Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Explore the outdoors: Riverside running at Aberlour

Post Thumbnail

It’s great when things you think are familiar surprise you, and this run from Aberlour following the western, far bank of the Spey is one of them.

Since Dave, my fellow RunSpeyside founder, introduced me to the great network of tracks on the “other” side of the river, I’ve taken many people round them and they are never disappointed.

Starting from the Alice Littler Park car park, we crossed over the Penny Bridge, so named because the fee for crossing when it first opened in 1902 was a penny, and turned left to follow the track behind the old Ferryman’s house up the brae.

Bearing left to pass a modern house, the track loses height again and we continued down to rejoin the river bank.

The track here is good running and, with Aberlour now behind us, our only company were the fishermen stationed hopefully alongside the river.

At a junction next to a fishing hut we carried straight on – this is an extra detour, but extends the pleasant running along the riverside track taking a short riverside path to complete a small loop before rejoining the track to take us back to the fishing hut.

The waters of the Spey flowed dark beside us as clouds threatening snow showers passed overhead.

Next to the hut, we now turned left to climb a steep hill and I won’t deny that this is one to test the lungs and legs.

Dave is a bit of a hill specialist and was soon ahead of me, but the short, sharp gradient meant I felt no shame in slowing to a brief power walk for the tough section.

At the top of the rise, we turned left to continue upwards, making sure to stop and look southwards down the curve of the Spey, the waters now invitingly silver under a clear patch of sky.

After pausing to enjoy the view (and regain some breath) we turned right to continue climbing northwards and, after one last effort as the pine trees either side finished, we were treated to another grand vista across Aberlour towards Ben Rinnes and the Convals.

With the uphill over it was time to enjoy the gentle descent back down towards the village.

The track joined a metalled road, and here we turned left.

Turning right here takes you directly down to the Ferryman’s cottage if you want to shorten the route.

The road heads along the hillside, and we took the first right turn to start descending, soon taking another right as the driveway for Lower Easter Elchies took a sharp turn towards the house.

This track brought us down to the Penny Bridge, and once over, we then turned right to run along the riverbank, crossing a footbridge over the Lour Burn.

Following the rough paths along the river bank we reached a steep bank with an informal rope handrail.

Carefully climbing up this and ducking under a fence, we were now on the old railway line of the Speyside way and turned left for a jog among the trees back to the car park.

RunSpeyside offers guided running tours all over Speyside and Moray, with an emphasis on discovering and enjoying the outdoors.

It has routes from 5k to all day, and the tours are available throughout the year.

Alongside the standard tours, it is also providing special itineraries for the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival and the Moray Walking and Outdoors Festival.

For more details visit www.runspeyside.co.uk or on Facebook – @runspeyside