Walks you can reach from Huntly by train

Recommended: A really beautiful walk. Leaves Inverurie on the quiet Old Port Road, then walkers' tracks through woodland and along the river edges of the Urie and Don (narrow, care needed near the water). Uses a farmer's tractor bridge and field-edge skirting and with well-defined farm tracks. Hillwalking boots needed for some sections. The route passes Kinkell churchyard and through farm yards (Ardmurdo, Balbithan). An optional stile route skirts fields at Breedie's Haugh near Kintore golf club instead of the road.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk. Narrow riverside paths require care; if the Urie or Don river levels are high, stay inside the fields. A narrow bridge over the Urie and the next bend need care with frequent cars in both directions.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Woodland: a third under tree cover.

Time: 6h–12h30

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 6h–12h30

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A long, pleasantly rural route mostly on asphalt along quiet back roads, with forestry, heather and farmland and occasional houses. A short off-road footpath at Dyke may be wet or muddy. Passes through the restored site of Kingsteps Quarry. A bus stop at Brodie has a good service to Nairn, Inverness, Forres, Elgin and Aberdeen.

Time: 4h30–9h30

Lunch: Brodie Castle has a cafe (check opening days and times).

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Great walk along the clifftops; stunning clifftop paths. A walk of two halves: the first 5km is uneventful but quiet road walking through farmland and former fishing villages, then around 10km of stunning clifftop coastal path (the Aberdeen Coastal Path), weaving in and out of inlets and with an industrial stretch near Aberdeen harbour and the lovely Cove Community Woodland. Follows the Aberdeen Coastal Path along the cliffs; an optional 2-3km diversion via Greyhope Road offers a chance to see dolphins at the harbour mouth, plus a café and toilet at Torry Battery. Lots of nesting seabirds, and Cove Community Woodland has wildflower meadows and benches.

Hilly: a third on high ground, rising above the surrounding land.

Coastal: three fifths along the coast.

Time: 4h30–9h

Lunch: A Premier store at Cove (around 7km) and a café at Torry Battery slightly off-route.

Warnings: Sections run along clifftop paths where care is required, though never dangerously close to the edge. The road walking into Portlethen has no path in places, so care is needed; hill-walking boots recommended for some sections.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Largely good off-road walking through Culloden Forest and High Wood and down the wooded valley of the River Nairn and though one section near Cawdor cannot be followed without bush-whacking.

Woodland: half under tree cover.

Time: 9h–18h30

Warnings: Between the White Bridge near Clephanton and Kilravoch Castle the route cannot be followed and requires a diversion. The riverside path down the River Nairn is unsafe when the river is high, runs very close to the water with drops of around 2m in places, and can be cut after flooding.

Walk details: Slow Ways.