Three Lochs Way - The old ways

Sometimes the old ways are best. Like creating a handwritten letter and despatching it by post, instead of firing off an impersonal email. Or eating chips from newspaper instead of those horrible polystyrene trays. And when you’re wandering the gentle hills around Helensburgh on a winter weekend, the best way to explore is by the ancient tracks and trails that make up the old ways. So last weekend, with walking friends Graham and Andrew, I spent two days trekking some of the Three Lochs Way which passes through Helensburgh and links it with nearby villages on old roads and ancient paths.

We jumped off the bus at the sleepy village of Garelochhead into a brisk morning with blue skies above and dollops of snow on the hills. Our route immediately started to climb steeply above the waters of the Gare Loch, at first on a new path that wound its way up through sparse birch wood alive with the twitter of tits and then latterly on a thin trail following the undulating line of an old drystane dyke. As we’d made a late start, it was already lunchtime so we sat in warm sunshine munching a picnic with our backs against the dyke and our feet pointing down to Faslane, Scotland’s nuclear submarine base, that nestles on the shores of the loch below. 

When Andrew pointed out that we were in the worst possible spot if nuclear war erupted at that moment, we finished lunch quickly and got moving again. Or perhaps it was just that the sun disappeared behind a cloud and the temperature changed to chilly. The muddy trail under our feet gave way to firm tarmac as we joined one of the old roads in the area, the American Road. It was built during the Second World War as part of the Americans’ land lease agreements and today gives access to the military training area that covers the upper slopes here. The road also gave us lovely views over the snow-capped, rocky hills of Argyll.

Where the American Road ends, the Three Lochs Way markers point you down into Glen Fruin on a quiet back road but we decided to stay high and walk over the ridge of hills above Rhu and Helensburgh called The Fruin. Very quickly we wished we had taken the road. There seemed to be no firm ground as we plodded with heavy packs through bog and water, climbed over barbed wire fences and jumped over a series of deep trenches that had been dug for forestry but never planted. By the time we were at the end of the ridge, we felt like we’d gone through one of those military style training workouts. 

Andrew was less than pleased. Graham was complaining about wet feet. And I think I swore. However it was worth the effort to be up high in the open air, the empty landscape and the big skies as a late afternoon sun created patterns of light on the snow-covered hills. Despite being quite close to civilisation, there was a surprisingly wild feel to this place, perhaps heightened by the patches of snow that we crossed or the lateness of the day. At the far end of the ridge, we gratefully found a path down the other side and rejoined the Three Lochs Way.

We started to descend towards Helensburgh on one of the old ways on our journey, the Highlandman’s Road. The road is an old pack horse track that once provided a link for the people of Glen Fruin to the nearest church at Rhu, on the shores of the Gare Loch. The muddy track entered the darkening Highlandman’s Wood and passed close to a cup-marked boulder. This old rock is a glacial erratic, picked up and then deposited here by retreating glaciers in the last ice age. Bronze Age people carved out the cup shapes which may have been boundary signs or way markers. And modern man added his own graffiti and plastic litter. We found a camp spot by crossing two bendy, precarious planks over the burn and got the tents up as the last light faded and the wood descended into darkness.

Next morning we woke to a light shower of snowflakes drifting gently through the trees to the forest floor. We made hot breakfasts before returning to the Highlandman’s Road via the planks which had acquired a thin coating of ice overnight. By now the sun was up, casting long tree shadows across our track. The Three Lochs Way enters Helensburgh at the Hill House, a stately home at the top of the town designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. It’s not open at this time of year so we had to peer over the walls and through the gates for a peek.  Even if it was open, I'm sure they wouldn’t admit mud-splattered walkers into the fine interiors. The route continued down to the waterfront at Helensburgh passing large, expensive Victorian villas. I imagined people munching triangles of toast, sipping lashings of tea and pouring over the Sunday papers in their big, bay windows, oblivious to the three unwashed walkers passing who’d spent the night in the woods nearby.

