Distance: 5 miles / 8 km
Date: Saturday 11th July 2009
Weather Conditions: Warm & sunny with white cloud
Temperature: 19 - 21 C
Ordnance Survey Map: Landranger 56 (Loch Lomond & Inverarary)
Guidebook: Pathfinder Guide - Loch Lomond, Trossachs, Stirling and Clackmannan
Critique:
This is a pleasant walk with relatively easy instructions to follow. However there are a couple of points that you should note before commencing this walk. Firstly, the walk details state that there is nowhere for refreshments. This has obviously changed since the book was published, as the Stronachlachar Tearooms have opened at the pier carpark where you commence your walk. In addition, the very last section of the walk which is listed as optional, is no longer accessible. It appears that the Lochside pathway that you are recommended to follow has become private property.
The walk itself starts quite gently along a water authority access road. Towards the end of the road, the instructions become very hazy, it talks about the end of the pathway being at a cattle grid but actually it is before the cattle grid, however you only discover this by reading a sentence or two of instructions on. The Royal Cottage is actually private property, so be careful if you want to take a look at it.
The pathway before the cattle grid, up the hill is not that clear because of the large amount of vegetation obscuring the way. There are times when you become convinced that you are following the wrong direction, just because the path is not clear. The path is also not the 'easy ascent' that the guidebook claims it is, and so the sight of the 'iron girders' referred to, is a welcome relief!
The only other instruction in the guidebook also worth drawing attention to is the instruction 'Return to the line of towers and at the next one, which is just before a hill with a pillar on top, veer right on a faint path to flank the hill and head down towards a gate in the fence' The reason I mention this phrase is because the 'faint path' that is mentioned is not 'faint' at all, in fact it is a very well defined track for Vehicals from the Foresty Commission to use. Don't waste time looking for a 'faint' path where there is not one ... the big wide muddy track is the one that you want...
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