A short visitor's guide to Tomintoul, Moray: things to do, places to eat and drink, and what's on through the year.
Tomintoul (from Scottish Gaelic Tom an t-Sabhail, "Hillock of the Barn") is a planned 18th-century village set high on the southern edge of Moray, in the historic county of Banffshire. It sits at 1,150 feet above sea level, which makes it the highest village in the Highlands and one of the highest in Scotland, with a tight grid of stone houses laid out around a square and a long Main Street running north to south.
Most visitors come for the setting. Tomintoul is the gateway to the Glenlivet Estate and sits inside the Cairngorms National Park, with miles of moorland, forest and hill walking on the doorstep, the source of the Spey not far away and the heart of the Speyside whisky trail in every direction. It is also a Dark Sky community, with some of the clearest night skies in the UK, and a useful base for Highland Games season in summer and snow-road touring in winter.
Tomintoul's attractions are about the village setting itself rather than ticketed sights, with the Square at the centre of most visitors' time here.
The Square and Main Street are the village's calling card: an unusually intact 18th-century planned layout of stone houses, with a war memorial, a clock tower and a parade of independent shops and cafes around the green. From here, signed walks head out onto the surrounding moorland and forest of the Glenlivet Estate (covered in the Outside section), and the Speyside Way long-distance path runs near the village, linking it to Ballindalloch and the wider whisky-country trail. The high-altitude position (1,150 feet) and Dark Sky designation make it a particularly good spot for stargazing on a clear winter evening.
Tomintoul is on the northern edge of the Cairngorms National Park and the village is effectively a gateway to the Glenlivet Estate, so the outdoor options open out the moment you leave the Square.
The headline is the Glenlivet Estate (Crown Estate), a vast 23,000-hectare landscape of moorland, forest and river running south from Tomintoul into the Ladder Hills and the upper Avon valley. The estate has a network of waymarked walks, mountain-bike trails and wildlife hides, leaflets at the Discovery Centre in the village, and is well used in winter for cross-country skiing on the Glenlivet Nordic ski trails when conditions allow. The village itself is the trailhead for several short waymarked walks from the Square, and the Speyside Way and the long-distance Tomintoul to Ballindalloch route both pass close by. With the Cairngorms summits rising to the south, fishing and shooting on local rivers, and signposted routes for cyclists, this is the section of the guide most people will spend the most time in.
For a small Highland village, Tomintoul has a useful indoor cluster on and around the Square, all an easy stroll from the Main Street.
The Tomintoul & Glenlivet Discovery Centre & Museum at 43 The Square is the obvious first stop: community-owned and -run, with virtual-reality exhibits, a wild-cat den, a Dark Skies Experience exhibition on the area's renowned night skies and staff with detailed local knowledge for trip planning. A few doors down on Main Street, Spindrift of Tomintoul at number 5 is the long-standing village retailer for gifts, books, jewellery, fine-art prints and outdoor clothing, and the home of what they bill as the world's first "digital story" scented candles, made in-house. Tomintoul Library on the south side of the village rounds out the indoor options, with free wi-fi, the local-history collection and a quiet hour out of the weather. If you are travelling with a dog, see also our dog-friendly holiday cottages in Tomintoul.
Tomintoul's restaurants cluster on The Square, both within a couple of doors of each other and an easy walk from anywhere in the village.
The long-standing favourite is the Clockhouse Restaurant on The Square, open every day except Tuesday from 11am with last orders at 9pm: a traditional Highland-village restaurant with a steady following on the Cairngorms tourist circuit. A few doors away, Dalchini Tomintoul has brought an Indian and Indo-Chinese menu to the highest village in the Highlands, with both dine-in and takeaway, useful when you want something a bit more lively after a day on the hill. Between them they cover most evenings; for additional choice, the wider Speyside towns (Ballindalloch, Aberlour, Grantown-on-Spey) are within a half-hour drive.
The village's daytime stop sits at the northern end of Main Street, in the old fire station building.
The Old Fire Station Tea Room at 37 Main Street is the established cafe in Tomintoul, with hundreds of reviews to its name and a traditional tea-room menu of breakfasts, lunches, cakes and pots of tea. It is the obvious refuelling stop after a walk out onto the Glenlivet Estate or a morning on the Square, and a useful breakfast option if your cottage kitchen is light on supplies on day one.