Visitor center · Cairngorms National Park
Ranger advice and heritage displays make a useful start to glen walks.
Overview
Map
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
Glen Tanar and Fairy Lochan“Glen Tanar Visitor Centre is coming up, in the former Braeloine Cottage. Park at Braeloine and cross the old arched bridge to reach its heritage displays and ranger advice.”
Plays as you drive up to Glen Tanar Visitor Centre in the Parkwolf Cairngorms Tour Guide.
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“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
Glen Tanar Visitor Centre occupies former Braeloine Cottage and houses the estate’s Ranger Service. Its permanent displays cover the glen’s natural and cultural heritage, with advice on activities around Glen Tanar and the wider Cairngorms. Stop in before a walk to choose a route and get some context; it is an orientation stop as much as an exhibit.
Drive the minor road up Glen Tanar to Braeloine car park, then cross the steep-arched Bridge of Tanar to the centre. A relatively smooth path leads from the bridge, and the entrance has a ramp and automatic door; there is a wheelchair-user toilet. The centre also has public toilets, drinking water and electric-bike charging. There is no café, so bring a snack before heading out. The walk start has no public transport.
Old Pines is an 8.5 km circular option from Braeloine, about 2 to 2.5 hours with 70 m of ascent. It rises to Knockie viewpoint, where a view indicator and boards help make sense of the upper glen, then returns by stone bridges and riverside paths below Scots pines. The centre also starts several other waymarked walks.
Old Pines passes the Chapel of Saint Lesmo, a spring surround marked 1874, a granite millstone at a former watermill site and a nearby conical building that once held a turbine. The chapel is usually locked, but the smaller structures sit beside the route. Scots pine woods hold red squirrels, crested tits and crossbills; a capercaillie is a rare sight.
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
EasyOld Pines Path, Glen Tanar8.3 km · 2.3 hr · At the trailheadA gentle glen circuit linking old pines, a chapel and a viewpoint.
EasyFairy Lochan Path3.5 km · 1 hr · At the trailheadA gentle lochan loop with a chapel and summer dragonflies.
EasyKnockie Viewpoint Path3.2 km · 1 hr · At the trailheadA quick forest loop to a glen view and an old chapel.
EasyRiverbank Path4.7 km · 1.3 hr · At the trailheadA gentle loop beside the Water of Tanar and a glacial moraine.
EasyChapel of St Lesmo Path1.8 km · 30 min · At the trailheadAn easy 1.1-mile loop through meadows to a historic chapel.
ChallengingFirmounth19 km · 6.5 hr · At the trailheadA high drove road from Glen Tanar to Tarfside.
EasyJuniper Viewpoint Path, Glen Tanar0.6 km · 20 min · 0.1 km awayA quick, steep climb to a view across Glen Tanar.
ChallengingMount Keen via Glen Tanar29.3 km · 9 hr · 0.1 km awayA long pinewood approach to Scotland’s most easterly Munro.Parkwolf’s Cairngorms ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
