Forest bathing in Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire has some of the finest native pinewood in Britain along the Dee. Glen Tanar, south of Aboyne, is a national nature reserve of old Caledonian pine with a visitor centre at Braeloine, and the Muir of Dinnet a little further up the valley is birchwood around two lochs with the Burn o' Vat visitor centre. In the middle of the county Bennachie's slopes carry Forestry and Land Scotland pine and larch, with a visitor centre near Chapel of Garioch. Nearer the coast, Haddo Country Park at Tarves and the National Trust for Scotland's Crathes Castle near Banchory have mature estate woodland with good paths.

A session here might be in a sheltered estate wood in winter or up among the pines on a summer evening. Either way it is slow: two to three hours, a small group, very little walking and a lot of standing or sitting with the trees. Guide profiles give their venues, dates and prices.

Bennachie is a good first visit, with a large car park, toilets and waymarked trails that start gently before the hill. Crathes offers the same ease with a cafe, and Braeloine at Glen Tanar has a car park for something wilder.