If you read last week’s blog post, you’ll know that we spent a week at the end of November exploring highland Perthshire, and that we managed to cram so much into the week that I couldn’t fit it all into one blog post! This week’s blog will focus on what we got up to during the second half of the week, which was a bit wetter and wilder than the first half of the week. It was a shame that we didn’t get any good hill walking weather as we fancied climbing both Ben Vrackie and Schiehallion, but that’s just another reason to go back.
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Rannoch Forest
The Tuesday of our trip was forecast to be the best day of the week and we planned to drive down to Schiehallion to bag our second Munro. However, when we checked the forecast on the morning it had deteriorated significantly and was forecast for fog all day – so we changed our plans and decided to head to Rannoch forest for a mooch around the woods. We found the walk in our Pocket Mountains guide but the route is on the Walkhighlands website.
Parking is free in a forestry commission car park along the road from Kinlochrannoch. There are a few way marked forestry walks, and we had picked the longest of these which was a five and a half mile circular. The walk gently meanders along the top of a gorge before looping back along good forestry tracks to the start. Mostly you’re walking under or surrounded by trees, so there aren’t huge views apart from one view point at the very end of the walk. Like most forestry walks we’ve found in Scotland, the paths were all clear and well maintained, so no bush whacking was required which is always a treat!
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. This is a great choice for dog owners and indeed the only other person we saw on our walk was a local dog walker (with two totally out of control west highland white terriers who mobbed us but luckily didn’t do anything other than bark – don’t you just love the ‘don’t worry they’re friendly‘ refrain). We were able to have Coal off lead the whole way around and he loved it – plus there were no stiles or roads to worry about.
Allean Forest
There is a well known view point in Perthshire called ‘The Queen’s View’, which looks across Loch Tummel to Schiehallion and which is not to be missed. According to our Pocket Mountains guide, there is a short way marked walk around nearby Allean Forest which offers the same view but without viewing people. With some time to spare after our walk around Rannoch Forest, we decided to stop off here on our drive home as it was on the way (similar route on Walkhighalnds).
Sadly, I can’t comment on the quality of the view, as on reaching the view point we couldn’t see anything other than a blanket of fog. Allean Forest itself is well worth a visit though, with a good mix of trees providing varied foliage and many different shades of green no matter the time of year, and easy way marked walks with are well signposted and generally on good paths. We just did the shorter route this time, but the longer route also takes in an Iron Age fort.
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. This is a lovely place to walk your dog – the only other person we bumped into was a local dog walker and his old spaniel who live nearby and have been walking here regularly for years. There’s nothing better than a forest walk for a dog walker and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Perthshire with their dog.
The Knock of Crieff
Perthshire, you may or may not be aware, has a plethora of ‘lifting stones’, ‘heavy natural stones which people are challenged to lift, proving their strength‘. Sam was very keen to have a go at lifting a stone, and therefore on the very rainy Wednesday of our trip we drove down to the Saddlin’ Mare near Crieff. The aim of the game is to lift a 99kg stone onto a platform on a larger stone nearby (saddling the mare). Sam did manage to lift the smaller stone but couldn’t quite saddle the mare – he’s sworn that next year we’ll return and he’ll manage it!
After the lifting stone we carried on to Crieff, as the rain was letting up at around 2pm and we thought we’d have a wonder up the Knock of Crieff in the weather window. After a short but fierce argument over where the car park was (I was right, if you’re interested, you need to drive past the riding centre and then the parking area is up the hill), we set off up the hill on one of the way marked trails. There are a few choices of differing duration, we picked the red route and then deviated off it onto the purple route to get the views from the top.
This was definitely the busiest walk of the week: as well as plenty of local dog walkers, we saw casual strollers, a young boys rugby team and assorted ramblers. I’m not sure if it’s always this busy or if the torrential rain all day condensed a day’s worth of visitors into forty minutes!
The walks are mostly wooded, but there’s a good view of Crieff on the way up, and then near the top there’s a clear view out to the surrounding hills. We didn’t hang around here though as it seemed like there was some sort of under 10s team training going on, so we continued swiftly on before Coal had a meltdown!
Dog friendly rating – 3/5. While there’s no stiles or other dog obstacles, I’ve knocked off a few points as this was busier than I usually like our dog walks to be, and the windy nature of the paths means that it’s quite hard to see where there might be dogs or people just around the corner in front of you – for this reason we kept our dogs on their leads, although we did see other people walking off lead dogs.
