Ryvoan Pass
Take a stroll from the National Outdoor Training Centre at Glenmore Lodge along a pine-lined route to the spectacular Ryvoan Pass. This two-mile ramble visits the vividly green Ryvoan Loch, said to gets its colour from the local faeries washing their clothes there.
Dalraddy to Ruthven
A longer low-level walk runs between Dalraddy, on the old A9 near Aviemore, to the RSPB Reserve at Ruthven, just outside Kingussie. The 10-mile Badenoch Way follows a series of paths and tracks over moors, alongside lochs, through forests and along riverbanks to finish in the shadow of Ruthven Barracks, destroyed by clansmen fleeing from the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
Kingussie to Newtonmore
Another spectacular route links the Badenoch villages of Kingussie and Newtonmore. The villages are only three miles apart but have been separated by a century-old rivalry over the game of shinty. A recently constructed footpath runs along the foot of the Monadh Liath mountains by Loch Gynack, crossing the moors high above Ballochroan and passing old ruined settlements. The five-mile route finishes by following Newtonmore's Wildcat Trail into the village where a number of coffee shops offers a great selection of snacks, buns and scones.
Ben Macdui
Mountaineering visitors will want to get into the hills, and given that the Cairngorms boast the UK's biggest areas over 600m, 900m and 1,200m, there is plenty to choose from. Try Ben Macdui, at 1,309m the highest peak in the park and the second highest mountain in Britain after Ben Nevis. Climb it from the car park at the ski grounds on Cairngorm and wander up through Coire an t-Sneachda to the track that climbs the crags on to the Cairngorm plateau. Enjoy the "romp" to Lochan Buidhe, then south over the arctic-like landscape of the final slopes to the summit. Return by Cairn Lochan and the northern corries – it will take seven or eight hours – and enjoy a well-earned drink at Aviemore's marvellous Old Bridge Inn.
Morrone
It's often said that the smaller hills make the best viewpoints, and that's particularly true of Morrone, high above the Deeside village of Braemar. Its ascent makes a splendid half-day walk for all the family, especially when you consider that you start the route at more than 300m above sea level. Morrone has a weather research station and a radio relay station on its summit, at 859m, but long before the modern paraphernalia appeared, an old woman used to spend her summers at a shieling (hut) close to the summit. This old lady, called Cailleach Bheur, was said to call to the red deer hinds, which she would then milk as though they were cows. After the walk the Gordon Arms in Braemar is a great old fashioned tearoom with great coffee and big teapots!
• cameronmcneish.co.uk,
Cairngorms national park
