Loch Venachar Redux

Loch Venachar and Ben Ledi mirror images

 Loch Venechar has been a constant presence since 1978 when I began to visit Aileen's parent's cottage on its northern shore. The remote cottage had been the gamekeeper's cottage for the Duke of Montrose. It was largely unmodernised with water abstracted from the Milton burn and heating from a log fire. Its simplicity, peaty water, smokey fire and minimal appliances gave it a timeless rustic charm. We used it at weekends until her parent's retired, renovated and moved in permanently. 

The cottage then became a regular cosy retreat from city life with our growing family. It had riparian rights on Loch Venechar by virtue of a couple of hundred metres of shoreline. I bought a small dinghy so that I could sail on the Loch.  We visited from Glasgow at least once a month, I would be dropped off at Aberfoyle and run over the forest trails and along Loch Venachar to reach the cottage; a 17 kilometre run via Brig o' Turk, or 22-kilometre run if I did a circuit of the Loch including the road on the south side. In later years after moving to Aberfoyle, I would run over fairly regularly for Sunday Lunch, it was the perfect way to exercise and then enjoy a hearty meal with the family

Today Gregor wanted to run the complete circuit of Loch Venachar including the new path to the north of Loch Venachar built by the Woodland Trust. We decided to walk the south road and rekindle old memories. The single-track road has been recently resurfaced and it is far more popular with visitors than back in the 1980s when people and traffic were a rare occurrence. We captured the last parking place by the dam and began the walk on a surprisingly mild day with patches of blue sky and near-perfect visibility. There had been a lot of damage from the storms in December and the roadside was littered with fallen trees. A short way along the Loch some wild swimmers were about to take the plunge with dogs and safety dinghy following. 

The Sailing Club had far more boats in the yard than had been the case. The Ripple Retreat Centre for families of young cancer parents was unoccupied as was the Scout Camp. A number of odd-looking visitor cabins have been erected in the old forest along the shore at Dullatur. It reminded us that this is the dark side of the Loch with great views to Ben Ledi compensating for the lack of winter sun. Our memories of the cottage on the north side are that we were always bathed in good light, unlike Dullatur. Scanning the opposite shore for the cottage today we realised that it was concealed by trees that we had helped plant some forty years ago. Not that they would affect the cottage which was higher up the slopes and in full sun.

After 45 minutes of walking, we returned along the road, passing the rough track that goes over the Menteith Hills to Aberfoyle, watching the lone fisherman casting for information from his mobile phone, passing a dozen walkers and even more cars. Arriving back at the car we were asked if we were leaving by three young women who wanted a parking place so they could go wild swimming. We were waiting for Gregor to return so gave them our space and double-parked whilst waiting for him to return. To our surprise, they had no wet suits, just swimsuits, a Santa hat and a lot of gumption as they waded out and on the count of three launched themselves into the cold waters. They gave Gregor a loud cheer as he finished his 20-kilometre run. Loch Venachar had given us another set of fine images to pack into the memory box.

The view west from the dam

Stuc Odhar and Ben Ledi 

Ripple Retreat

View from Dullatur

Geese at the Scout Camp

The view northwards to the cottage

Lone fishing

Walk over

Wild swimmers