Formartine and Buchan Way
A flat, easy rail trail across the farmland of north-east Aberdeenshire, from the edge of Aberdeen out to Fraserburgh and Peterhead
The Formartine and Buchan Way follows a disused railway north across Aberdeenshire, from Dyce on the edge of Aberdeen out to the coast at Fraserburgh. The main line runs about 40 miles; at Maud, roughly halfway, a branch of some 13 miles turns off east to Peterhead, so the whole network comes to around 86 kilometres. It is open to walkers, cyclists and horse riders, and because it keeps to a former railbed it is gently graded and simple to follow.
The name comes from the two old districts of the north-east that the line crossed: Formartine, the farming country north of the Don, and Buchan, the broad plain running out to the corner of Scotland at Fraserburgh. The railway itself opened in stages between 1861 and 1865, linking the fishing ports and market towns to Aberdeen, and it closed to passengers and then freight between the 1960s and 1979. Local volunteers began reopening it as a path in the late 1980s, and it came into use as a through route in the early 1990s.
The walking is easy rather than dramatic. This is lowland, agricultural Aberdeenshire — rolling fields, farm steadings, the occasional cutting and old station platform — and the interest is in the steady passage through it rather than in hills or coast, though the Peterhead and Fraserburgh ends both reach the sea. The surface is firm in most places but can be muddy, which suits a mountain bike better than a road one.
It passes through Ellon, Maud and Mintlaw, giving natural points to join or leave, and its flat, waymarked line makes it a good family day out as well as a long trip end to end.
