Fishing at Castle Forbes

 

The River Don at Castle Forbes flows through some of the most picturesque Aberdeenshire landscape on its entire length.

 

Rising in the Cairngorm National Park and flowing 135km East, entering the sea at Aberdeen, the Don is Scotland’s 6th largest river draining a catchment of more than 1312 SqKm. Home to a range of freshwater species, which include Salmon, Sea trout, Eels and Lamprey, with its specimen Brown Trout perhaps making it most well known.

 

Half way between the source of the river and its mouth, almost 6.5 kilometres of double bank fishing, east of the village of Alford with majestic Bennachie as a backdrop, can provide excellent sport from February until the end of October.

 

The main Beats at Castle Forbes are divided by the spectacular 101ft span of Keig Bridge which was designed by the noted Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford in the early nineteenth century.

 

Once known as one of Scotland’s premier rivers for brown trout, an active Salmon Fishery board has, over many years, encouraged increasingly prolific runs of salmon and sea-trout, in favourable conditions, with a policy of controlling pollution and demolishing obstacles that had previously discouraged migratory fish from reaching their spawning grounds.

 

The fishing at Castle Forbes can be booked by contacting the Estate Office (tel 019755-62524 - e-mail: sandra@harthillfarms.com) or directly online through the FishBritain website www.fishpal.com which has constantly updated details of availability, conditions and catches.

 

A map of the river Don showing the main beats and bridges is now available on www.riverdonmaps.co.uk