| Ben Rinnes from B9009 Ben Rinnes |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties; the route is not steep and follows a man-made path all the way. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. |
| GSM coverage | Unknown. |
| Parking | Room for many cars by the trail head. |
| Start height | 320 metres |
| Vertical metres | 520 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 7.0 km |
| GPS-file | Not available |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
Assume your starting point is Dufftown. From the centre of Dufftown drive approximately 6.2 km south-west on road B9009, passing Dufftown Golf club on the way. Then turn right onto the road that short-cuts across to road A95, and drive approximately 1.2 km along this road until you see a car park on your left hand side. Park here.
Walk through the gates and follow the very good path all the way to the summit.
The easiest descent route is via the ascent route.
It was time for the annual trip to Scotland with "the Whisky boys". This year we had decided to pay a visit to Speyside as opposed to the usual west coast islands. Our base for the first few days was Dufftown, known for nothing but its whisky industry. Three of us had arrived Dufftown the night before (Pål, Tore and me), and decided to visit Ben Rinnes before the rest of the crew arrived later this Friday. We left Dufftown after breakfast and were all set at trail head at 09:00.
It was a beautiful day, and it really was a stroll hiking the good path. When we got around half-way my hiking mates suggested that I ran ahead of them and explored the summit area while they kept a pace that suited them better than me. This was fine with me, so I changed from walking gear to running gear for most of what was left of the route. I briefly stopped at the summit before continuing north-west to explore the terrain and views. Then I ran back to the summit and waited for Pål and Tore. After having taken photos, enjoyed the fine views, and had a drink of water we walked back down together. On our way down we met a number of other hikers and chatted briefly with a couple of them.
We then drove back to Dufftown, had a shower, and drove across to the Highlander Inn in Craigellachie for our lunch, were we also met Jon and Nils. The lunch was fine, but it was the enormous whisky selection of this nice hotel that impressed us. Time for tasting notes ...