Braemar Bound

Cycling north from Dundee, the Cairngorms offer a warm welcome for a weary wanderer

- By ALLY HEATHER

IT'S three layers of landscape as you cycle from Dundee to Braemar.

The first stage is the low summer fields of Angus. It's berry fields, it's barley growing green in the sunshine, and it's lots of busy little villages with Scots names: Newtyle, Newbigging, Birkhill.

The second layer starts north beyond Alyth as you cycle up into high heather-clad land. The views widen, with the Cairngorm mountains rolling across one horizon and the muir spreading out beneath the sky.

The third layer is when you reach the Cairngorms proper. The road becomes a thin tarmac trail that jinks and jouks along a valley floor as the mountains rear up high and craggy on either side. The air is cooler. The water in the roadside rivers rush faster over black rocks.

The route over the hills into Braemar is known as one of the finest cycles in the UK, and it's easy to see why. When I was there, the weather was still, clear and dry and it felt like I had the whole of Glenshee to myself as I cycled along.

The penultimate leg of the cycle is a grind up and over the ski fields, but when you crest the climb you're presented with 10 clear miles of tarmac rushing downhill through the hills into Braemar. It is a spectacular finish to a ride and there are few finer places to arrive weary.

Braemar is a stone cluster of low cosy homes, restaurants and guesthouses hunkered down by the cold running of the Clunie Water, where travellers have been welcomed for rest and recreation for centuries.