Helensburgh surprised me. As we walked the wide avenues we had spectacular views along the streets to the snow-covered mountains further west. I had never placed Helensburgh as a mountain town. Secondly, it was larger than I had imagined. It took quite a time to cross before we popped out on the other side on a farm track that climbed back up into the hills. As we climbed, the Clyde Estuary was at our backs, its southern shore obliterated from view by vast sheets of rain while we stayed in beautiful sunshine on the northern shore. The Three Lochs Way was heading now to Balloch over a high pass that opened up spectacular views to Loch Lomond and its snow-plastered namesake, Ben Lomond.

As we began the descent from the pass, the underfoot conditions changed from mud to a stony track, in places bounded by an old, moss-covered drystane dyke and in other places by an avenue of tall beech trees illuminated by soft afternoon sun. These final few miles were following another old route, the Stoneymollan Road. The road is an ancient coffin route that people used for carrying coffins from Balloch on Loch Lomond to consecrated ground in Cardross on the Clyde. At 7km long and with a bit of climbing, that’s quite a way to carry the deadweight of a coffin. Mind you, after two days on a walking route that might have been easy but for bog and mud, our rucksacks also felt like deadweights.

At the bottom of the Stoneymollan Road, our boots returned to tarmac as we crossed a flyover above the screaming traffic on the A82, entered Balloch and left behind the old ways.

More photos -click here or on the Flickr logo.

Fact File

Start: Garelochhead. Trains on the West Highland Line stop at Garelochhead but as there's a limited number, we took a train to Helensburgh (direct from Edinburgh or connections in Glasgow) and then a short bus ride to Garelochhead (around the corner from the station, take buses to Garelochhead or Coulport).

Finish: Balloch. Trains/buses to Glasgow.

Maps: We used printouts from the Three Lochs Way website - click here. They also gave some background snippets of information. Most of the route is on OS Landranger 56.

Route: The route is mostly well signed with Three Lochs Way markers. In Garelochhead the link path to the Three Lochs Way leaves from Station Road just below the station and is well signed. Instead of following the official route on the unclassified road through Glen Fruin, we walked over the Fruin. I can't really recommend this route - it was wet, boggy, rough and really hard going. At the far end of the ridge there is a bit of path that takes you back down to rejoin the official route on the Highlandman's Road. We followed a large firebreak in the forestry here and found a camp spot in the old wood. Signs take you along a path into Helensburgh called the Upland Way then along the main Glasgow road. The route leaves Helensburgh just before the new high school. Look carefully for the sign as we missed it and maps are a little confusing because of building work. A clear, if muddy, well-signed route takes you up to the pass below Ben Bowie then into forestry. You enter the forestry on a path which joins a track - turn right when you join the track (there's no sign here). The forest track ends at a turning circle and a faint path continues straight on into the trees. You now have to follow red and white tape tied to the trees through dense forestry. The route is steep and slippy in places. The tape takes you to a point deep in the forestry so that you have no idea where you are ... and then stops! At this point head north along a faint gap in the trees and you'll soon leave the forestry and come onto a track. Turn right and pick up Three Lochs Way markers again all the way into Balloch.

Tip: There is a website dedicated to old routes and drove roads in Scotland called Heritage Paths - click here.

Spey Valley – The weather best guess

Most of my spare time last week was spent scouring the weather forecasts in the slim hope of finding a bit of the country, just a corner or even a sliver, offering some better fare than the wind and rain that’s dominated of late. On Friday evening, the Spey Valley looked promising with a forecast of light winds, no rain and even a few chinks of sunshine. So bike buddy Graham and I headed to Newtonmore for a mini tour on loaded bicycles. However, the advertised weather never materialised and the forecast might have been more aptly named the “weather wishful thinking” or the “weather best guess”.

Extending northeast from Newtonmore, the Spey Valley is a green swathe forging a way between the Cairngorm Mountains to the south and the Monadhliath to the north and straddling one of Scotland’s great rivers, the Spey. It's dotted with attractive villages, woodlands and wetlands, and some great mountain landscapes. Despite the storm fronts that were always at our heels, there were some pockets of sunshine on our cycle through the glen. 

As we set out from Newtonmore on Saturday morning, early sun broke through gunmetal grey clouds and drenched the valley in a soft, peachy light. Then as we lingered at the Falls of Tromie a few thin rays picked out the lichen-covered branches of the bare winter birch that hung above the foaming waters. Even on a grim day there are plenty of distractions from the weather along this route such as the dramatic ruins of Ruthven Barracks. The barracks are the remains of a fortification from the Jacobite days of the 18^th century and sit atop a grassy knoll with a commanding view down the valley. And if you want to get out of the rain you can hide yourself away in one of the bird hides that overlook the wetlands of Insh Marshes nature reserve. In grey weather, the flashes of colour in the blue tits that eagerly pecked at nuts hanging outside the hide really brightened the day.

It stayed dry a little longer as we pulled off the back road to make a cycle-through visit to the Frank Bruce Sculpture Trail, tucked in the trees near Feshiebridge. Born in 1931, Frank Bruce was an Aberdeenshire labourer before turning his hands from manual work to sculpture. The pieces interspersed through the woods are all hewn from local trees and rock, and the idea of his sculptures is that one day the elements will eventually return them to the soil. Though some of the sculptures are mildly eerie, it made an interesting distraction from our bike ride. 

The Spey Valley is liberally forested with birch woods and Scots pines, and we hugged those forests as much as possible as we cycled, trying to glean some protection against the gales that almost blew us off the road. At Rothiemurchus, where rolling folds of land are home to one of the biggest native pine forests in Scotland, we voluntarily left the road to cycle around the rough, grey waters of Loch an Eilean and deeper into the woods below snow-covered, stormbound mountains. We nervously pitched the tents under the shelter of a copse of grand granny pines, trusting that trees that had stood here for hundreds of years would survive upright for another night of storms. In the end, we needn’t have worried. The winds eased in the evening, the sky cleared and a gibbous moon illuminated our campsite with enough silvery light that we cast shadows in the darkness.

Sunday morning kicked off with another pocket of sunshine as we kept company with the Spey to Boat of Garten and crossed to its north bank for our return journey to Newtonmore. As we cycled along the Speyside Way, morning light filtered through the birch trees and the forest trail was crosshatched with their long shadows. On our left the snow-covered Cairngorms brooded under a blanket of cloud. We lingered only long enough in Aviemore for Graham to buy a pork pie for lunch and then cycled on passed sulking skiers forced off the slopes by the storms. Spots of wind-driven rain amalgamated into a shower then organised themselves into a downpour. The pork pie was consumed with the rest of the picnic lunch sitting on the cold, concrete floor of a bus shelter at Kincraig, the only protection to hand from the now torrential rain. Whilst its nutritional benefits may be dubious, the pork pie at least provided some calorific value for the battle with headwinds on the last few miles back to Newtonmore.

By the end of the weekend, bad weather and punctures and distractions meant that we hadn't covered much distance on our bikes but it was fun and invigorating and challenging to be out in the wild, winter elements. If you asked me how many miles we cycled then quite a few wet ones would probably be my best guess. 

For all the photos click here or on the Flickr logo.

Fact File

Start/finish: Newtonmore served by Glasgow/Edinburgh to Inverness trains

Maps: OS Landranger 35 and 36

Route: From the main street in Newtonmore cycle northeast towards Kingussie, picking up the bike path/National Cycle Route 7 signs at the folk museum. Follow NCN 7 signs to Kingussie and towards Aviemore along the B970. Just after Kingussie you'll see Ruthven Barracks then the RSPB Reserve at Insh Marshes on your left. Then south of Feshiebridge the Frank Bruce Sculpture Trail is signed to the left. Access to the forest trails of Rothiemurchus is via Loch an Eilean which is signed to the right about 3km before Inverdruie or via the start of the Lairig Ghru route which is signposted at Coylumbridge. The main trails in the Loch an Eilean and Loch Morlich areas are very well made/good surfaces. From Rothiemurchus/Coylumbridge stay on the B970, eventually taking the turn-off for Boat Garten. Turn left in Boat of Garten opposite the shop to pick up the Speyside Way trail to Aviemore. The trail surface is again very good. From Aviemore you can return to Kingussie via the B9152 on the opposite side of the valley to your outward route. We found this road was a bit too busy and switched back to the outward route on the B970 at Loch Insh.  

