On our first ever drive up to the Highlands, all the way back in 2018 when we drove up to Kinlochbervie, I remember driving along the A82 and thinking to myself: why on earth are we driving so far north, when it is so beautiful here? Driving along the shore of Loch Lomond, I was so struck by the beauty of the scenery that I would’ve quite happily swapped that trip for a stay on those bonnie, bonnie banks instead. We did go on to have a fantastic time in the Far North West though, which ended up being the trip which was responsible for giving us the Scotland bug!
Ever since then we’ve stopped off in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park whenever we can: stopping in Balmaha for a quick walk on the way to Wester Ross and in Crianlarich en route to Lochaber. It’s always been on the list for a ‘proper’ trip, but it took me a long time (longer than it should have) to work it into our schedule. Finally we rectified this at the start of November with an autumn trip to the north east of the national park, staying close to the town of Callander.
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The Falls of Dochart
Often, our drives up to Scotland are mammoth jobbies (looking at you Cairngorms national park), and usually a drive predicted to be 6 hours will creep up to 8 or even 9 hours by the time we’ve stopped to let the dogs out for a wee every few hours. Therefore, no one was more shocked than us when we arrived at our cottage in the Trossachs bang on our expected arrival time. The only trouble was that this was about 2 hours before we could get in!
Normally we’d just head out for a walk, but the weather was being very ‘Scottish’ – veering between lovely autumnal sunshine one minute and truly epic downpours the next. Not particularly fancying a soaking in our travel clothes, we made a quick adjustment to our plans to continue on a little further to the village of Killin.
We’ve been to Killin before: we stopped here to hike up Sron a’ Chlachain on our way to Assynt a few years ago. We thoroughly enjoyed our hike up this cracking little hill, but the local waterfalls completely passed us by until we were driving past them on our way out. The Falls of Dochart are located close to the centre of Killin and actually quite hard to miss, so I don’t know how we managed it!
As we were driving into Killin across the bridge, a rainbow appeared and it was just beautiful. I found myself hoping it was a good omen that the weather forecast for the week would be better than expected – you’ll have to read on to find out if that was the case! Sadly by the time we’d parked in the (free) car park and made it back up to the falls the rainbow had disappeared, but at least we stayed dry.
There are several walks around the area, but we just wanted to a) kill a bit of time and b) stay dry. A mooch up to the falls served this purpose just fine: and they were extremely impressive following several days of non-stop rain. It was pretty busy but what else can you expect at a super accessible beauty spot in Scotland?
Dog friendly rating: 2/5. Dogs are of course welcome to join you here: but it is very busy, they can’t go in the water due to the current and there’s road walking on a crowded bridge to get here. So while you can take your dog, they probably won’t enjoy it as much as you will.
Achray Water Bridge Circuit
Hopeful as I may have felt at the sight of the rainbow, the first day of our trip dawned with seemingly incessant rain. Not heavy, just that persistent light rain which tricks you into thinking you’ll be alright, before soaking you to your skin in less than 10 minutes. Usually when this happens I spend the morning scouring the weather map on an hourly basis looking for a weather window where we could squeeze in a quick walk and stay reasonably dry: and luckily, we found one close by in the late afternoon.
We chose a forest walk from our Pocket Mountains guide to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs: a 4.5km circular around the woods near Loch Achray (route also on Walkhighlands). Driving over I was seriously questioning the accuracy of the met office, but low and behold 10 minutes before we arrived the rain miraculously ceased. Then the rush was on to get parked and going so that we could be back before the rain started again!
On our way out we stopped at The Broch Cafe for lunch – and as we sat in the nice warm cafe eating our food, I looked out of the window at the pouring rain and seriously debated just going back to our cottage. I’m so glad we didn’t: we stayed dry until the last 10 minutes (which was very much just drizzle), and we all thoroughly enjoyed the walk. The plus side of the weather was that the whole walk was super quiet too: we saw maybe three or four other groups of walkers, even on a Sunday.
Parking is pay & display in the Ben Venue car park – which was pretty empty with just a few other cars – I can’t imagine many people were venturing up hills in that rain! The route starts out following blue way markers, before switching to following signs for Ben Venue, eventually leaving the hill route to loop back around to the car park. Navigation is pretty straightforward on generally clear paths – there was more mud than you’d usually expect on this type of path, but it has been excessively wet recently.
While there’s no ‘show stopper’ views on this walk, for a woodland route it’s very lovely scenery, and we just about caught the autumn colours. There is a view point you can detour up to at the start but it’s a bit obscured by some trees growing up in front of it. Nevertheless, you get views across to Ben A’an and Ben Venue throughout, so there’s plenty to look at.
Dog friendly rating: 5/5. This is a great dog walk which is stile and livestock free. There’s a short section along a quiet road, but this is a private road so usage is restricted and we didn’t see any cars. There are plenty of sections where you can let your dog off the lead – we kept ours on lead close to the river though. It was absolutely raging along following the amount of rain we’ve had recently and we didn’t trust them not to dash in and get swept away – I’m not sure if the river is always like this, so it’s worth exercising caution if your dog likes to swim.
Bracklinn Falls
The weather forecast for the following day was pretty dire, with non-stop heavy rain from sun up to sun down. There was a brief respite predicted for an hour or so around 10am, so we decided this would be the best time to brave a quick walk – what else could be expect going to Scotland in November!
If the weather is wet enough that we know that views are likely to be on the invisible side, a waterfall walk is always a great option. As the waterfall is the main attraction, you’re less likely to miss out on the best feature of the walk, and the waterfall is actually likely to be even better than normal in the rain. Plus, they’re often accessible on shorter walks rather than half day slogs. All things we’ve learnt from several rainy trips to Perthshire, which is a fantastic place to go waterfall hunting if you are so inclined.
The very first walk in our Pocket Mountains guide was a 3 mile circular walk taking in Bracklinn Falls – exactly what we were after on a rainy morning. The route is also available on Walkhighlands. Parking is free at the end of the road up the hill out of Callander – driving up there we were treated to some lovely autumn colours, so I had high hopes despite the rather dingy weather.
The falls are sign posted from the car park, and it was a very pleasant autumnal walk to get down there. Bracklinn Falls were really impressive as they thundered along the gorge – they are best viewed from the bridge across the river. This is a newly constructed bridge, opened in 2010, after the previous Victorian installation was swept away by floods in 2004. Like many Scottish bridges it’s very well done and fits in perfectly with its surroundings.
You can turn around and retrace your steps back to the car here, but as the rain was holding off temporarily we decided to carry on and do the full 3 mile loop. Not long after crossing the bridge the path steepens and there’s a fair climb up to a track running through a forest – Sam took great pleasure in pointing out that I’d pushed for this route as a ‘low level walk’. Up here it was very quiet and the odd person here and there that we’d seen at the start totally disappeared – probably everyone was doing the absolute minimum!
Very relieved to have the climb over and done with, the walk leaves the forest to descend gently into the glen. I think there are usually great views here, however we only partially saw them due to a veil of rain, which had re-started as soon as we were out from under the cover of the trees (typical). Even in the rain though it was very atmospheric: you really can’t beat Scotland in autumn.
Compared to the climb to get up there, the track running down to re-cross the river is a very gentle descent. The crossing is by the Scout’s Pool, a pool below a second waterfall which is apparently a popular wild swimming spot in summer. Not so this time: not only because it was November and therefore cold and raining, but because the water was rushing along with such ferocity that it would’ve been impossible for anyone to enter the water without being swept away. Impressive though!
From here, you pass through a gate to join a private road which leads you all the way back to the car park at the start. I hadn’t realised until about 5 minutes before the end that there were cows grazing in here with us – luckily, they were well back from the road and took no interest in us at all.
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. This is another stile free dog walk, but I’d recommend keeping your dogs out of the water due to the speed that it rushes along. There are several places where you could let your dog off lead, but be prepared to come across livestock (cows) if you return along the minor road.
