Beautiful Glen Lyon walk with fine mountain views

Apr 10 2009 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

SPRING is the time when a walker’s thoughts turn to more distant places. After a winter of short walks close to home, it’s refreshing to venture further afield and to step out across new ground.

Where better to choose than Glen Lyon, described by Sir Walter Scott as the “longest, loneliest and loveliest glen in Scotland”?

Although high mountains enclose the glen – with the Ben Lawers range to the south and the Carn Gorm group to the north – there is easy walking along the broad, flat valley floor. Here’s an undemanding route with beautiful views along a track that runs for miles along the south side of the river from Bridge of Balgie. You simply follow the track down the glen.

The full route is 7 miles (11.2km) along the track from Bridge of Balgie to Invervar then 6 miles (9.6km) back to the start via the single-track road on the other side of the river. A shorter loop of 6.25 miles (10km) in total is to cross the bridge at Camusvrachan and to return along the road from there.

Unfortunately, there is no public transport to the start or end points of the walk. There are also only a few parking spaces at Bridge of Balgie and Invervar, so this isn’t a good walk for groups that travel in several vehicles.

We only wanted to walk one way – along the track without walking back along the tarmac road. However, we also wanted to avoid using two cars, so we took bikes and left them at Invervar. After the 7 miles walk down the glen, we found it very quick and easy to ride back to our car at Bridge of Balgie.

The surrounds are a mixture of attractive woodland and open pastures. It is worth bringing binoculars for a closer view of the birdlife. We saw buzzards, herons, grey wagtails, long-tailed tits, lapwings. oystercatchers and whooper swans. If you’re very lucky, you could spot a golden eagle.

1. Bridge of Balgie

Watch out for red squirrels and red deer on the drive up the glen. From the lay-by just beyond the post office, continue along the road a short distance then turn left, signed Ben Lawers. Cross the arched stone Bridge of Balgie and immediately turn left on a track with a sign for Meggernie Outdoor Activity Centre, going through a gate with a “please close the gate” notice. This is the first of many gates you will have to open and close on your way down the glen. When the hard track bends left to the activity centre, keep straight ahead through a gate and along a lesser track.

2. Views to Innerwick

The track becomes a green way across pasture. It bends right, giving a good view down the glen, and then the river comes close to the track. Innerwick is at the junction of valleys on the opposite side of the glen. For a while you walk above the water, soon passing through mossy woodland. After a while, the track bends gently uphill away from the river and you gain an open prospect down the glen. Walk below steep slopes then pass the buildings at Roroyere, where there is a bridge across a large side stream.

3. Roroyere

From the cottages at Roroyere, the track becomes tarmac underfoot. It runs beside a man-made lochan and through semi-open birch woodland then comes to a junction. The tarmac way goes left – down and over a bridge to Camusvrachan – this is where you cross for the shorter loop. The full route continues straight on down the south side of the glen, following a sign for Roromore. Continue on a hard, stony track, which bends right – giving a good view up to Ben Lawers – and passes farm buildings. It then curves left and crosses a large burn flowing down from the mountains. Keep on to Roromore, where a sign directs you straight on, between a farmhouse and barns, to a gate with a sign ‘Invervar 3.5 miles’.

4. Roromore

As you continue from Roromore on a grassy track across fields, there is a fine view of the mountains around the glen, including Carn Gorm above on the left. Walk along the foot of a hill slope and come close to the river again by woodland. Further on, the track passes a knoll with mature trees, crosses a bridge over a rushing burn then curves past Inverninain lodge. Continue with pasture on the left and conifer forest then birchwood on the right.

5. Invervar

The glen narrows and you can hear rapids on the river below. Soon after this, you come to a T-junction. Turn left here and wind downhill, past a picnic table, to a bridge across the River Lyon. Cross over and follow a track up to the parking area at Invervar. Just beyond, the track meets the road through the glen. Turn left to return to the start.

Grade: C – Easy.

Distance: 7 miles (11.2km) one-way.

Time: 3 to 4 hours.

Terrain: Track – sometimes hard sometimes grassy – through a beautiful glen with fine mountain views. Fairly level with many gates.

Map: OS Explorer 378 or OS Landranger 51.

Start: Bridge of Balgie, Glen Lyon – park in lay-by just beyond post office, GR: NN 577468.

Finish: Invervar, small parking area on left a few yards down the track to the bridge, GR: NN 666482.

Public transport: None.

Refreshments: Glen Lyon shop, post office and tearoom at Bridge of Balgie; open 10am to 5pm, closed Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Suitable for: Anyone who is fit for a fairly long outing.

lWhen this walk first appeared in the PA two weeks ago, both the fact file and the OS Map were accidentally omitted. After a number of complaints, we are reprinting it in full with sincere apologies to Felicity Martin for all the confusion.