Rob Roy Way: Pitlochry to Aberfeldy

Pitlochry - River Tummel from suspension bridge

Fonab Wood

Leaving the forest, Strathtay  ahead

Descending to Strathtay

Grazing

Beached sheep

Beech woods

Tay at Grandtulley

Tay towards Edradynate 

Tay by Aberfeldy

Pitlochry to Strathtay/Grandtully         8km       2hrs 25mins
Grandtully to Aberfeldy                        7km       1 hr 40mins

The Rob Roy Way is one of a dozen or so long distance walks in Scotland that have been developed in recent years. Jacquetta Megarry was the driving force behind establishing the walk which traverses the Central Highlands from Drymen to Pitlochry. It is 77 miles long and, as well as crossing the Highland Boundary Fault, it passes through some of the territories that Rob Roy patrolled. I was invited to the official opening of the walk about ten years ago but forgot about it and went out hillwalking instead. Earlier this year it was accepted as one of Scotland's Great Trails following some much-needed waymarking. Today I decided to make my peace with the Rob Roy Way and headed up to Pitlochry so we could walk it north to south over six days in winter months.

The early morning frost and mists disappeared as we travelled up to Loch Tay and the hills were capped in a good layer of snow down to 650 metres. We parked at Aberfeldy but by this time the mists had descended and the cold air did not auger well. We caught a bus to Pitlochry via Ballinluig and prepared ourselves for a day in the clouds but the sun reappeared as we arrived in Pitlochry. We started out immediately dropping from the main street and crossing the river Tummel on the suspension bridge. Crossing the A9 is probably the most dangerous part of the walk with vehicles nose to tail at 70mph on a non-dualled part of this veritable death trap.  The traffic noise is soon left behind on the waymarked path to Strathtay. The path climbs through well-tended farmland and through the Fonab Woods to Fonab Hill with spectacular views back to Pitlochry and beyond that to the snow-capped Ben Vrackie.

There was a lot of harvesting of timber taking place and the tracks were heavily churned so we were pleased to exit the wood after crossing the ridge and gaze down into Strathtay with the mist still girdling the broad sweeps of the river. The descent over open moorland was a real treat, the slopes were festooned with pheasants, dotted with grazing sheep, traversed by rippling burns and lower down copses of copper coloured beech were enclosed by dry stone walls clothed in moss and lichen. 

In Strathtay we sauntered through the old village with its graceful stone houses; red squirrels were putting on aerobatic displays in the gardens. We crossed the Tay which was gurgling with a fast current through the rapids. Grandtully is a centre of canoeing and the reasons were self-evident. A stop for some soup at the enticingly named Chocolate Shop was probably a mistake, it is better to keep moving on long walks. It was cold and dank as we set out again just after 2pm, although the sun soon returned to warm the spirits.  Finding the railway cutting was not as simple as it should have been but once on the old track, the route to Aberfeldy was easy going. It overlooks the river and the specimen trees on the banks made it a delightful walk. Again we disturbed pheasants along the railway cutting and all along the trail the colours of the trees displayed their many hues.

Eventually, the path leaves the old railway embankment which veers to the south and follows the banks of the Tay. The Tay was a menacing sight, the current moving and eddying swiftly with a colour defying description. Dark but not brown or blue or green and not quite black either; not opaque but not transparent either.  We disturbed ducks and swans as we followed the path until reaching the cemetery at Aberfeldy where we had a brief altercation with some dogs before hitting the road. We were not tempted by Dewars 'world of whisky' as we entered the town. I was pleased to see that the cinema was undergoing a refurbishment following a grant from the Big Lottery to the community. This saga had been going on for years and the sense you get in Aberfeldy is that it is a once-solid market town that has lost its purpose. The cinema, the development of adventure sports in the quite outstanding surrounding countryside and maybe some Harry Potter wizardry from a local resident is needed to restore the fantasy realm of Strathtay.

It had been a good and easy start to the Rob Roy Way and arriving in Aberfeldy before 4pm allowed us to be home before nightfall. The next two stages may prove a little more difficult to execute unless we can find a B&B to split the walk between Aberfeldy and Glen Ogle.