Lone Road
Start location: unclassified road west of Tomcork (NJ 040 468)
End location: Public road by Craigroy (NJ 121 499)
Geographical area: Moray
Path Type: Drove Road
Path distance: 10.5km
Accessibility info: Suitable for pedestrians, Suitable for horses
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Route DescriptionNewsflash: billed as one of Moray's Forgotten Routes, the Lone Road is featuring as part of the Moray Walking & Outdoor Festival, 16-25 June 2017. With everything from a Moray Way 5 Day Challenge, white water rafting, a Disabled Ramble from Edinkillie and gentle ambles, it's likely that most will find a route to suit them.
From the end of the public road, west of Tomcork, a track runs roughly north-east to Johnstripe and turns east, continuing past Loch na Braan. At NJ105482, it turns north, then east, following the burn, before heading north-east past Auchness to the public road of Craigroy.
NB There is a place called Tomcork near each end of this route.
OS Landranger 27 (Nairn & Forres) & 28 (Elgin, Dufftown & surrounding area)
Heritage Information
We're told that this right of way is known locally as the "Loan Road" and is probably an old drove road. "The Loan" is often a name found where drove roads come off the hills. The route certainly appears on old maps and may have been used as an access road to the main southerly highway, the Via Regia. With the coming of the railway from Inverness via Forres and south over Dava Moor, this route (or loan) may have provided a useful link to the station at Dunphail, an important access point for the transportation of cattle to the markets of the south.
However, it is interesting to note that the OS 6" 1st edition mapping (1843-1882) marks both Lone (a building at NJ077483) and the Lone Burn. Is Lone the building so-called because it was alone, or was it simply mis-spelt and named after its location on the Loan Road? Or should this old track actually be called the Lone Road? It certainly travels through lonely country. Could its name even have been a play on words? The Heritage Paths project would very much welcome further details about the use of this old route, and particularly any additional evidence relating to name derivation.
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