Tip: If you need any spares or repairs (we needed for Graham a new tire, tube and rim tape) then Mike's Bikes in Aviemore are very helpful - on the main drag, just after the Rohan and Mountain Spirit shops, below the Skiing Dooh bar.

Tent review - Exped Venus II Ultralight

You've probably made it this far in life without the need for luminous zippers on your tent but then again, perhaps it's just what you've been waiting for all these years. It's one of the features on the Exped Venus II Ultralight tent that Bart and I put the test over new year. Its first outing saw grey, grim and gusty weather so apologies for the lack of glossy, magazine-esque photos.

The Venus II is a spacious two-person, three season backpacking or cycle touring tent. The first thing we absolutely loved about the tent was the space inside -with our sleeping mats laid out side-by-side there was still lots of space either side for the bits and bobs we brought indoors. The overall feel of the tent was very roomy, especially for the size of the folded package and the weight of 2.1kg. Bart could comfortably sit upright inside and he is of course much taller than me. The second thing we loved were the two doors and porches which I think is a huge advantage in a two-person tent - it means you can each have your own porch space for organising your belongings and bags. It also means you can get out during the night for a pee without clambering over the other person. The porches are both large with plenty of room for backpacks or panniers. They provide good shelter for cooking in wind and rain - we certainly tested that in the few days we were away.

The outer and inner are attached and pitch together, though it looks like they can be easily separated by undoing simple toggle attachments. There is excellent separation between the two. The tent has three poles and the ends of the sleeves are colour-coordintaed, as are the luminous zippers. The longitudinal pole extends for several inches over the doors at each end and this is what gives the tent its two large porches. It's pretty straight forward and quick to erect although there are a lot of pegging points and guylines ... and I mean a lot! On the plus side that all adds to strength and stability in high winds. The guylines are luminous and have small mesh pockets attached to them. These pockets are a clever wee place to wrap the guylines away when you're folding the tent up so they don't get tangled but also act like little flags so you don't trip over your lines because you've not seen them. How many times have we all done that! 

The materials of the outer and the inner are the superlightweight fabrics that we are used to finding on lightweight tents these days. The groundsheet is a bathtub shape and the flysheet extends fully to the ground, making this tent excellent for bad weather camping. Despite strong, cold winds at new year, it felt snug and not at all drafty. The inner doors are partly mesh which is fine enough to keep out the midges in summer. There's a handy paracord line along the inner roof for hanging up torches, wet things and smelly socks. Actually there are lots of little loops all over the inner so you can get very creative about what you hang there. One thing to say about the tent is that it has a surprisingly big footprint. You'll love the internal space and the huge porches of this tent but you're going to need a reasonable sized pitch to put it up on.

It's marketed in the UK as a three season tent, although on some online forums it's described as four season. We only had the tent out for a few nights but we had a lot of wind-driven rain over the few days which didn't cause the tent any problems and there always remained good separation between outer and inner. We also had some pretty high winds with some severe gusts during the night. Again it performed well and remained solid and strong. It's currently retailing on Ultralight Outdoor Gear for £450. We are really delighted with its design and function, and can't wait to get away on a longer trip with it.

One word of caution about this tent. Don't go camping in it with any friends of a nervous disposition ... when you wake up in the middle of the night, those luminous zippers look just like a pair of scary, beastly eyes!

Another gear review - the Macpac Microlight tent

Back by popular demand (OK … one person asked!) is the outdoor diaries gear review. This time I’m reviewing a one-person winter tent, the Macpac Microlight.

10 or 15 years ago the Microlight was very fashionable, being one of the smallest and lightest one-person tents available at that time. It was the first solo tent that I bought and my first one gave me many years of solid service. These days it doesn’t really live up to its “microlight” name as it’s been usurped by many much lighter shelters that are now widely available. But when I needed a new one-person tent for this winter, I found myself still attracted to the Microlight and the sale price of £175 that I found online. Here’s why.

