Rob Roy Way: Aberfeldy to Kenmore

Perthshire Hills

Sunday, 19 April 2026

Ascent:     462 metres
Distance:  14 kilometres
Time:        3 hours 40 minutes

The final leg of the Rob Roy Way had to be truncated. Gregor was running the Rob Roy Way as preparation for his big run from Kirk Yetholm on the Northumberland Border to Cape Wrath. A 420-mile run that he hopes to do in 17 days, basically a marathon a day over gruelling trails and mountain passes. I dropped him at Killin for a 40-kilometre section to Aberfeldy. I drove to Aberfeldy from where I would head back to Acharn. In typical contrary fashion, I had decided to walk the Rob Roy Way from North to South. We had left home at 7:30am, and he began running at 8:20am. I drove on the Aberfeldy, parked the car at the far side of the town near the Co-op at 9:00am. Gregor had wanted to be home by 2pm to watch the football, and it would take an hour and 15 minutes to drive back home from Aberfeldy, where he would collect my car and pick me up. I figured that I would not be able to walk the 18 kilometres to Acharn in less than three and a half hours, if at all, so we agreed he would pick me up in Kenmore. 

I began my walk through the town, where I was pleased to see the Birks Community Cinema, the proud community-owned and run cinema that had been the first such venture in the UK. I then entered the magnificent Birks Glen, where a rippling burn adds sound and movement to the spectacular native woodland. The paths that straddle the burn and its waterfalls were a tough climb but are one of the most beautiful locations to begin any day. Today, spring had burst forth after the recent rainy April and the daffodils provided colour that elevated the bright muted woodland colour palette. I had covered two and a half kilometres by the time I reached the top of the escarpment and sauntered through the birch woodland that led to the trails and paths of the Rob Roy Way. 

I had climbed to 300 metres at the top of the Birks but immediately the farm tracks began to descend through grazing lands where lambs were frolicking in the spring sunshine.  There was a splendid view to the north where Meall Tairneachan and Farragon Hill, enjoyable Corbetts both, scraped against the skyline. The River Tay flowed menacingly through the Appin of Dull as the Way went up and down like a stretched-out Big Dipper. Through woodland, past new expensive houses and older, solid farmhouses. On gravel trails, muddy grass paths and the occasional section of asphalt, all strafed by marching pylons. The warmth of the Birks had been replaced by a cool breeze that made for good walking. I walked through a few forested sections before some splendid views of Schiehallion opened up, it summit kissing the clouds. In the distance, the Ben Lawers Range became visible with a good coating of snow.

Taymouth Castle was the next landmark set below the amply wooded Drummond Hill. It has been renovated, and significant developments are under construction to create a gated residential development with access to the famous James Braid Golf Course, restaurants, spas and an equestrian centre on the 1000-acre estate. Despite creating many jobs, it is a controversial development that seems contrary to the freedom to roam. The cheapest houses are expected to start at £4m and are clearly aimed at the world's rich list and will no doubt bring expectations of a heliport and other requirements that'll not help Scotland's quest to reach net zero. There is strong local opposition to the American-owned Discovery Land Company taking over many commercial facilities in Kenmore and Aberfeldy. I met a couple from Aberfeldy who had lost access to the golf club and worried about the impact on more localised tourism businesses. 

I had figured that if all was going to plan, I would pass Gregor between the 8 or 9 kilometre point and began to worry when it was almost 10 kilometres before he appeared, running easily but with a lot of up and downs to go, and it was 11:40am. I continued at a steady pace through a final woodland section and then climbing uphill to Tombuie cottage at 350 metres, where a narrow, heavily eroded asphalt road begins to descend steeply towards Kenmore, with the section to Acharn tempting me as I walked past and was hailed by a Geordie who was looking for company on the track to Acharn.  

