Detour #224: Where Eagles Dare, Scotland, UK

Just outside Inverness, there is a hidden valley where the eagles fly and if you dare to drive off the beaten track you might just catch one in flight.

This road trip through a remote yet very accessible part of the Scottish Highlands not only offers relatively high chances of spotting the nation’s most famous bird, the Golden Eagle, but it also sums up much of its classic scenery.

The route can be driven as part of a stunning 50-mile loop from Inverness or as a perfect side-trip on the way up to the Highlands from Edinburgh, where the journey takes in the picturesque towns of Pitlochry and Aviemore and the remote and often snowy Cairngorm Mountains.

My journey takes me in from the south, off the A9 towards Findhorn Bridge via a narrow side road signed to Raigbeg and Balbraid. The turn-off appears just after Soldiers Head, a famous hanging rock formation on a cliff face at Slochd Summit named after a German soldier.

Once across the river at Findhorn Bridge, I followe the single-track road to Coignafearn. This takes me out of the village and through a few small settlements before truly heading into the wild, with the valley suddenly opening up ahead to reveal a classic picture of Scotland’s Highlands.

As the 10-mile road snakes alongside the River Findhorn, all signs of civilisation totally disappear. Round-topped, grass-covered hills rise on both sides of the widening flat river plain, creating a classic U-shaped glacial valley and giving an increasing experience of total isolation.

If it feels like a road to nowhere, that is because it basically is. It ends at a car park next to the apparently deserted Coignafearn Old Lodge, a mansion that has similarities to James Bond’s childhood home of Skyfall but is part of a 40,000-acre estate owned by Swedish philanthropist and nature lover Sigrid Rausing.

Very few people come here, but those who do are drawn in by the purity of nature and the abundance of birds of prey – and there is good reason it is known as Raptor Valley. Reports of golden eagles here are higher than most areas in Scotland, and with that comes all sorts of other super-sized birdlife.

Driving in on the road, all passenger eyes are to the skies as we search for the valley’s typically elusive prize. No such luck, so we park up and take a walk along the dead-straight rocky gravel road, deeper into the glen along paths that you could literally roam for miles.

Photo Shutterstock

Time it right – mid-morning is ideal as large raptors typically wait for thermals to build before getting into the air – and you are likely to see the eagles soar. Yet on our short walk, to where the path met back up with the boulder-filled river for another classic Scottish vista back, they still remain elusive.

Once back at the car, we are about to leave disappointed when my son points to the sky, his head spinning round in response to a gust of air. As quick as a flash, a majestic golden eagle, its huge wings unfurled, shoots out of the trees behind us and climbs up into the valley beyond. Perfect timing.

There is good reason to spend some time here – ideally in May or September, when the weather is milder but the midges are not too intense – as you could be rewarded by sightings of all sorts of birds, including buzzards, ravens, kestrels, ospreys and peregrines, as well as red deer and mountain hare on the hills.

This, however, is not the end of the road trip adventure. A little over the halfway point back along the road, we take a left turn onto a very minor road, the B851 to Farr, and climb those hills on the side of the valley to Glen Kyllachy, where more stunningly remote Scottish hillsides can be found.

We drive on through more open countryside, past the pretty small, forested Loch Farr – only visible via a brief trip by foot – before curving back around to meet the A9. And after that, a quick 15-minute run takes us back to Inverness – where the remoteness of where we had just been could not feel further away.

Words & Photography Will Gray

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: Natural WoNDER

NAME: WHERE EAGLES DARE

ROUTE: INVERNESS to INverness

COUNTRY: SCOTLAND

Distance: 57 Miles

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