Let’s face it, the Scottish winter can be cold, grey, grim and very wet or exceedingly snowy. In foul conditions I don’t want to head out into the mountains in a flimsy, featherweight shelter. I want to feel that I’m trusting my wellbeing to something pretty strong and sturdy. The Microlight has that reassuringly robust feel although you pay for it in its 1.6kg of weight. The groundsheet is much thicker than you will find, for example on the Terra Nova Laser, my summer tent. So you feel quite confident about pitching it on rough or wet terrain. The groundsheet has quite a deep “bathtub” shape which I think is really important when you’re camping on sodden ground, slush or deep snow. It’s happened in the Laser that wind-driven rain has come over the top of the groundsheet and inside the inner. But that doesn’t happen with the bathtub groundsheet of the Microlight. Extra protection is also provided by the flysheet extending fully to the ground right around the bottom.

The tent has a single pole that runs length ways and when pitched the tent has a “limpet” shape which is quite appropriate as it seems to cling to the mountain like a limpet to a rock. I’ve not had the new one out yet in bad conditions but my older version stood up to some severe weather and high winds. Even in these conditions it remained reassuringly solid and strong. However I did have the idea on one mildly windy night that the new version was a bit more “flappy” than the original. The limpet shape is also excellent at shedding rain and snow simply slides off.

I don’t think I’ve owned any other tent that pitches as quickly as the Microlight. With the flysheet and inner going up together and the single pole, it can be up in just a couple of minutes. It’s easy then to quickly peg out the six main anchor points and this can be done with a minimal of faffing. With some tents I feel have to go round the pegging points a couple of times making adjustments to get things right but the Microlight always seems to pitch perfectly and easily first time. I think that’s really important in a winter tent – you want to get it up quickly if conditions are bad or your hands are getting cold. Once the main points are pegged, you can then peg out the four guylines for extra stability.

The footprint of the inner tent is big and there’s even room for two at a push if you should unexpectedly meet the man or woman of your dreams out in the hills. The floor is wider at one end, creating lots of space for any kit you want to bring indoors. The porch is huge, big enough to hold my folding bicycle. The groundsheet can be rolled back at the wide end to make the porch even bigger. But one of the downsides of the tent is the living space. Because the pole runs the length of the tent and not along the width like the Laser or Akto, the internal space is narrow and the inner tends to hang loosely inwards. This doesn’t bother me as I am so tiny and I also spend most of my time in the tent with the inner door open and in doing so, extend my living space into the porch. But I think that bigger or bulkier bodies would not like the inner space. My other minor grumble is that I felt I couldn’t make tight enough the tension straps that attach the inner to the outer at the bottom – perhaps this explains the slight “flappiness”.

The inner door is made with half mesh which can be zipped closed on chillier nights. Probably my favourite feature of this tent is the outer door. It can be half-opened to give good protection for cooking in wind and rain but both the inner and outer can be fully peeled back as well so that the front of the tent is completely open, allowing you to enjoy the outdoor space and gaze wistfully, mug in hand, across open mountain vistas. I really like this as I feel I’m sitting outdoors but still benefitting from a bit of wind protection on colder days.

I should say that the classification of “winter” tent is mine and I’m not aware that it’s actively marketed as a four season tent. But, based on my experience of the tent and the original one I used for many years, I think that classification is justified. It really is strong, perfectly sheds snow and that bathtub groundsheet is just what’s needed in wet winter conditions. The tent comes with a nice stuffsac with two integrated compression straps, repair patches, seam sealant and a small stuffsac containing pegs and a pole repair sleeve.

In summary, the Microlight is not in the featherweight category of one-person shelters but I think its design and robustness are ideally suited to the Scottish winter. With a regular price tag of £200-220, I think it’s also excellent value for money. You can get all the technical specs here.

If you do meet the person of your dreams out in the hills, you'll quite quickly want to upsize to the more salubrious accommodations provided by a two-man tent. So keep reading for the next blog when I'll review a two-person Exped mountain tent.   

Addendum - January 14
Used the Microlight with a friend who had a Terra Nova Laser. A damp night with light wind. The Laser had gathered quite a lot of condensation by the morning whereas the Microlight was perfectly dry.

Corrour - The auld and the new

Do you have a special place that you return to time and again? A place where the landscape, the elements and the atmosphere merge to create magic and move you deep inside? My special place is an old ruin high on Rannoch Moor and it was there that I welcomed in the new year.