The steepness of the road on the final two kilometres was more difficult than most of the trails, and it was some relief that I arrived at Kenmore and found a bench where I could admire the splendour of Loch Tay and check on Gregor. I thought I might have to wait half an hour but he had moved at speed and was only 5 minutes away. It was 12:45am and we made it home with 5 minutes to spare before the Merseyside Derby began at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium. Liverpool won 2-1. Gregor had run 104 kilometres in 8 hours 21 minutes over the past two and a half days; good training for the big run.

Entrance to the Birks

Glorious Birks Woodland Path

Birks Waterfall

Top of the Birks

Lambing season

Schiehallion

Taymouth Castle Estate

Loch Tay and Ben Lawers Range

Mini Castle

Loch Tay at Kenmore

 

Antichrist admonished

God forgive you, my president

Even in these crazy, rocket-fuelled days of dumb diplomacy, you couldn't make it up, but with a little help from AI, provided by his tech bros funders, he did. Not content with falling out with the EU, the UK, Norway, Canada, Mexico, most Middle East countries, Australia, South Korea,  China,  Cuba, Greenland and the United Nations, he has now insulted the Pope and Tucker Carlson, the far-right MAGA broadcaster. 

And his endorsements of election candidates are becoming the Black Spot of the information age. Ask his nominations for New York Mayor, candidates for recent Congress elections or Victor Orban in Hungary. Since January 2025, we have been watching a badly scripted but unmissable soap opera or game show where the objective is to lose your friends and become a rogue state. He has done it in record time and joins Netanyahu and Putin in the hyperspace of nil morality. They should all be worried, assuming they are going to subject themselves to anything as stupid as elections. And Farage should be dreading an endorsement from his pal, who has built no friends, just a gold-embossed ballroom.

Gaming Tool for White House Advisers

I have finished a rereading of Nineteen Eighty Four, and whilst I still find it a tedious slog, it contains some imaginative, but morally corrupt, concepts for destroying democracy that the White House have adopted. When thinking about doublespeak in the time of Trump, it occurred to me that triple gestures would make a good game for children or the White House advisers. Instead of Rock (fist), Paper (flat hand), Scissors (two fingers) it could be renamed War, Peace, Trump. Obviously, two fingers would be Trump, a fist would be War, and a flat hand would be Peace.

The rules are: Trump beats Peace, War beats Trump, and Peace beats War. 

Even the obsequious advisers in the White House might be able to explain this to Trump, although whether he could convince Netanyahu might be a stretch. And the game could be sponsored by those clever Norwegians who decide the Nobel Peace Prize.

Rob Roy Way: Killin to Lochearnhead

Killin - Dochart Falls

Tuesday 7 April, 2026

Ascent:    276 metres
Distance: 13 kilometres - including walk to/from Lochearnhead car park
Time:       2 hours 53 minutes

At last, a day without rain or wind and the temperatures rising to 15°C. I decided to attempt the section of the Rob Roy Way from Killin to Lochearnhead. I drove to Lochearnhead and parked in the village car park on the A85 and caught the C60 bus. I fell into conversation at the bus stop with a young woman who lived in one of the social rented houses that we had obtained funding for in 1999. She worked in the Recycling shop in Killin and was hoping to get entry to a vocational course in Public Health or Psychology in Edinburgh. She had values that gave me hope for future generations.

The day was bright as I left the bus just before 11am and began the walk by crossing the Bridge of Dochart. The falls were sparkling in the sunshine and quite a few tourists were enjoying the weather at the fag end of a miserable Easter weekend. After walking half a kilometre, the Rob Roy Way and Route 7 national cycle trail dive into the forestry plantations. 

The Rob Roy Way follows the old railway branch line that ran into Killin until it was closed in September 1965. This resulted from a rockfall in Glen Ogle that shut the Callander to Oban Line just months before the Beeching proposals would have done so. There is a 1-in-50 gradient from Killin to Killin Junction, west of Lix Toll. This provided a gentle incline on the Rob Roy Way. Thereafter, the trail zig zags up steeper terrain, climbing almost 200 metres through the forest towards the summit of Glen Ogle. I had made good time and reached the Memorial to the Tornado fighter jet that crashed here in 1994. It had flummoxed our Emergency Planning procedures, which until that time had focused on flooding and coping with an incident at Grangemouth. 

