Watch the Braemar Gathering, held since 1832, on the first Saturday in September in the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park

See the heavy events — including tossing the caber — and the light events and Highland dancing

Tour Braemar Castle, run by the community since 2007

Drive up Deeside to the Linn of Dee and walk the river gorge

Braemar has held its Gathering since 1832, now on the first Saturday in September in the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park, its home since the Duke of Fife gave the land in 1906; since Queen Victoria's time the reigning monarch has been its patron and Chieftain. The rest of the year the village keeps its castle on the road north and the road west up Deeside to the Linn of Dee, where the river runs through a rock slot.

Braemar: The Castle, the Linn of Dee and the Gathering

Braemar and Deeside

Ten nights from Dunkeld to Stonehaven: Big Tree Country and Blair Castle in Highland Perthshire, reindeer and ospreys around Aviemore, the Speyside whisky trail and Tomintoul's dark skies, then Braemar and Balmoral on Royal Deeside.

Highland Perthshire, the Cairngorms and Royal Deeside

Visit Balmoral Castle, which Prince Albert bought in 1852 and rebuilt in granite between 1853 and 1856 to designs by William Smith of Aberdeen; book a guided tour of the rooms if you come on one of the autumn tour dates

Tour the Royal Lochnagar Distillery at Crathie, near Balmoral

Visit Crathie Kirk, the church the royal family attends when at Balmoral

Prince Albert bought Balmoral in 1852 and rebuilt it in granite between 1853 and 1856 to designs by William Smith of Aberdeen. The grounds open to visitors in spring and early summer and again in autumn, and since 2024 small guided groups have been able to tour some of the rooms on set autumn dates. Across the Dee, Crathie Kirk is where the royal family worships when at Balmoral, as every monarch has since Queen Victoria began coming in 1848; she laid the foundation stone of the present church in 1893. The Royal Lochnagar Distillery is a short walk away.

Balmoral and Crathie: Royal Deeside

Drive the A93 over the summit of the Cairnwell Pass

Ride the Cairnwell chairlift in summer, or walk up from the Glenshee Ski Centre

Find the Devil's Elbow on the old road a mile south of the summit

Look for the snow gates that close the pass in winter

The A93 crosses the Cairnwell Pass at 670m between Glen Shee and Braemar, the highest main road in the United Kingdom, with snow gates at Braemar, at the summit and at the Spittal of Glenshee. Scotland's largest and oldest ski centre sits on the summit, and a mile south the old road still shows the Devil's Elbow, a notorious double hairpin on the 1749 military road, since bypassed by the modern A93.

The Cairnwell Pass: The Highest Main Road in Britain

Climb Ben Macdui (1,309m), the second-highest mountain in Britain, in the Cairngorms

Climb Braeriach (1,296m) and Cairn Gorm (1,245m) to make three Munros in three days; a Munro is a Scottish mountain over 3,000ft, from Sir Hugh Munro's tables of 1891

A Munro is a Scottish mountain over 3,000 feet, from the tables Sir Hugh Munro published in 1891, and three of the highest are in the Cairngorms: Ben Macdui, at 1,309m the second-highest mountain in Britain, and Cairn Gorm, 1,245m, on the central plateau, with Braeriach, 1,296m, across the Lairig Ghru on the western one. Climbed over three days they are a proper introduction to the high Cairngorms.

Ben Macdui, Braeriach and Cairn Gorm: Three Cairngorm Munros

Join a hill visit to the free-ranging reindeer herd, reintroduced to the Cairngorms in 1952, from the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre at Glenmore

Watch the ospreys from the RSPB's Loch Garten Nature Centre in Abernethy Forest, where two Scandinavian birds nested in 1954

Look for capercaillie, crested tit and the Scottish crossbill, the only bird species unique to Britain, in the Caledonian pine forest

Reindeer were brought back to the Cairngorms in 1952, and the free-ranging herd is visited on the hill from the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre at Glenmore. In 1954 two Scandinavian ospreys nested of their own accord at Loch Garten in Abernethy Forest, the return of a species that had been wiped out in Britain, and ospreys have nested there almost every year since 1959. The same Caledonian pine forest holds capercaillie, crested tits and the Scottish crossbill, the only bird species found nowhere but Britain.

