Glas-allt-Shiel

Glas-allt-Shiel is a granite lodge standing by the shore of Loch Muick in the Cairngorms, a region of rugged mountains and open moors. The building contains fifteen rooms arranged under twin gables, with bow windows facing the water.

Victoria ordered the lodge built in 1868, seven years after the death of her husband Albert, as a personal retreat in the mountains. The queen spent weeks here each summer and recorded the landscape in her journals.

Visitors today can trace the route Victoria walked from Balmoral, following paths that cross open moorland and pass streams named in her journals. The bothy beside the main building continues a centuries-old Highland custom of providing refuge for travelers crossing remote terrain.

A small building beside the main structure serves as an open shelter for walkers, maintained since 1991 by a mountaineering club from Dundee. The trail from the nearest parking area takes about an hour over hilly ground that becomes slippery in rain.

The name means green stream lodge in Gaelic, referring to the clear mountain stream that runs nearby into the valley. Victoria often sketched the deer that grazed on the grassy slopes above the building.

Location: Aberdeenshire

Location: Glenmuick, Tullich and Glengairn

Inception: 1868

Made from material: granite

GPS coordinates: 56.92730,-3.19056

Latest update: December 19, 2025 23:48