Glen Tilt
This walk from our Pocket Mountains book was called ‘the Wilds of Glen Tilt’ and it’s certainly easy to see how the author came up with the name – despite being on good paths and only about three and a half miles, this felt like the remotest walk that we did all week (route on Walkhighlands). It was wildly beautiful in the way that we’ve come to expect from Scotland.
There are several way marked trails starting from the Atholl Estate car park in Old Bridge of Tilt (£3 all day). Again, this is somewhere I’d love to come back to explore more of the trails we didn’t have time to do on this trip. You set off along a quiet road before entering sparse woodland, eventually reaching a magnificent view point looking down over Glen Tilt.
This walk was very easy, being mostly flat and with no steep ascents or descents at all. Despite this, we didn’t see a single other walker – and there was only one other car in the car park when we got back. I couldn’t believe it! This was our last full day and the afternoon was forecast for more torrential rain, so we headed back to our cabin to pack and clean, but if the weather was playing along this would be a great walk to follow with a visit to the nearby Falls of Bruar down the road.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. Most of this walk is on quiet roads and woodland tracks, and there are definitely opportunities to let your dog have a run off lead, although we did see some cars on the roads so you need to keep your wits about you and not wander down the middle of the road aimlessly like I have a tendency to do. The main thing to look out for is the rifle range which the view point is on the edge of – I’d hate for my dog to accidentally run across here! So ours stayed on the lead for this part of the walk, though we let them off later once we were safely back in the woods.
Black Spout Woods
All too soon it was our last day and we were saying goodbye to our lovely log cabin. As the drive is only about five hours (as opposed to our horrendous thirteen hour drive during our trip up to Wester Ross) we decided we had time for one last walk before heading home. We settled on a quick visit to Black Spout Woods in Pitlochry, which is part of the Pitlochry Path network (all of which looks fantastic, I have to admit I would love to live here). We parked in the small free car park in the woods and followed a short circular walk up to the waterfall, omitting the leg up to the Edradour distillery before dropping back down through the other side of the wood.
The waterfall itself is very impressive and is best viewed from a wooden viewing platform a short walk from the car park. We then carried on ambling around the woods for another twenty minutes or so – we didn’t spot any red squirrels this time, but we did see a woodpecker in a tree by the path (the first time I’ve seen one apart from on a bird feeder).
The paths were typical woodland trails, clearly defined but somewhat buried under a sea of leaves. We didn’t miss the autumn colours completely, they were just all on the floor! Given that this walk is so close to the main street in Pitlochry I was expecting to see more people, but we didn’t see anyone at all. It was with great sadness that we dropped back down to the car park and set off for home.
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. This is yet another fantastic woodland walk with no stiles to worry about. I did think to myself as we were walking around ‘how amazing would it be to live here and have this as your local dog walk?’.
Where we stayed
We stayed in Glen Hideaway, a wonderful log cabin in the woods near Kirkmichael, which I booked through cottages.com. It really is a cabin in the woods – we arrived in the dark and it took us a while driving down woodland roads to find it, although we did find plenty of deer!
The cabin is in a fantastic location with walks right from the door, and it’s about half an hour in the car to Pitlochry, where you can jump on the A9 and easily access all the delights that Perthshire has to offer. We really loved our stay here: it was so spacious, with absolutely everything we needed. I especially enjoyed watching the birds on the bird feeder outside the kitchen window while I was having my cup of tea in the morning – but sadly we weren’t visited by the red squirrel mentioned in the guest book. The weather was a bit too wet and wild for us to be tempted out into the hot tub!
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. This was perfect for the dogs – the living area was so roomy that it felt just like home, and we weren’t constantly tripping over the dogs as we all had enough space. A small porch area/boot room by the front door was great for wiping muddy paws after a walk. I’ve just knocked a point off as the garden isn’t enclosed, so you’ll have to accompany your dog outside for their toilet breaks.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this two part blog! We absolutely loved Perthshire and I would 100% recommend it as a place to visit – it’s beautiful, and from a practical perspective a lot easier to get to than most of the Highlands and Islands. If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog and want to make sure you never miss a post, make sure you subscribe below:
