KYQ4: Rob Roy Way - Killin to Lochearnhead

Wednesday, 8 April 2026

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 give 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 there were quite a few tourists 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 rock fall 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 were 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.