📌 Braemar, Aberdeenshire
★★★
Morrone (Big Nose or similar) is one of Braemar’s local hills: high enough to make a satisfying half-day ascent but too low to make it into the Cairngorms big league. There’s no mistaking when you’ve reached the top, with an ugly radio mast spoiling the summit. Despite this and the fairly undistinguished slopes on the ascent, views into wilder terrain from here are superb, with Lochnagar and the Cairngorms plateau the stars of the show. You can follow the track used to construct the mast on descent to make a circuit, returning by an old military road along the burbling Clunie Water.
📷 Chronological photo guide
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish at Braemar duck pond, Chapel Brae, 0.5 mi west of Braemar village centre. Alternative start point in the village centre
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NO 143911
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 57.002810,-3.411974
🚌 Bus to Braemar, at a slightly different point on the walk route
🚗 Car park
📝 Key info
▶ 12 km / 7 mi | ▲ 650 m | ⌛ 4-4.5 hr
Features: 🦆 Braemar duck pond; △ Morrone (859 m, Corbett); 💧 Clunie Water; 🏠 Braemar ★★
⬤ Tough | Unrelenting, fairly steep but well made path for ascent. Track on descent, minor road return (track alternative for one short section).
Download file for GPS➡️ Anticlockwise circuit: start – Tomintoul viewpoint – Morrone – 824m spot height – descend track south of Coldrach Burn – minor road beside Clunie Water – cross footbridge over Clunie Water at 🧭 NO 150910 – path north to Braemar village centre – start
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Roe deer near Braemar, lots of mallard ducks at the pond and on the Clunie Water, dippers on the river.
Weather: Hazy sunshine with interesting cloud formations shrouding some of the higher summits; temperature in single figures, breezy at the top.
November 2011
