Loch Faskally and Ben Vrackie

Sunday 25th May 2014

On the first day of my annual holiday in Scotland I thought I’d start with an easy walk to ease myself into the start of two weeks. I wouldn’t go up any mountains on this first day, but instead I would do a nice, easy walk around Loch Faskally, which is a narrow reservoir near to the tourist town of Pitlochry. I was in Pitlochry for the first time last year and loved the place despite a fleeting visit so decided to start my holiday there this year. I had decided that I needed a bit of time to rid myself of the stresses and strains of working life before starting to do some hard walking in Scotland, but as always things didn’t go according to plan and I couldn’t resist going up a mountain. The day before this walk I travelled up to Scotland on the train, and since I didn’t get to Pitlochry until twenty past three I didn’t have time to do anything except look around the Blair Athol Distillery. Incidentally I was the only person from Britain on the tour, everyone else was from overseas, and I was the only one who’d been around a distillery before – I’ve been around loads!

To start my walk the day after I descended through the town down to the River Tummel and, while the ground was very wet indicating that it had just been raining, it had fortunately stopped just before I left the youth hostel. Upon crossing the river I turned right and followed signs for the Killiecrankie Path, one of a number of good, way-marked routes in the area around Pitlochry. A pleasant walk beside the river took me past the Festival Theatre until the huge Pitlochry Dam came into view, but of more interest to me was the fish ladder that enables migrating Salmon to bypass the dam on their way to the spawning grounds beyond. The path led me up beside thirty four pools that gradually climb all the way up to the top of the dam with Loch Faskally behind it and the pleasant walk continued past a small grove of Rhododendron until I reached the busy trunk road of the A9. There I turned onto a quiet lane that runs alongside the loch for a long way, passing under the A9 at the point where the trunk road soars over Loch Faskally, while I continued drearily walking along the road for seemingly many miles.

The walk on the road was so long that I lost track of where I was on the map eventually becoming completely confused and totally misreading the map. Even after passing the imposing arch that marks the road to Clunie Power Station I still failed to realise where I was, even though the power station is clearly marked on the map. Fortunately the signs directing the Killiecrankie Path knew where they were and they unerringly encouraged me to continue along the road until eventually I reached the Linn of Tummel and finally I came to my senses. On this side of the river I found a steep, narrow, and at the times, muddy path that led me down to the river where the rapids could be explored to my heart’s content, but the wet rocks made me extremely cautious in my exploration. A second path further up the road led to drier rocks that enabled me to get some good views of the river as it thunders over the rocks on its way to Loch Faskally.

Even further along the road was the Coronation Bridge, which I crossed to reach the other side of the River Tummel where an excellent path led me back past the rapids of the Linn of Tummel with better views of the river possible from the path, but access down to the river wasn’t possible due to steep edges. This pleasing woodland path took me back towards Loch Faskally and around a sharp corner to head north alongside the River Garry towards Killiecrankie. After passing Garry Bridge I left the Killiecrankie Path at the point where it leaves the riverside as I crossed the river onto the busy path through the pass that I had walked along last year on my way from Blair Atholl to Pitlochry. On that occasion I had noticed the presence of the Linn of Tummel and decided that I wanted to return to this area to visit the rapids and so this walk was formulated, but I was now proceeding towards the Pass of Killiecrankie and it wasn’t even twelve o’clock yet. So far the day had been relatively easy and immensely relaxing as a result, but completing the circuit of Loch Faskally would see me back in Pitlochry in time for lunch.

Instead I headed north through the Pass of Killiecrankie on the broad path that I had taken last year, stopping near the spectacular railway bridge that straddles Trooper’s Den to explore along the pass where the Battle of Killiecrankie was fought. I was more interested in looking at the wild flowers in the area, but the weather was much poorer than it had been last year with rain now starting to fall briefly as I walked through the pass. I was still unsure what I would do for the rest of the day, so I climbed up to the visitor centre to have my lunch while I tried to decide. There I noticed that the Bealach Path that I had joined to go through the pass and that I had taken last year to go to Pitlochry climbs the hillside above the pass on the western slopes of the Corbett, Ben Vrackie. Despite the changeable weather I decided that I would climb Ben Vrackie, so after lunch I set off along the Bealach Path up a lane that climbs the hillside.

I’d suspected that I would find it hard to resist climbing the 841 metre tall mountain that overlooks Pitlochry and so it proved with a track that provided me with surprisingly easy access up the mountain. The Bealach Path doesn’t reach the summit of Ben Vrackie so at what I thought was the appropriate point I turned off the track and followed a slender path towards the summit, but this turned out not to be the best point as the path soon vanished and I had to make my own way through the heather around Meall na Moine and up steep grassy slopes to the summit of Ben Vrackie. This route wasn’t too difficult, and it meant I wouldn’t have to take the same route in descent as I’d taken in ascent. The views were poor and since it was cold and windy at the top I didn’t stay there for long before joining the clear path that led me very steeply down to Loch a’ Choire. I wasn’t keen on that descent as it was far too steep, and with hindsight I would have preferred to have climbed Ben Vrackie in the opposite direction.

The gradient eases upon reaching Loch a’ Choire, and with the sun coming out it left me with a gloriously sunny descent along a wide track down into Pitlochry. I was astonished by how changeable the weather was on this walk (and it would be no different for the whole two weeks). A lovely, relaxing stroll brought me down through a juniper wood populated by chaffinches that seemed little concerned by my approach. The climb of Ben Vrackie was more tiring than I’d planned for this day, but I’d always suspected that that would be where I’d end up. This was such a lovely day that when I reached Moulin on the edge of Pitlochry I didn’t want the walk to end so I headed off along a path to Black Spout waterfall and the woodland that surrounds it. This walk was as varied as the weather and was such an enjoyable day that it was a great way to start the holiday.