Bennachie’s sprawling plateau offers plenty of space to explore, marvellous wildlife and exemplary views of the Cairngorms’ mountains, says

Keith Fergus

ennachie is a prominent prospect as you travel through the hills and river valleys of Deeside, its unique profile visible for many miles around.

Rising from the flat plains of Aberdeenshire, a few miles west of Inverurie, Bennachie’s twin tops of

Oxen Craig and Mither Tap grant far-reaching vistas. At 518m, Mither Tap is slightly lower than Oxen Craig (528m), but its shapely character leads to Bennachie’s Gaelic derivation ‘mountain of the breast’. The two main tops are connected by a wild and wonderful plateau where meadow pipits, lapwings and red grouse thrive. The remains of a Pictish hill fort can also be visited.

This wonderful landscape is looked after by the Bailies of Bennachie, a conservation group formed in 1973, whose objectives include maintaining Bennachie’s paths and access to study its flora and fauna and to collect and preserve ballads, legends, poetry, art and music related to the surrounding landscape.

UP TO OXEN

From Back o’ Bennachie

Car Park, head south to an information board and bear right into woodland following the ‘Mither Tap Quarry Trail’. An excellent path makes steady progress to a junction. Turn right then immediately left, where the path rises steeply on to Bennachie’s lower, heathery slopes with extensive views opening out over the patchwork landscape of rural Aberdeenshire. In a while, the path splits; keep left to a junction. Go right, climb over a rocky shelf then keep right at the next fork for a steady ascent on to Oxen Craig and a truly magnificent view.

PLATEAU PATH

Retrace your steps a few metres then bear right and descend on to Bennachie’s broad plateau. Head east,