Nethy Bridge

The River and a Cafe Fire

The bridge that gives the village its name is a low, slightly hump-backed crossing of pinned granite rubble, thrown across the River Nethy in three spans by Thomas Telford's men between 1815 and 1820. A flood took a bite out of it in 1829. It is one of four Telford bridges here, the others carrying roads over the Aultmore Burn, the Duack Burn and a watercourse on the golf course. The river runs through the middle of everything before it joins the Spey, and forest closes in on three sides.

Start at Nethy House Cafe. The coffee is barista-made from Glen Lyon Roastery beans, the soups and cakes are homemade, and there is a wood burner inside for the days the Cairngorms remember what they are. Well-behaved dogs are welcome, and the outdoor seating catches whatever sun is going.

Farm Shop and Fireside Bar

For the makings of dinner rather than lunch, there is Balliefurth Farm Shop, a butcher and farm shop that has been open since 1948. Most of the beef and lamb comes from Balliefurth Farm itself, where the Shorthorn cattle are largely grass-fed. Alongside the meat you will find venison and game, cooked meats and pies, eggs, honey, preserves and frozen ready meals. The Premier Store covers everything else you forgot to pack.

The village's pub is the bar at the Nethy Bridge Hotel, the Bridge Lounge & Bar, which keeps log fires and classic bar meals. The kitchen has run to things like Nethy's Caesar salad with chicken, king prawn or sweet potato, tomato penne with Parmigiano Reggiano and garlic ciabatta, and battered chicken fillets with fries. Dogs are welcome in the public areas, though not where the food is served.

Red Squirrels and Forest Trails

A short way out on the Skye of Curr Road, the Speyside Centre combines a garden centre, a gift and antiques shop and a family-run tearoom whose speciality is clootie dumpling. The tables look out onto red-squirrel feeders, there is a play area for small children, and the place has been rebuilding steadily since a fire in 2016.

Walking is the main event. A network of colour-coded trails runs from a mile and a half to five miles, among them the all-abilities Riverside Trail, the wildlife-focused Wilderness Trail, the Castle Roy Loop and the old King's Road through the pines. For something longer, the Castle Roy circuit is a three-and-a-half-mile figure-of-eight from the Balnagowan Wood car park, about ninety-five metres of ascent over an hour and a half, muddy in places. The Speyside Way passes close by on its route towards Grantown-on-Spey and, eventually, the Moray coast. Abernethy Forest, more than four thousand hectares of Scots pine, birch, rowan, juniper and heather, is one of the finest surviving stretches of Caledonian pine woodland, and it holds red squirrel, pine marten, crested tit, osprey and Scottish crossbill. The community ranger, Sarah White, will tell you what is about and where.

Castle, Church and Station

Castle Roy itself is a thirteenth-century enclosure castle on a low natural mound, its curtain wall roughly twenty-five metres by sixteen and around two metres thick, with a pointed gateway arch and a small projecting tower still standing. The old parish church, altered in 1874 and called simply "elegant" in the Statistical Account of 1794, has round-headed windows, a crowstepped porch and a burial ground full of local slate tombstones. The station, built in 1863, lost its railway and became group accommodation; one man who slept there in 1967 remembered his boots frozen to the floor by morning.

Roads, Buses and the Games

Getting here is straightforward. The B970 links the village to Aviemore and Grantown-on-Spey, the touring SnowRoads route passes through, and Stagecoach service 37 runs to Aviemore station, Boat of Garten and beyond. On the second Saturday of August the Games Field fills for the Abernethy Highland Games, held here in one form or another since 1846. Outside the games, the paths are used by walkers, runners, cyclists, dog-walkers and, in winter, sometimes cross-country skiers.