Return to
Whittle Wanderer|
Loch Rannoch Power Station,
Meall Garbh, River Ericht, Scotland. |
|
|
OS Grid ref:
NN 53279 58207 Lat/Long: 56.692479, -04.397342 It was a very calm night and clear morning. It took a while to defrost the windows before I could drive to the start of my walk on the north shore of Loch Rannoch. I left the car in a small car park but the start of my walk turned out to be a problem. I'd originally planned to walk up a track adjacent to the pipelines feeding the Rannoch Power Station. |
 Rannoch Power Station |
|
The whole area was now a building site with men and machines plus barriers. I set off across an adjacent field but was seen by two workmen. I just walked further away from the site and headed up through the trees. Once in open country it was easy to join the track by the 3 large diameter pipelines. I continued up the hill to the large valve house then turned right to follow another track that runs parallel to a watercourse. It was a concrete channel to bring water into the valve house by gravity. |
 View along the watercourse |
 Heading into deep snow |
|
| I followed it for almost 2 miles until the track ran out. The aqueduct continued but I had to leave it here as the next part of my route was up through the forest. There had been a lot of snow on the track so far and as I climbed the snow became deeper and very difficult to get through. I have never used proper snow shoes but I'm sure they would have helped me out. I pressed on but began to have doubts about being able to make it if the snow continued at this depth. My only escape route was to retrace my steps. At the boundary fence I climbed a full height ladder fence to get over then out on to open hillside. The sun was up but there was snow as far as I could see. |
 The old roof |
| I was following the route of a path shown on the map but there was little sign of it under the snow. By heading for vegetation outcrops I was able to avoid most of the deep snow and make slow progress. The going was tough but OK as long as I took it steady. As I passed Meall Ban I came to the remains of a hut roof in the snow. I couldn't tell if it had been blown off a hut or was meant to be a low level shelter. I continued across the valley to an area of old shielings but couldn’t see any sign of them under the snow. I headed up to a large plantation in the distance and eventually came to identifiable remains of some shielings. |
 Old shielling |
| The old bridal path It is an extremely remote spot and is difficult to imagine how people survived here. It had been tough going and I still hadn't reached the half way point. After the plantation I would join a track and start the return journey. I was high above the track when I saw it and saw a line of poles and a power cable running parallel. I looked down to the track and saw vehicle tracks. |
 Tracks in the snow |
| This was good news as it meant I probably wouldn't have to negotiate any drifts. At the track I found a tracked vehicle had been through and it was relatively easy to walk on. As I descended I was surprised to see areas of tarmac when the snow had started to clear. I reached a dam and reservoir which presumably are part of the power station operation. There was still a few miles to go to reach the road but it was easy going and no problem. When I got below the snow line the track seemed to deteriorate a bit and near the road was covered in a lot of mud. I reached the road and an easy walk back to the car. |
 Rannoch Power Sation |
 Folly in Loch Rannoch |
|
|
|
|