The house is well placed for exploring Deeside including the National Trust for Scotland castles of Crathes, Craigievar, Drum, and others. Further north east there is Haddo House and the celebrated parterre garden of Pitmedden. Other activities include salmon and trout fishing, walking and climbing and pony-trekking. Also, well within a day's itinerary, is the Whisky Trail - visiting the Speyside Single Malt Whisky distilleries each unique and each welcoming.
The Highland Games are held in August at nearby Ballater and at Braemar at the beginning of September (tickets for the latter can be bought in advance - a wise precaution).
The first thing that strikes you when you arrive at the Mains of Monaltrie is the wonderful sense of expansive space: a wide view across open fields to heather-covered hills on all sides, with scatterings of birch and pine leading away to a distance of forests and mountains. Lochnagar, subject of the book The Old Man of Lochnagar, rises to 3790 feet on the horizon directly in front of the house. You can breathe easily here; the air is clear with the scent of heather and pine.
The house itself was built in the early 1700's and is genuinely charming, decorated and furnished in an old-fashioned way and comfortable with night storage heating, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a further cloakroom, available for self-catering rental between April and October and sleeping six.
It is reached by a gated farm road (low-slung cars beware) about a third of a mile from the main road, the A93 which follows the River Dee between Braemar and Aberdeen. From here it's easy to explore the small towns along the river, the fishing, the walking, nature reserves, profusion of castles, standing stones, and some of the most beautiful and inspiring landscapes in the British Isles.