Bart and I had spent Christmas in the campervan, parked up near Blair Atholl. The weather was cold and grey with a ceiling of low cloud that the sun failed to penetrate. We wandered the winter woods of Glen Tilt and walked high above the village into a black and white landscape of bare trees and scattered flocks. We cooked a Christmas dinner in the campervan of venison followed by Christmas pudding. And in the evenings we walked through the dark woods into the village for a tipple at the hotel in front of the roaring peat fire. When I'm in Blair Atholl at this time, I love stopping by the village Christmas tree. A long string of multi coloured globes is wrapped round one of the big conifers on the village green and when you walk out of the mountains on a night of inky blackness, they emanate charm and a cosy glow. 

We spent the days following Christmas battling Arctic conditions on the mountains in storms and gales and turned back from an attempt to climb Bynack More when we couldn’t stand up in the winds that battered its upper reaches. 

But our efforts were rewarded when one day we enjoyed spectacular picture postcard scenes on the tops above Newtonmore. Although we set out in low cloud and mist, by the time we were on our second Munro the sun broke through, its low winter light picking out every detail and contour and making the surface of the snow sparkle like diamonds. The walk was hard work in snow that was deep and soft in places so we really enjoyed our hot tea and Christmas cake when we got back to the van. We have a favourite spot for parking up the van near Newtonmore. You might know the place at the road end in Glen Banchor.

It was Bart’s idea to head to the ruin on Rannoch Moor to see in the new year. Since meeting me, he’d heard me talk so much about the place. Of course, when you show somebody a place that you love there is always the danger that another person sees it differently and might be disappointed by the reality of it. Nonetheless, in early morning darkness we jumped on the first southbound train at Tulloch. The train found its way in the half light through deep gorges and snow-covered mountains before trundling alongside Loch Treig and climbing up to the remote station at Corrour on Rannoch Moor. We stepped off into a freezing, grey morning as the place was battered by another storm front. We searched for a spot for our base camp and set up the tent in sheltered pines on the shores of Loch Ossian at a spot that enjoyed views up the loch to the snow-covered peak of Leum Uilleim. Bart has lived for many years in the Canary Islands and his tradition there was to see in the new year down on the beach. Our base camp did have its own small, sandy beach but as it was battered by wind, waves, rain and sleet, it seemed unlikely that we would be sipping champagne there at the bells.

During the days at Corrour we climbed up the mountain above the loch in a blinding blizzard that drove stinging spindrift into our faces and plastered snow onto the windward side of our clothes and rucsacks. We turned back just before the top and left the place to the mountain hares and ptarmigan, creatures more suited to the Arctic conditions. We wandered through Strath Ossian, crossing banks of snow that every now and then swallowed us up to our thighs, and enjoyed brief moments between weather fronts when we gleaned a hint of the grandeur of this snowy, rocky place in winter. 

And on the afternoon of Hogmanay we walked to the old ruin high on Rannoch Moor. The little track meandered across the moor, at times passing over little streams and, at other moments, under drifts of snow. It skirted the partially frozen waters of Loch na Sgeallaig before turning west below the slopes of Leum Uilleim to head for the dark outline of the ruin. As we approached, the gunmetal grey clouds that filled the big skies broke apart and shafts of cold winter sun burst through, illuminating the old stone walls of the house.  Bart has a real inquisitive mind and busied himself checking out the ruin, how it was built, what was left and pondering what it might once have looked like. I stood, quiet and still, soaking up the scene and choking back some tears. I don’t know why I felt so emotional. It’s just that this old place with its homely atmosphere, its sense of space and its corral of dramatic, encompassing mountains pulls at my heart strings and moves me deeply inside. 

We walked back to the tent in the last light of the day and as the sun set on the year, a group of stags gathered on a knoll above the trail. For several quiet minutes, we watched them and they watched us, then Bart and I turned our backs on the stags and the auld year, and walked on into the new.

For all the photos click here or on the Flickr logo to the right.

Coming up next on the outdoor diaries ...

... a campervan Christmas up north with my Belgian boyfriend! What did we cook for Christmas dinner in a campervan? Was there Brussels sprouts on the menu? Did he finally bring me some expensive Belgian chocolates?

and .... gear reviews of one-man and a two-man winter tents.

Have a great winterfest everyone!