the corrie floor, midges on still evenings, plateau clear
- Mid August to third week of October
- Stalking days close the main track intermittently; eastern approach adds 600 feet and 20 minutes under load
- Late October to November
- Colors turn, midges gone, daylight short enough that you walk in before 3pm or you walk in the dark
- December to March
- Hard snow on the upper path, walk in around two hours, bag carry does not run, dates moved free of charge
What gets fixed before you pay anything
Nothing is charged until the carry question is settled, because that is the part that changes the shape of the week. We ask for your party size, your arrival day, and whether you want the pony and quad carry or intend to walk everything up yourselves. Two people carrying for two is easy. Six people carrying for six, with one who would rather not, is where the arranged carry earns its money.
- Message inWe read it the same working day and reply with the dates the hut is free and whether stalking touches them
- Figure backTwo to four working days for a written figure covering the six nights, the transfer, the carry and the fuel, with the shopping cost estimated separately
- You confirmDeposit fixes the week, the carry slot and the transfer time; the path description and a suggested provisioning list come to you at that point
- Two weeks outFinal numbers, bag weights for the carry, train times into Aviemore, and the name of the person meeting you at the station
Ask about the carry before anything else
If you tell us how many are coming and roughly what you eat, we can tell you within a day whether your party walks it in one load or wants the ponies, and that answer usually decides the whole week. Send the question below.