Dalwhinnie

Location

Dalwhinnie sits at an altitude of 351 m. It is one of the coldest villages in the UK, having an average annual temperature of 6.6 C, making it suitable for winter walking and mountaineering.

It is north of Drumochter, just off the A9 road from Perth to Inverness and has been bypassed since 1975. It is about 75 mi from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, 25 mi from Aviemore, 13 mi from Newtonmore and 17 mi from Kingussie. Dalwhinnie railway station lies on the Highland Main Line from Perth to Inverness.

Tourism

The area is a walking destination along the River Truim and in the Cairngorm and Monadhliath Mountains in the Cairngorm National Park.

Dalwhinnie is on the Sustrans National Cycle Route 7, Glasgow to Inverness. There are several cycle routes in the area including one alongside Loch Ericht.

Loch Ericht Hotel stands on the banks of the River Truim.

Distillery

Diageo owns the local distillery, the highest-elevation working distillery in Scotland. The Dalwhinnie Single Malt is a light, heathery whisky.

Climate

Dalwhinnie experiences a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc) that very closely borders a humid continental climate (Dfb) with strong influences of an oceanic climate (Cfb), a climate very rare for a UK town.

Skies are frequently overcast with cool temperatures and rainfall throughout the year. Sunshine here averages only 1,091 hours, which is one of the lowest in the United Kingdom.

Dalwhinnie holds the UK low temperature records for the months of June, September and October. In addition, it also holds Scotland's record for the lowest April daytime maximum temperature of -1.0 C in 1975, and the record lowest October temperature for the United Kingdom of -11.7 C.

For the 1951–1980 observation period, it averaged a temperature of 6.3 C compared to Braemar's 6.4 C, making Dalwhinnie one of the coldest inhabited places in the British Isles.

According to the 1981–2010 observation period, Dalwhinnie is the coldest place in the UK below 500 metres above sea level, with a mean temperature of 6.6 C, lower than Leadhills and Braemar which both have mean temperatures of 6.8 C for this period.

The lowest temperatures in recent years have been -15.8 C in January 2010 and -16.1 C during December 2010. Winter snowfall can be heavy, with accumulations often exceeding 30 cm.

|Jan record high C = 11.9 |Feb record high C = 13.4 |Mar record high C = 19.3 |Apr record high C = 23.5 |May record high C = 25.1 |Jun record high C = 30.0 |Jul record high C = 29.7 |Aug record high C = 28.7 |Sep record high C = 27.2 |Oct record high C = 18.9 |Nov record high C = 14.9 |Dec record high C = 12.4 |year record high C = 30.0 |Jan record low C = -19.1 |Feb record low C = -16.0 |Mar record low C = -19.1 |Apr record low C = -10.9 |May record low C = -6.5 |Jun record low C = -2.4 |Jul record low C = -1.1 |Aug record low C = -1.3 |Sep record low C = -6.1 |Oct record low C = -7.7 |Nov record low C = -13.5 |Dec record low C = -17.6 |year record low C = -19.1 | access-date=24 February 2021}}

References

References

1. "Dalwhinnie". School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh and The Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
2. (2023). "Dalwhinnie Community Action Plan: Looking to 2030".
3. "Cairngorms National Park". Cairngorms National Park Authority.
4. [https://canmore.org.uk/site/110468/dalwhinnie-loch-ericht-hotel Dalwhinnie, Loch Ericht Hotel] - Canmore
5. "Dalwhinnie Distillery". Whisky.com Database.
6. "Monthly Cold records". TORRO.org.
7. "Monthly records". UKMO.
8. "Average Temperature". Scotclim.
9. (1 May 2014). "Dalwhinnie climate information". Met Office.
10. Rogers, Simon. (7 January 2010). "Jan2010 temperature". The Guardian.
11. (22 December 2010). "Dec2010 temperature". UKMO.
12. "Monthly Temperature Extremes".