West Highland Way - day 7

Saturday 10 June - Crianlarich to Tyndrum

We awoke to yet more drizzle. Our hope that it might clear did not eventuate until after we arrived in Tyndrum. Such is life.

After breakfast I completed the blog for day 6 before we departed the hotel, just on 10 o'clock.

The first part of the walk was climbing up the 1.25km trail through the conifer forest to get back to the WHW.

1.25kms and we were back at the WHW

 Once on the track again we continued to climb through trees with the odd grassy slope. At one point we popped out onto what may be a lovely grassy spot with a table. It would be pleasant if the ground was dry and the seats, too.

What lovely black mud

Views from the lookout ... a pity that the mountains were obscured by cloud

There were yet more burns (creeks/rivers) and bridges.

and burns:

The track through the forest was generally pleasant with gentle undulations.

At one point we crossed over the A82.

We then crossed the Fillan River which was wider than most we had seen and not nearly as fast flowing. The track at this point took us up to Kirkton Farm which is on the site of St Fillan's Chapel. From teh track we should have been able to see a number of mountains however they were just ghostly images of something in the distance.

Ghostly images of mountains

Kirkton Farm

St Fillan was an Irish evangelist who, like many other missionaries, had come to Scotland to convert the Picts and the Scots to Christianity in the 7th century. He was active in the area and it is possible that he had a chapel on the site of the priory remains on Kirkton Farm.

Priory remains

A 12th century monastery on this site was made into a priory in 1318 by Robert the Bruce who was a strong believer in the cult of St Fillan.

A short distance past Kirkton Farm was another farm which offered camping, wigwams and a shop which had food and drink and a place to site. Jen and I happily took advantage of their service and enjoyed the first sit down break in our walk for quite a few days. While we were eating our lunch I looked up and saw a mouse sitting quite near my pack. It was unperturbed by nearby people. Cheeky little thing!





Shortly after leaving our spot we cross the A82 again. This time through an underpass.

The track then ran alongside the River Cononish which was surprisingly quiet, lacking the turbulance caused by boulders and drops. Even so, every now and again it did have a race and drop.

We easily found our B&B in Tyndrum and our hostess welcomed us with hot drinks and home baking.

At times after our arrival in Tyndrum we had blue sky and sunshine. Hopefully blue skies and sunshine will be our over the last few days of our walk.

Flower of the day:

Meadow buttercups

We came across a number of black lambs in a flock today:

Statistics for day 7:

Distance walked: 10.29km
Elevation gain: 317m

Note for Trevor: I have come across quite a few of the large black slugs, similar to the ones  we saw when we were doing the Coast to Coast.

Wherever we have walked we have come across a heap of birds both big and small. In some cases we have not seen the birds but have certainly heard them. They even sound cheerful in the rain. Perhaps they are telling their friends "Here is another pair of mad humans!"