This is one of my absolute favourites and an added bonus being that there are very rarely any sheep, so I can keep the dog off the lead for lots of it. As with most of my walks, there’s a wildlife objective behind what I’m doing and there are regularly some very rare birds up here that I won’t mention (You’ll have to ask me in person). My main objective in the middle of the year is around various small birds, Golden Eagle, Hen Harrier, Peregrine Falcon and Merlins, but it’s generally a lovely walk.
You start from the Ardtornish Estate either parking by the office or just across the bridge from it where it tells you vehicles can come no further. You then walk along the road/track by the river (crossing the bridge if you parked at the office). You essentially follow the River Rannoch the whole way.
This is the gate you are looking for as you head up the first hill. Once you get past this gate, you head through a little woodland and past a small hydro plant house down on your right by the river. There is only one small hill to climb on the whole route (though you do climb steadily for a while), which is where you see Wilson below
The first stage is the path to Lochan Lub An Arbhair, a fairly small Lochan with a good size dam to serve a hydro scheme down by the estate.
You then need to take the left fork as pictured below.
Another good walk is the right path across the bridge which takes you up and round the Mountain opposite us on the hydro roads. It’s a cracking walk that one.
There’s some wonderful habitat up here (and very rarely any people) as you follow the path up with pockets of small birds as you wander along. A big highlight for me is always a dense patch of Stonechats where there are maybe 20 all in one little place.
Eventually you get to Tearnait. There are paths that continue on and a Bothy just to the left of the photo above. It’s a super place to sit and wait for a Golden Eagle and various other species.
What wildlife I saw: 4 x Golden eagles, 4 x Hen Harrier, 2 x Merlin. Too many to count of the following: Stonechat, Whinchat, Reed Bunting, Willow Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler, Tree Pipit, Bullfinch, Meadow pipit, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Skylark, Siskin, Cuckoo, Goldfinch, Goldcrest, Grasshopper Warbler, Chaffinch
