Friday 12th April 2024
Blackfold to Abriachan (10.5 miles).
Anne and I try to take Friday to ourselves, if possible. The weather yesterday and today was fantastic, even warm, and we decided to try another small section of the Great Glen Way. We walked from Abriachan Forest to Blackfold and back. We drove to the excellent car park at Abriachan Forest and started walking at 9.40.
This is the rather excellent regraded track at the forest and there is one of the blue Great Glen marker posts.
A lot of choices. Why are distances nearly always given in kilometers now when we still use miles as our measurement of distance in Scotland?
We crossed the road we had come on and entered this section. Look at all the adverts for the Abriachan Eco Cafe. Must be some New-Age endeavour.
This was a beautiful path. The weather was lovely if very windy.
We didn’t go in!
The track comes out on to this very quiet road. Anne and I just sat on a concrete drain cover and ate our picnic here. A lot cheaper than some eco-cafe.
Then we plodded along with views to the hills in the North and West starting to show. That was one thing about this walk – there were fantastic views.
That is Ben Wyvis with the cloud on it, so to the right we are looking towards home.
After 2½ miles of walking along the tarred road this path branched off to the left. The way is so well marked with these blue posts.
A wee look round before going up the path. Originally the plan was to walk to Dunain Hill which we had reached in December but then we changed our plan and just intended to walk to here. However we could see a possible car park, maybe a mile ahead, using the map on my phone. We decided to aim for that.
The path was excellent.
This is Blackfold. There is a car park here, so probably the next section we do will be from here to Dunain Hill.
This gate will mark where we start next time. We will have to get to the blue post by the pylon near Dunain Hill. It should be a fairly short walk.
On the way up to Blackfold we passed a seat with two young fellows sitting on it. We decided if it was vacant on the way back we would make use of it for our lunch picnic. It was! We met some blind walkers being guided just before we got here. Good for them. While we were having lunch two men we had met earlier passed us. They had gone into the eco-cafe and sung its praises. The younger chap who was following a minute or so behind the elder stopped for a longer chat. They had set off from Fort William on Tuesday. We are doing it the old peoples way in short byte sized sections!
What a view for a lunch stop!
On the way back down we noticed this stone beside the track. I can’t find out anything about it. It looks like it has written on it “DOCHG BROCH”. The area below us is called Dochgarroch. Is there a broch nearby?
We came back down to the road but as you look ahead to the West darker clouds are moving in.
Still looking nice to Ben Wyvis and the North East.
By the time we had walked back along the road the sun had gone and there was even a little drizzle. But just look at the daffodils.
You can see there is no blue sky now. This attractive sign marks the way into the car park at Abriachan Forest.
There is a thatched toilet. It gave Anne the shudders as it was a composting toilet. Years of Chemistry has destroyed my sense of small. Anne said the smell was awful.
We got back to the car at about 1.55. This is a beautiful walk with not much ascent or descent. It pretty much follows the 1000 feet contour line. I am getting old and knackered. My feet have not recovered since the walk to Craigellachie a couple of weeks ago so I was quite tender in the feet by the time we got back. That was one of the reasons we didn’t do the full walk to Dunain Hill.
So now we have done
| 2. Bught Park to Craig Dunain | Tuesday 26th December 2023 |
| 4. Blackfold to Abriachan | today |