Sight · Cairngorms National Park
Flowing mountain-bike trails, café and zip wire reward a longer stop.
Overview
The café serves breakfast and lunch, homemade cakes, ice cream and snacks, with indoor and outdoor seating; well-behaved dogs are welcome inside. Bike hire and the zip wire add more to do, but these and the café operate seasonally. The trails and toilets are open year-round. There is pay-and-display parking at the hub; follow the B9136 from Tomintoul and the brown tourism signs as you get close. Check the seasonal schedule before planning around the café or hire.
Parkwolf’s verdictMake the hub work for youMap
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Cairngorms Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Cairngorms National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Cairngorms audio tourRecorded for this place
Bike Glenlivet Trails and Café“You're coming up on the access road for Bike Glenlivet, a mountain-bike centre with trails through pinewoods and open hillside.”
Plays as you drive up to Bike Glenlivet in the Parkwolf Cairngorms Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Bike Glenlivet is a mountain-bike trail centre on the Glenlivet Estate, off the B9136 about 4.5 miles from Tomintoul. It has cross-country and freeride routes, with a café and zip-wire course at the hub. If you want a purpose-built ride with room to make a longer outing of it, this is a strong stop.
The trail setting shifts from pine-wood tracks to open hillside around Carn Mèilich. Riders praise the routes’ flow and upkeep, and the blue route gives newer cyclists an option while the centre also offers freeride riding. The Dark Sky Tower is a walk-up viewpoint for taking in the scenery and looking for wildlife.
Wildlife
159 sightingsRed DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
63 sightingsReindeerMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
102 sightingsOspreyMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
37 sightingsBlack GrouseMost seen around 4 AMSighting map
72 sightingsRed GrouseMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
82 sightingsPine MartenMost seen around 9 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Cairngorms. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateGlen Brown Circuit7.2 km · 2.5 hr · 3.1 km awayOld tracks, Strath Avon views and a rough Glen Brown return.
ModerateTomintoul Circular Trail4.3 km · 1.5 hr · 4 km awayA village loop linking a bird hide, birchwood and Glen Avon views.
ModerateBridge of Avon Walk6 km · 2 hr · 4.1 km awayA steep, rough climb pays off at a 1754 stone bridge.
EasyMindfulness Trail, Tomintoul0.5 km · 15 min · 4.6 km awayA short, easy woodland loop with carved stones about the landscape.
ModerateOld Military Road Walk, Tomintoul4 km · 1.5 hr · 4.6 km awayA rough old road climbs to views across Conglass Valley
EasyTomintoul Country Trail5 km · 2.5 hr · 5 km awayA gentle Glen Avon circuit pairs Queen’s View with riverside tracks.
ChallengingBen Avon via Strath Avon40.6 km · 10.5 hr · 5 km awayA 25-mile day to granite tors and a pathless summit plateau.
ModerateCarn Daimh Circuit from Clash Woods10 km · 3.5 hr · 6.3 km awayA 10 km loop climbs past farms to a broad summit.
Sight · 3.3 km awayStill ViewpointStep into a mirrored frame above the River Avon.
Visitor center · 4 km awayTomintoul & Glenlivet Discovery Centre & MuseumA village museum with local stories and a virtual dark-sky trip.
Store · 4.1 km awayThe Whisky CastleMore than 600 malts in a shop dating to 1904.
Visitor center · 4.6 km awayGlenlivet Estate Visitor CentreA useful trail-map stop at Tomintoul’s far end.
Sight · 7.2 km awayBlairfindy CastleA short detour to see a 16th-century tower house up close.
Sight · 7.2 km awayThe Glenlivet DistillerySee Speyside whisky being made, then taste it.Parkwolf’s Cairngorms ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
