Calvine to Kingussie via the Minigaig Pass
Date(s) walked: 30 May to 1 June 2026
Wanting to try and see how I would manage a longer 3 day adventure, and with the forecast in the Cairngorms looking better than elsewhere (though still not great), I settled on walking the Minigaig pass. From the late 1500s until the military road through Drumochter pass (the route of the current A9) was built in ca. 1730, this was the main route used by anyone trying to get from southern Scotland northwards to Inverness (or the other way around). The route cuts a fairly straight line across the landscape from near Blair Atholl to Kingussie.
At the time a shorter distance was more of a priority than minimising elevation - the Minigaig reaches a max elevation of 836 metres! Compare to the current main route through Drumochter which adds an extra 10 km but only rises to 460 metres. The Minigaig was pretty much impassable in winter, with snow on the route into late spring and early winter. I’m not sure if people simply didn’t travel in the winter or if they sought alternative routes but maps from the time don’t show any other routes across apart from the Minigaig.
Robert Greene’s “A new map of Scotland with the roads” from 1689. The red arrows indicate the rough start and end points of the section I walked. It is evidently the only road crossing the Grampians in a north-south direction at the time. Screenshot from the National Library of Scotland’s online map browser.
The scarcity of roads is striking compared to today’s maps. Roads as a concept really didn’t exist in Scotland until General Wade started building military roads in the 1700s. There were simply not many people travelling across the country and when they did, the routes they took were not consistent enough to form established paths. It was the building of bridges that eventually led to the formation of roads as river crossings were a major hazard on any route that people would go to great lengths to avoid.
Day 1: Calvine to near Bruar Lodge | 12.26 km
I hopped on the Ember bus at Haymarket on Saturday at 15:24 after PhD writing all morning and then scrambling to get everything together in time. For whatever reason, the bus stops at Calvine, a small village west of Blair Atholl, which was perfect for me as I could avoid having to take the train to Blair Atholl, which runs at awkward times. This meant that I was using the less traditional start point to the walk, going through the whole of Glen Bruar instead of entering it at Bruar Lodge, which was historically probably the typical approach. It worked well for me as Glen Bruar is lined by estate tracks that make for fast walking - I wanted to make as much distance as I could that evening before stopping for the night.
The walking was fairly boring with nothing but a cuckoo to keep me company. It rained on and off but not bad enough to motivate me to put on my rain trousers. At one point I came across a slug-fest:
I stopped to fill up on water and as I started walking again I noticed two ticks crawling on my right hand. One of them was so tiny I could just about make it out. I realised they’d hitched a ride on my walking pole hand strap as I’d dumped the poles in the grass - now I always try to stab the poles into the ground and leave them standing up on water collections! That encounter left me mildly uncomfortable and I was expecting loads more on me but I never saw another one for the rest of the trip.
I passed Cuilltemhuc (“the pig’s nook” in Gaelic), now in private use by the estate.
Back when it was in use as a croft, it was at some point home to ‘the laughing man of Cuilltemhuc’. He was often found sitting in the stream in the picture (Allt Cuilltemhuc) naked and laughing away - presumably some of the famous Highland spirits contributed to the merriment.
On the other side of the Bruar Water there are also several ruins of other settlements and an old stone fence that runs pretty much the entire way to Bruar Lodge.
Not far after Cuilltemhuc is a dam built about 10 years ago as part of the Bruar Hydro Scheme.
The hydro scheme really has altered the entire glen. While renewable energy is obviously great, the project has inevitably changed the look and feel of the glen. The Bruar Water is largely dry for the bottom half of the glen and the wide access tracks laid out to facilitate the building of the dams have dug deep scars into the hillsides. While walking here and later on in the southern part of Glen Tromie with all the forestry work going on there I was thinking a lot about human impact on nature. I feel guilty when spitting out a bit of toothpaste into the grass when I’m wild camping or when I’m squashing heather walking through a pathless section. People, me included, can get so militant about following the leave no trace principles when it comes to enjoying the outdoors but what about all the traces we are directly or indirectly leaving in nature in other ways? What is the relative impact here?
After another 2-3km it was getting to be late and as I got in view of Bruar Lodge I spotted some flat-ish ground by the river that might do for a camp spot. Suddenly I heard some cow noises, though, and stopped, thinking they would surely be right where I was planning to camp but looking around I couldn’t see any. I let it go and set up the tent.
This was my first time setting up the Lanshan 1 in the wild and it was far from a perfect pitch. For whatever reason I just struggled to get the 4 corners aligned. But I was tired and decided that it would do. At some point I heard the cows again and looking around, this time I saw a huge herd of deer. The cow noises seemed to be coming from that direction. I don’t know if deer sound like cows but that really confused me. Some ramen for dinner as the rain came in properly and continued for the rest of the night.