I stopped for some food before crossing the A85 and hitting the disused Glen Ogle railway track. It sidles past the attractive Lochan Lairig Cheile before entering a deep cutting.  The descent down Glen Ogle had been on my to-do list for fifty years since hearing Duncan, who had been a signalman on the line, describe the rockfall and subsequent closure of the line that was his pride and joy. He became a postman and part-time gardener for Aileen's parents and had a formidable commitment to all his occupations. 

During the early part of the walk, I had seen only one couple, but hereafter there was a steady stream of cyclists, walkers and one runner. The descent was steady, and after examining the viaduct and admiring the stone embankments that were mainly intact after 150 years, I was beginning to weary. I decided to take a steep path down to the centre of Lochearnhead. It was 2 pm and I had managed 20,000 steps and 13 kilometres for the first time in 9 months. I hobbled back to the car; it was sore feet, not my hip, that was the curse. There is now only one leg of the Rob Roy Way remaining to be walked, Aberfeldy to Acharn.    

Dochart Falls and Ben Lawers range

Old Killin Branch Line to Lix Toll

Looking back to Ben Lawers from Mid Lix

Memorial to the Tornado Pilots at Grenoble Cottages

Glen Ogle cutting

Top of the Glen Ogle descent

Glen Ogle Viaduct

Descent to Lochearnhead

Bonus - Killin Branch Line

 

Last of the Winter Ale

There were six of us, all having cleared seventy. It was our monthly get-together to sort out the problems of the world by tapping into our lived experiences and telling tales that grew taller by the telling. The world was falling apart, the yanks were off to the Dark Side of the Moon whilst bombing Iran and threatening to abandon NATO. The Scottish Parliament election was imminent, and the blandishments offered by the six parties that aspire to be part of the next government were gaining no traction. Voting in the election will be as much against who the voter doesn't want as the candidate or party that they might have once supported. We had an ex MEP and two ex-Scottish Parliament candidates in our mix, so we had insider information. Our two Celtic fans were less buoyant than usual, and the two Kilmarnock fans more optimistic. 

One of our number had just had a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA)test and threw it into the conversation; he was asked to circulate details of how to get the test. It had been part of my recent annual health check by the GP, and according to the others, my score was very low(good). The session was working well, particularly as the pub had Timothy Taylor's Landlord on tap and the others were lapping up their Guinness and Merlot. We lapsed into a statutory discussion of our ailments; one was recovering from an ankle operation and still using crutches, and another was on a strict diet to avoid becoming diabetic. Several had become carers for ageing parents or partners, and one was having to sell a holiday flat because one of his company pensions had exhausted its funds and been withdrawn. Ageing, unlike Scottish Government policies or CalMac ferries, is fast-paced and not subject to cancellation.

Inevitably, we had half an hour of lacerating contempt for Trump. I mentioned that in Nineteen-Eighty-Four, there had been a daily Two Minutes of Hate against the opponents of Big Brother. Trump had resurrected this concept with his daily Hour of Beautiful Hate and tweets on Truth Social for whoever was on his list to be insulted, annihilated or vaporised. Trump has also adopted a form of doublespeak to advance his authoritarian dystopian revision of the American Constitution. Like Bigly Brother, he has also reduced the need for adjectives apart from Greatest, Beautiful, Big and Bad. The Trump interlude morphed into a discussion of which podcasts or YouTube videos were worth a listen or a watch. 

Another of our number had a part share in a horse that had to be put down after a fall. What are the odds on that? Our AI expert, always on trend, had bought a new phone to salivate over the ability of AI to manufacture porkies. He claimed he could edit a photograph in the style of famous painters. We challenged him to prove his claim. The waitress took a photo of the group, and we suggested Edvard Munch for the style - 30 seconds later, we were barely recognisable, just a table of sad has-beens. Maybe vaporisation is the answer now that assisted dying has been denied by the Scottish Parliament. Orwell's fiction is increasingly today's fact.