The area around the village of Glencoe is incredible: the road winding through this landscape is just one jaw dropping view after another. Believe it or not we’ve never stopped here, aside from a brief camping excursion in 2018 when it rained so hard we couldn’t use our camping stove and therefore passed a very cold and hungry night! It’s somewhere that’s on my list for a longer excursion in the future, but in the meantime we made do with a quick stop off on our way up to Skye in April.
With it being a long drive we were just after a quick stop, and picked out the Glencoe Lochans walk from Walkhighlands. The walk starts from the Glencoe Lochan car park, and there are three way marked trails which are each a mile long. The Walkhighlands route combines two of these trails to make a slightly longer walk of a mile and a half. Don’t be deceived by the fact that the trails are so short: the route starts you off with a nice slog uphill to get your heart pumping!
Walking up through the trees was lovely, with sunlight filtering down through the leaves and far reaching views in no time. The path here is rocky and uneven in places, but was easily manageable for me in trainers. It was very weird, being out in the Scottish Highlands in the sunshine with miraculously no midges in sight!
We hardly saw anyone on the woodland trail, but once we joined up with the lochan route we did start to see a few more people, including an older couple who told us the story of how the lochans were created. In the 1890s, the landowner moved to the estate with his wife, who grew homesick for her homeland in Canada. The Baron transported a collection of trees from north western Canada and planted them around the lochans to try and create a refuge for his wife where she would feel more at home.
The trail around the lochans was much more level than the woodland trail, which perhaps accounts for the increase in the number of people we saw. It is a truly beautiful spot, with the mountains peeping out from the tops of the trees, and a number of picturesque jetties on the lochans.
Dog friendly rating – 4.5/5. This is a super dog walk, with no livestock, stiles or road walking, although like all walks in the Scottish highlands there’s no guarantee that a deer won’t pop out at some moment. I’ve just knocked off half a point as the lochan trail is busier than lots of the walks we do, and reactive dogs like Coal might find it a bit stressful.
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