Day 2: Near Bruar Lodge to Allt Bhran | 17.87 km
I was surprised that I managed to sleep surprisingly okay. Had breakfast in the rain but as I was packing up the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the day. Mornings are my favourite time when camping and I felt really happy as I set out for the day’s walk. As I approached Bruar Lodge I suddenly saw a black shape in the foreground:
If you look closely in the above picture, you can see the path starting to ascend up to the right. As I was eating my mashed potatoes (à la Lars Monsen), I was looking at the climb and feeling a bit anxious. I generally avoid any major elevation gain because of my dodgy Achilles tendon (and also because it’s hard!) and this one was steep! It’s called Uchd na h-Analach, which translates to something like the top of the breath (being breathless). Quite fitting.
Once I got going it was absolutely fine, though, going slow. The views looking down into the glen were absolutely fantastic as well.
The path then started to descend and that’s when things got decidedly unpleasant. The whole side of the hill was just one big bog. The path disappeared and it was every man for themselves trying to fight through it. I didn’t take pictures because I was just trying to stay afloat. Once I got down the hill things didn’t improve either. It was river crossing after heather-bashing after river crossing… OS maps claims that there is a path here but it’s one of the unfortunately too common times when that’s just a hallucination on their part.
Path???
After several hours of hell, I finally reached some forestry tracks. I’m never a fan of them usually but boy was I happy to see them this time. I took the first possible flattish spot and set up my tent.
It was on a side-access track to one of the main forestry roads but did the job. The moment I got the tent up a massive rain cloud passed over. I had my dinner and when the weather cleared again I decided to try and rectify a once again poor Lanshan pitch. I’m not sure what exactly I did but for the first time I felt like I got the pitch right (picture above). I laid in the tent and watched the sun set in the evening - the full open side of the Lanshan is just great for that.
The keen-eyed may notice some socks hanging from the ceiling… Whoever said merino socks don’t smell have never gone through bogs with them. This trip really made me rethink my foot situation. I’m entirely sold on the trail runners and won’t change to boots but when soaked with bog they just don’t dry and neither do socks (at least in the average Scottish weather).
Day 3: Allt Bhran to Kingussie | 17.89 km
I woke up to a miserable morning, low-hanging clouds and that misty kind of rain.
Nothing to it but packing up and getting going. Started the day on forestry tracks again and was a bit too happy following them so I missed a turn and ended up doing an extra loop through the forest. Got some nice views down to the Gaick Lodge track though.
Passed a new-ish-built family house right at the entrance to the glen which was a surprise. Glad that there are people living in these remote places again. There was a bridge right next to the house with some very tempting swimming pools in the river.
Following the track up Glen Tromie was a bit of a slog. The views were pleasant enough but there was not a lot of variation and the walking was all on well-used estate roads.
I had a few of options for reaching Kingussie from Glen Tromie. The first I tried was a vehicle track that required fording the River Tromie - I followed the track to the river but decided not to ford as the water was rather deep. Awkwardly backtracked through someone’s back garden with dogs in pens barking at me… Decided to instead cross the river at a footbridge further on. The path from there went up to the fancy Glentromie Lodge and I was again in someone’s back garden trying to find the path into the woods. I almost turned back but was not wanting to do a long road walk into Kingussie, which would have been my third and final option. I managed to find the very overgrown, heather-lined path that thoroughly soaked my legs and feet.
Try and spot the path - it is there!
It was a fairly steep climb to the top of the pass where I decided to stop for a break.
There I got sight of Kingussie in the distance and I knew I didn’t have too far to go. The path down the hill widened to a vehicle track but it was quite waterlogged at times so it was tough going.
My shoes also started foaming at this point???
It must be residual laundry detergent from washing my socks because I’ve never washed the shoes. Very odd. I think it also irritated my feet because I started feeling some soreness between my toes that I thought were blisters but must just have been some kind of reaction to the soap (?). Final obstacle was going through a field of cows - luckily they were in the neighbouring pasture when I passed.
The path comes out at Ruthven Barracks, built by the military as a response to the Jacobite risings in 1715.
The site has been home to multiple iterations of castles/forts in the time before the barracks were built, though. Ruthven, the village around the fort site, was the main settlement in the region for a long time. In fact, the Minigaig Pass has also been called the ‘summer road to Ruthven’ on some maps, so the village was an important destination at the time. I, however, had to walk another kilometre or so into Kingussie to catch the bus back to Edinburgh. Ember provides really good real-time updates so I knew the bus was about half an hour late and sat at a picnic bench airing my feet and organising my gear before it was time to get on. 40 minutes after getting on the bus we passed Calvine, where I had started my journey. Comparing the comfort and speed of the bus to the journey I had made on foot made me very glad to live in modern times.
Concluding remarks
This route had been on my bucket list for a long time so I’m glad I got to do it. But would I do it again? No. Would I recommend it? No. There are some enjoyable sections up on the actual Minigaig pass but the bogs and monotonous estate roads the rest of the time really detract from the experience. I can’t believe this was the route people chose to take for all those years - even with more footfall I can’t imagine that the walking experience would have been much easier - especially in the sections that are now estate roads. I was happy to see that I managed a 3-day trip quite well, both mentally and physically. I saw barely anybody the whole trip but it didn’t really bother me. I was pleasantly surprised to have managed to sleep a reasonable amount on both nights and my body didn’t complain too much during or after the trip. Overall, a good confidence-building adventure.