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Our winter week in Laggan (Badenoch, Scotland)

February 17, 2019 by Maria Fernandez

Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

Map of Laggan (Scotland)

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Our winter week in Laggan was to be a true adventure packed with Munros, a Graham, and a Pictish fort; plus we had to jump an unexpected fence, fight a gale, walk in thick fog, look for vanishing paths, and spot the occasional grouse and hare.

We had a whale of a time.

Arriving in Laggan

On Sunday we left Edinburgh at about 12.30 pm. This year we didn’t have our bikes with us, like the two previous years in Bridge of Orchy. Instead, we had the club car.

We arrived in Laggan at about 4pm on the A86, turned left, and our cottage was just there.

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The road off the A86 to Laggan

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The place was even better than I’d expected. We loved it. It was warm, quiet and spacious.

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Our pretty cottage in Laggan

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Upstairs, we had a bedroom and a bathroom each. Downstairs there was a third bedroom, a sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, a separate toilet, a laundry/drying room, a porch, and a beautiful garden. Superb.

There was a wood stove in the dining-room which Simon kept putting wood in. So much so that we had to buy two bags of wood.

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Our cottage from the garden

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Instead of scheduling a supermarket delivery, this time we’d brought all the food with us. Between that and the walking equipment, the car was jam-packed.

It’s scary to see how much volume one eats in just a week.

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Our cottage garden & sheepish neighbours

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The weather forecast was for temperatures in the double digits. But, in a bout of optimism, we brought our crampons and snowshoes with us. You never know.

A bit about Laggan

Laggan is a peaceful village in the Scottish district of Badenoch, in the Highland region. You can see where it is on the map above.

The word Badenoch comes from Scottish Gaelic and means “drowned land”. I think that’s most unfair. Badenoch is in one of the driest and warmest parts of Scotland.

The truth is, we’ve stopped counting the number of gloriously sunny days we’ve had there.

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The local shop next to our cottage

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I haven’t been able to find the phonetic transcription for Badenoch, but this is how you say Laggan: /ˈlægən/.

Laggan is roughly 6 miles west of Newtonmore, a small town we’ve visited on several occasions.

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Laggan Parish Church (Church of Scotland) in the morning

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The River Spey meanders past the village of Laggan.

The Spey is known for its salmon and its links to the whisky industry; and I guess also for being the ninth longest river in the UK, although I myself have only just found that out.

According to many, Speyside is the most famous whisky region in Scotland. Apparently, there are more than fifty distilleries in Speyside.

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Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

View of the nosy sheep from Maria’s bathroom

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About the Cairngorms National Park

The village of Laggan is in the Cairngorms National Park, a spectacularly beautiful part of the world. 

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Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

View from Simon’s bedroom

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The Cairngorms National Park was established in 2003, and is the second and largest of the two national parks in Scotland. The other one is the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, established in 2002.

The Cairngorms National Park covers an area of 1,748 sq mi (that’s 4,528 km2).

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Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

The A86 to Newtonmore

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Plenty of Munros

There are more Munros within a few miles of Laggan than you can climb in a week, that’s one of the main reasons why we chose that destination.

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Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

The village of Laggan

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Alas, because of the high temperatures, our crampons and snowshoes never left their bags, but we added four excursions to our bunch. All of them combined we climbed a total of 2,938 m and walked a total of 30.70 miles.

It sounds impressive when you add up the numbers. I’ll have to do that more often.

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Our local road to Loch Laggan

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A visit to Newtonmore

On Wednesday we took it easy, partly because the weather forecast said it’d rain most of the day, which it didn’t.

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Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

A visit to Newtonmore

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That’s why after breakfast and some faffing around in the cottage, we took the car and drove to Newtonmore.

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Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

Simon’s hypnotic wood stove

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We’d been there last year in June, when it was positively warm. The first day of that weekend we climbed Carn Dearg, a Munro in the Monadhliath Mountains. The second day we went to the Highland Folk Museum, a magic place.

We were thinking of going back to the museum, but in this part of the world most tourist attractions close till the end of March.

We didn’t really mind, though. There were plenty of hills to climb.

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Cairngorms National Park - www.simonking.bike

Our cottage from the local road

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So, off we went.

Take a look at our adventures. I’ve related them in the posts below.

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See our first excursion on this trip
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Our week in Laggan (Scottish Highlands)

Here are the links to all the other posts for this trip:

Monday: hillwalking in the Cairngorms – Creag Ruadh (Graham) & Dun da Lamh fort.

Tuesday: climbing Carn Liath (Creag Meagaidh), a Munro near Loch Laggan.

Thursday: climbing Geal Charn, a Munro in the Monadhliath mountains.

Friday: attempting Meall Chuaich in high winds – a Munro in the Cairngorms.

2018 in Bridge of Orchy: our trip 12 months earlier.

2017 in Bridge of Orchy: our first winter week in Argyll and Bute.

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I took all the photos with the Panasonic.

* Simon took this photo.

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