An Sidhean
We always like to do walks closer to our accommodation a few days of the week, and perusing our Pocket Mountains guide we came across a route which, with a few minor adaptations, we’d be able to do from the door of our cottage. The route was a 5.5km circular (also available on Walkhighlands) up the small hill Beinn an t-Sidhean, with the book advising not to bother going all the way to the top as the view is better from a small knoll part of the way up. Done!
The route from the book starts from the small car park in Strathyre, but we popped straight out of our front door to walk down the road to pick up the route. This road was super quiet: it’s part of the national cycle network and we only saw one or two cars. Usually I’m not keen on road walking but this was like walking through a tunnel of autumn colours – so many reds and oranges that I felt like my skin was reflecting the colours back!
Much of this walk is in the forest on the flanks of the hill: and we love a good forest walk (great for dog owners). Especially as, despite the forecast being for sun all day, we ended up walking through on and off drizzle, so at least the trees kept the worst off us. We also intermittently experienced that uniquely Scottish phenomenon of blue skies and rain, although it wasn’t more than a light dusting. I was very glad not to be halfway up Ben A’an which was the alternative option for the day! It’s uphill from this point onwards all the way to the top, starting at a reasonable gradient which steepened until I was counting my steps in the hope that by the time I got to 100 the incline would have reduced a bit.
While the incline sadly remains fairly unrelenting, there is a view point where you can stop off for your first view down over Loch Lubnaig, so we (I) took the opportunity to sit here for a bit of a breather before pressing on. As you emerge from the trees for the final climb the path degrades into a swampy bog-fest – the nicest thing I can say about it is that you can mostly still see the path all the way, and that it didn’t go over the tops of my boots.
The heavy rain over the last few days didn’t make getting to the top any easier, with steps in the path turning into slippy mud and all of us (dogs included) experiencing a few slips and slides along the way. I was very relieved to finally haul myself up to the point that we judged the book was talking about – even if it wasn’t exactly the right place, we still got a fine view down over Loch Lubnaig. The loch was looking very full with water spilling out onto the fields beyond – I suspect the inhabitants of the caravan park we could see were feeling a bit uneasy.
The descent was just as steep going down as it was going up, only with the added joy of tired legs making the slippery bits extra treacherous. It also felt like it lasted a lot longer than the climb up – we both breathed a sigh of relief when we got back down to the nice level forestry track which would lead us home.
Dog friendly rating: 5/5. There are no dog issues on this walk. It’s stile and livestock free and dogs can be off lead pretty much all the time. Ours certainly had a great time! Some parts of the forest are home to forestry operations so keep this in mind and be prepared to keep your dog on the main paths.
The Falls of Leny
Wednesday, having originally been forecast as cloudy all day, ended up being the wettest day of the week. There was no weather window, just rain all day. We decided to just rip the plaster off and get out early for a quick walk, meaning we could then get home and warm up by the log burner.
Our Cicerone short walks guide had a promising route: a 1 hour jaunt to the Falls of Leny near Kilmahog. I think the usual walk to the falls, a two hour route, is more scenic – but 5 minutes after setting off in the pouring rain we felt like we’d made the right choice!
This was a very flat, easy walk, following a national cycleway practically all the way from the free car park at Bochastle to the Falls of Leny. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we didn’t see many people: just a pair of cyclists and another dog walker. Everyone else was probably hiding inside from the rain! The plus side though was that the falls were super impressive.
The Falls of Leny are home to salmon, and in autumn you can sometimes spot them leaping up the falls: we didn’t see any, however I’d have been amazed if we had, due to the speed and ferocity that the water was rushing by with. We did however spot a pair of canoeists peering down at the falls on the other side of the river, canoes safely beached a little way up river- clearly contemplating if it would be manageable!
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. There are no dog obstacles on this walk like stiles or livestock, and the well surfaced cycle path was actually great for helping to limit our dogs to just soaking wet rather than soaking wet and muddy. I’ve just knocked off a point for the speed that the river rushes by and the potential danger to dogs.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the first half of our week in the Trossachs – make sure to come back next week to read part two, including all of the details about where we stayed.
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