Rob Roy Way
The Rob Roy Way is one of Scotland's long distance walks and stretches from the charming village of Aberfoyle in the National Park, to bustling Pitlochry in beautiful Highland Perthshire. This route covers much of the old highland railway which was closed in the 1960's much of hwich has now been restored to miles of wonderful cycle and walking pathways. It was lovely to see some of the old railway furniture and signals have been left to remind us of this earlier time, when tourism was first brought to the area in the mid 1850's.
The trail makes for a wonderful six, or seven, day hike with stunning views all along the way, without any of the severe challenges of it's older and longer sibling, The West Highland Way!
The first surprise on our hike this week was this rather overgrown and fascinating graveyard on Leny Meadow. Little Leny is the burial ground of the Buchanans of Leny. Just a few hundred metres off the main route of the Way, lies this family burial ground with fascinating stones from the 1700's to the 1900's. It is always so poignant in amongst the long lives of the local people to wonder at the saddens of the too short life of a local boy, who died as a soldier, in France, in 1919.
Highland's Sacred Bard on the Rob Roy Way
Dugald Buchanan was also sometimes known as Highland's sacred bard. He was a preacher and a poet and although this graveslab is very difficult to read we can see he lived from 1716-1768. This was a time of great unrest, especially after the failed Jacobite Rebellion of 1745/46. He took part in the trabsaltion of the bible into his own native Gaelic, which must have been a great source of comfort for many of the highlanders who only spoke English as a second language. If they did at all.
He is buried in this ruined enclosure and sadly died of a fever which tragically killed eight of his children as well. Those days were very hard. Read more about the graveyard here https://graveyardsofscotland.com/
Flowers and hedges along the Rob Roy Way
The pink and white Dog Rose was in full bloom along the trail. The scent was heavenly and left to grow wild it was magnificent. The grass strimmers were working hard, three men in yellow vests, as well as their protective goggles and gloves, made for a noisy but productive morning as they cleared the straggly rough grasses onto the path, for the wind presumably to scatter far and beyond.
They did need to rest, so the sight of the three strimmers, sitting unattended, reminded me how lucky we are to usually feel happy in Scotland, to leave tools lying, ready to be collected a short time later.
After four glorious miles, Soay sheep were heard in the fields. Native to Scotland these sheep are very distinctive with the curled horns and pointed faces.
Falls of Leny
The very busy A82 main road passes the Leny Falls. We have driven this route many times BUT in the car the view is obscured and the speed leaves little chance to enjoy and wonder at this huge volume of water, passing through every day, hour and minute.
Tramping in the Trossachs, taking time on the Rob Roy Way, offers more than 20 minutes of pure delight as the Falls of Leny are firstly heard in the distance, and then spotted through the trees. There are a few great viewpoints, and handy benches, to stop and enjoy. The sound and sight of powering water is so soothing, even at this speed.
The views of Loch Lubnaig soon appeared and the choice to walk on to Strathyre, or to turn around and retrace our steps to Callander, both options offering the same total distance, was a decision to be left until after a cup of tea and a scone.
