Over The Hill

The Corran Lochan is a name I am familiar with, but have never visited; the furthest I have been along the peninsula was to the Saddle, on a memorable walk that Mike also lead to Beinn Reithe and The Saddle way back in March 2015, so today’s walk was new territory for me. New territory, old conditions, rain, mist and low cloud. Some things just never change! But, to be fair, it was actually better than forecast, staying reasonably dry for the outward leg to the Lochan at least.

We left the shore line car park at Lochgoilhead and headed up through the village to pick up the high level forestry track which makes a gradual rising contour southwards through the forest for a few kilometres to a fork, where, branching left uphill the track narrows to a single file, but still very obvious path as it continues to climb with a few short descents and then re-ascends onwards up through the forest. Its an interesting path with minor rocky streams, a few small waterfalls and some old wooden bridges to cross enroute to the high point at about 320m.

The forest is less intrusive towards the high point, and quickly begins to open out as you descend towards Corran Lochan. Today, my first view of the Lochan was right out of the misty glens story books. Low, grey cloud and drizzle obscuring all but the Lochan and the lower slopes of the surrounding hills, a ghostly sight, yet quite beautiful I thought. Mike of course was waxing lyrically about the wonderful views he had on the recce from the summit of Clach Bheinn, of which we could only visualise in our heads, with nothing but grey appearing before us, Clach Bheinn was there somewhere, but not to be seen, not today anyway.

Beside the Lochan we scurried into the tree line out of the drizzle, which was getting heavier by the minute, and settled down as best we could for a well deserved lunch break, during which a few intrepid explorers headed off to the far end of the Lochan in search of a possible route up to the summit of Clach Bheinn, not that we were heading there today, but for the next time, when we shall expect those views that Mike promises are there, on a good day.

Lunch over, and with the drizzle now a steady rain, we re-traced our steps back uphill to the high point on the path, which historically is known as the Duke’s Path, or Duke’s Pass, which was the route of travellers from Mark, on the east of the peninsula to Lochgoilhead, enroute to the Duke of Argyll’s ancestral home in Inveraray. And, just as with these early travellers, we continued on the line of the original Duke’s Path when we dropped steeply down a narrow forest track directly above the remote shore line cottage at Stuckbeg to link up with yet another narrow path through the forest and descending down to the shore line, walking along the rocks and sands for a short distance before picking up the main, tarmacked track on the outskirts of Lochgoilhead for the final stage of our walk.

A great day Mike, and Drimsynie is a fine choice for coffee and after walk chat. Thanks Mike.