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# Pedalling among the pines
- URL: https://tombrewer.co.uk/pedalling-among-the-pines/
- Published: 2025-10-27T17:00:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-21T09:32:27.000Z
- Author: Tom Brewer
- Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1789982889005, #Import 2026-09-21 09:29

The Highlands woke up before we did. To the south-east, the Cairngorms rose out of the morning mist, vast and self-assured, their shoulders dusted with the first hint of snow. The air had that thin, metallic bite that tells you you’re properly north.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/aa5200b7-2266-4a67-a14a-2c1d3e1f4bf7_2048x1152-jpeg-1.jpg)

After the usual pre-ride faff of zips, gloves and lost kit, we followed the Speyside Way towards Aviemore. The path is a well-behaved strip through the wild, tidy in the way of things constantly trampled by walkers who want a little wilderness without the inconvenience of getting lost. The forest smelt of Scot's Pine and wet bark, the trees a dazzling patchwork quilt of green and gold.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/48abc086-8525-4d2a-8521-024a194b5ff9_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)

At Loch an Eilein, we stopped. It’s the sort of scene painters give up on because it looks too much like a postcard. A ruined castle sits on an island, ringed by pines, reflected in water so mesmerisingly black.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/1c6aa23e-c761-42c8-9d06-ab38b64949ce_1366x2048-jpeg.jpg)

It also comes with a properly grim little story, as all good beauty spots should. In the 19th century, Laird Grant of Rothiemurchus, a man with more entitlement than sense, decided he simply had to have a clutch of osprey eggs from the island.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/93183e79-da3b-45b7-9697-3f653521fa69_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)

He sent his gamekeeper, Donald MacIntyre, to swim out and fetch them. Donald, being both loyal and unlucky, made it to the nest, gathered the eggs, and drowned on the way back. Grant kept the eggs, naturally, displaying them in his study as proof of his taste and his servant’s fatal obedience. It’s said he never mentioned the matter again.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/5b487bf5-1061-40bd-bf8e-f80fa3abcf68_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)

We carried on along the old logging roads to Loch Morlich, which is bigger, brasher and colder. Here, the vast landscape truly envelopes you, a wide bowl surrounded by mountains and thick forest in every direction.

![](https://tombrewer.co.uk/content/images/2026/09/4be80116-f8ed-47c9-86ae-198a47b749ab_2048x1152-jpeg.jpg)

After a hearty lunch and a chance to warm up by the fire in a café close to Loch Morlich, it was time to get back on the road, back to Kincraig, legs heavy, light starting to fade.