Cairngorms Wildlife: Reindeer, Ospreys and Capercaillie

Ski or snowboard at Cairngorm Mountain in the winter season

Join a guided hill trip from Glenmore to the free-ranging Cairngorm reindeer herd

Walk the shore of Loch Morlich below the mountain

Cairngorm Mountain has more than 30km of pistes on the northern slopes of Cairn Gorm, the sixth-highest mountain in the UK, open when there is snow, usually from December into April. Below it in Glenmore the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd runs guided hill trips on most days to its free-ranging reindeer, and Loch Morlich lies at the foot of the mountains with sandy beaches at 300 metres above sea level.

Cairngorm Mountain: Skiing, Reindeer and Loch Morlich

Stargaze from the Tomintoul Field of Hope, one of the park's three dark sky discovery sites

Drive out to Blairfindy Moor or the Carrachs in the Braes of Glenlivet for the other two

Visit The Glenlivet distillery at Minmore, grown from the farm distillery George Smith licensed in 1824

Walk the grid of streets the Duke of Gordon laid out in 1775

Tomintoul was laid out on a grid by the 4th Duke of Gordon in 1775, and at 345 metres it is billed as the highest village in the Highlands, though Wanlockhead in Dumfries and Galloway, at 466 metres, is the highest in Scotland. It stands by the River Avon inside the Cairngorms National Park, and the country round it is the Glenlivet Estate, 58,000 acres of the Crown Estate. Tomintoul and Glenlivet became the first International Dark Sky Park in the Scottish Highlands in November 2018, with three discovery sites for stargazing — the Tomintoul Field of Hope, the Carrachs in the Braes of Glenlivet and Blairfindy Moor — each with a car park and boards telling you what to look for. The glen was known for illicit whisky until the Excise Act of 1823; the next year George Smith started a licensed distillery on his farm at Upper Drumin, the first in the Livet valley; it moved down the hill to Minmore in 1859 and grew into The Glenlivet, fourteen kilometres from the village.

Tomintoul and Glenlivet: The Highlands' First Dark Sky Park

Kayak from Balmaha out among the islands of Loch Lomond, Britain's largest lake by surface area at 71km² and holding more than 30 islands

Paddle to Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles

Land on Inchcailloch, the wooded island nature reserve just off Balmaha

Loch Lomond is the largest lake in Britain by surface area, 71 square kilometres, with more than 30 islands, and the best way into them is by kayak from Balmaha on the eastern shore. Inchcailloch, just offshore, is a wooded island nature reserve; further south, Inchmurrin is the largest freshwater island in the British Isles.

Loch Lomond by Kayak: Inchcailloch and Inchmurrin

Ride the Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Mallaig over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, 21 arches and 380m long, built in mass concrete between 1897 and 1901 by the firm of Robert McAlpine, 'Concrete Bob'

Walk to the viewpoint over the viaduct, familiar as the 'Harry Potter bridge' from four of the films

Visit the Glenfinnan Monument on Loch Shiel, commemorating the raising of Bonnie Prince Charlie's standard in 1745

Explore the fishing village of Mallaig at the end of the West Highland Line

The Jacobite steam train runs the West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig and back, over the Glenfinnan Viaduct: 21 arches and 380m of mass concrete, built between 1897 and 1901 by Robert McAlpine, 'Concrete Bob', and known to a generation as the Harry Potter bridge from four of the films. At the head of Loch Shiel below it, the Glenfinnan Monument commemorates the raising of Bonnie Prince Charlie's standard at Glenfinnan in 1745. The line ends at the fishing harbour of Mallaig.