Walking and Cycling

Highland Perthshire Enduro

An amazing day around Dunkeld and Birnam!

Beinn a'Ghlo

Beinn a'Ghlo is in fact a series of three munros - Carn Liath, Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain, Carn nan Gabhar.

These represent serious hillwalking, so please make sure you kniow what you are doing and have the correct equipment!

See full details at WalkHighlands:

A short circuit including a loop in Craigvinean Forest

A varied route, which also includes the Hermitage - very popular with family walkers so a little care required here!
This trip was mapped by Progression Bikes, based in Dunkeld. Bike hire, guided trips, uplifts and more!

Edradynate Loop, by Farragon Hill

This route initially follows the Core Path/Rob Roy Way south out of Pitlochry through Cluniemore (on the Mast Route-see EveryTrail) and over to Strathtay. Lock out your suspension, turn right along the main road and head west on the north side of the Tay for almost two miles. Cross the Edradynate Burn and then turn right at the next cottage on your right to head up the tarmac road. You'll be climbing for some time but the views are worth it. Generally, bear left at main junctions, You leave the leafy farmland behind and then, eventually, burst out of the forest and onto the moor. Now the real climbing starts! To gain the ridge, the best views of the southern Cairngorms in Perthshire and the second major downhill of the day, you have to climb a series of sections that vary from very steep to sadistic. It's all rideable. Pace yourself and catch your breath/eat Haribos at the top of each one. Switching on your rear suspension may give you more traction. The earthworkings that you puff past are associated with the early days of the Barytes mine development nearby. Probably best not to drink or swim in the blue pools. After invoking your Mother, Googling the nearest defibrillator site and sucking your Camelback reservoir into an object infinitely small and now with the same physical properties as a black hole, you will find that you have done it and that view with that downhill lie in front of you. Savour the location, you're over 2000' up and the panorama is reckoned to be the best in Highland Perthshire. Now check brakes, close zips, tighten straps, check that your forks and shock are at full travel and let gravity take you the three and a half miles down to Loch Tummel! Steep, loose, fast, occasional ruts, the odd puddle, patches of bedrock and sharp corners: then you are spat out at the site of the former house at Netherton opposite Ailean House on Loch Tummel. You'll have that grin and those near miss stories to provide enough adrenaline for powering you back to Pitlochry past Clunie Dam (unhelpfully, no access across) along the Foss road (turn right and head east when you hit the road at Loch Tummel). A singletrack return to Pitlochry is available from the Coronation Bridge over the River Tummel through NTS Linn of Tummel via the River Garry and Loch Faskally. Otherwise, stay on the south bank, cycle past that bridge, down the beautiful River Tummel, passing Clunie Power Station, look across to Faskally House and cross Loch Faskally on the metal bridge upstream of the A9 bridge. Turn right to the Boating Station and head up to the main street in Pitlochry. You'll still have a grin on your face!
Tips:
OS Explorer 386 Pitlochry & Loch Tummel shows the whole route.
It can be started on the Pitlochry side or the Strathtay side. Do it clockwise.
Food shops in Pitlochry and Strathtay.
The banter-rich and service-high Escape Route in Pitlochry's main street, across from the Tourist info building, is the local bike shop/coffee stop. http://www.escape-route.co.uk/index.html
At any time of the year: take plenty of nourishment, water and appropriate clothing for Scottish mountains.
There's a good O2 mobile signal virtually all the way round.

Dunkeld to Moulin Off Road

Got Google Earth? Click to download file to view in 3D.

A medium distance cycle or walk between Dunkeld and Moulin/Pitlochry through varied and gorgeous landscape. High nature value and a genuine feeling of being away from it all. Three escape routes to the western main roads and settlements, if needs be. Easy link to Kirkmichael via Glen Derby.

This is an idea for a route that has been developing for some time now. I rode virtually all of it. (I worked it out and it's 97% rideable, sad git, I know). The 750m section from the track above Loch Broom to the bridge at the Pitlochry Angling Club hut on Loch Broom is through rank heather and a bike has to be pushed. Otherwise, with some very small and limited exceptions, it is perfectly rideable. It provides the only offroad connection from Dunkeld to Moulin/Pitlochry that is relatively easy to walk or cycle. It starts on the Core Path network at Cally, Dunkeld and makes its way via Loch Ordie, Loch Oisinneach, Loch Broom, Ballyoukan Wood, Moulin Moor, Kinnaird Wood and the Old Kirkmichael Road to join the Core Path Network at Moulin and Pitlochry. It's around 18 miles/30km long and can be comfortably cycled in four and half hours with stops. Some attention is required to several drains and a bit of strimming and pruning on the stretch above Loch Broom and in parts of Ballyoukan and Kinnaird Woods would be good. Getting into and out of Ballyoukan Wood and Kinnaird Wood with a bike would be easier with stiles or bike-friendly gates (I had to lift mine over deer fences). Large, wind blown trees have blocked the very last section down to the road at Moulin but they will likely be cleared in time. You can by-pass them relatively easily through the new planted area adjacent.
Tips:
Best ridden south to north.
The wonderful Escape Route in Pitlochry is your best option for a bike shop with all facilities. Located in the main street of Pitlochry near the Tourist Information building.
Treat this as a developing route that's best covered in good weather in the meantime.
After the climb and downhill from Loch Oissineach you will come to a field gate. Bear left here and then you'll notice that the track starts to curve gently to the right towards the blue container and fank in the distance.
Particular attention has to be paid on the stretch approaching Loch Broom. Take the right hand option each time to keep high above the loch. When you are equal with the huts at the north-eastern end start heading down through the rank heather to the bridge over the small inflow at the loch end. There's a stile of sorts into Ballyoukan Wood here.
When you cross the fence out of Ballyoukan Wood on to Moulin Moor bear west around the side of the hill to encounter the ancient remains of buildings on the slope of the hill. The start of the track that leads down to the derelict wooden shed lies amongst those shielings.
The end of the trail comes out on the main road between Pitlochry and Kirkmichael. You have to cross it to get to the footpath down into Moulin.