Braemar sits at 339 metres where the A93 leaves the Dee valley and climbs south over the Cairnwell into Glen Shee. Hills close in on every side. It's the last real village on the Dee, about 58 miles west of Aberdeen, and it feels much more remote than that. It's also famously cold: Braemar shares the UK's lowest recorded temperature, −27.2 °C, set here in 1895 and again in 1982.
The village has two halves on either side of the Clunie Water. Castleton grew up around the stumps of Kindrochit Castle, a royal hunting seat in the 1300s, and Auchendryne lies on the west bank. History has a way of starting here. In 1715 the Earl of Mar raised the Jacobite standard in Braemar, on the mound where the Invercauld Arms now stands. Just south of the village, Braemar Castle is a compact 1628 tower house inside a star-shaped wall.
On the first Saturday of September everything is about the Braemar Gathering, the Highland games the royal family has attended since Queen Victoria's day. For the rest of the year Braemar is a walkers' village. Roads and paths lead west to the Linn of Dee and the start of the Lairig Ghru, and Morrone rises right behind the houses. Balmoral and Ballater are down the valley to the east, and in winter the Glenshee lifts are ten miles south.
Bus 201 runs from Aberdeen through Banchory and Ballater, and there's a twice-daily bus from Dundee. Beyond that you need a car, and in winter the high roads in and out are often blocked by snow.