Comrie to Callander Hill Track Show path on map
Start location: Comrie ( NN 766 221 )
End location: Callander ( NN 633 077 )
Geographical area: Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, Perth, Kinross and Stirling (part)
Path type: Rural Path
Path distance: 24.2km
Accessibility info: Suitable for bikes, Suitable for pedestrians
Route Description
Here the route is described from Callander to Comrie:
From Callander, take the narrow public road signposted initially to Bracklinn Falls to its end at Braeleny farm. Head north along the track towards Arivurichardich, crossing over a bridge (NN641130) then heading east-northeast below Meall Odhar and Tom Odhar along a pleasant grassy track to the bridge across the Allt an Dubh Choirein. Continuing for another 2km reach the end of the public road in Glen Artney, 300m west of the bridge over the Water of Ruchill (NN696155). From this bridge, the road goes down the south side of Glen Artney to Comrie, but there are other options.
For those on foot wishing to avoid road-walking, don’t cross the bridge over the Water of Ruchill! Instead, head north from the field gate at the west side of the road bridge, bypassing Auchinner, to cross the Allt Srath a’ Ghlinne bridge (NN697158). Staying to the north of the Water of Ruchill, follow a rough path, then track, northeast to Dalclathick.
Cyclists may not find the above foot alternative to be suitable, but if seeking an alternative to the road on the south side of Glen Artney, it is suggested to only follow the road as far as the fork at NN715164 (just before the schoolhouse). Fork left (north) towards Dalchruin, and cross the Water of Ruchill by the bridge at NN718170, then the walking route described above is joined at NN718171.
From Dalclathick, the now combined route is followed northeast. Approaching Blairmore, the track goes uphill at NN737184, but keep straight on along a path through woods to reach a track which becomes a minor public road at Dalrannoch, 2.5km from Comrie.
OS Landranger 57 (Stirling & The Trossachs area)
Heritage Information
This hill track running from Comrie to Callander passes up Glen Artney and thence down the Keltie Water. Tom Weir interviewed the shepherd of Glen Artney, Pat Macnab, for the June 1977 issue of The Scots Magazine. Pat was brought up at the Auchinner: "My grandfather died in it, and my uncle left Glen Artney only eight years before my father came to it, so the Macnabs have a long connection with the top of the glen... My daughter was the first lassie to be married in the wee kirk for 50 years". The school in the glen is now closed, but in Pat's day there were 27 on the register, "It's the only school I ever went to. From April to October we never wore shoes. I didn't notice the two-mile walk to school, for my feet were like leather". Pat's father had shepherded the glen before him, "I did my first lambing on Ben Vorlich. It was 1927, and I was 14. I stayed in the old house of Dubh Choirein - you've slept in it so you know it's not much of a place, but it was furnished in those days". After World War II, Pat shepherded Glen Artney from Dalclathick, a cottage then without running water or toilet until he made one. When Pat and his wife Isobel's daughter caught pneumonia, they took her to Comrie by pony and cart. Pat talked too about the declining population of the glen: "When the shooting lodges were staffed in summer, it could rise to 150. It never gets above two dozen now". As a result, the use of buildings has changed - Mailerfuar, south-east of Mailerbeg, was once a gamekeeper's cottage but by 1977 was a haybarn. It is evident that Pat misses the old community spirit of the glen, modern amenity not making up for the people who have left, the folk would rally round to help when need be. "Folk are very mobile now. My mother made only one trip a year from the glen, and that was to the Rural outing".
Callander was a planned village, first set out in the 1730s, and this road can be seen entering Callander from the north on a town plan drawn up in 1774 by John Leslie. Stobie's 1783 map of Perthshire shows this route as a road; in Glen Artney itself the line shown is that of the public road on the south of the Water of Ruchill, although there are buildings marked on the north side - Dalclathick, Blarmore and Dalranoch. In addition to the mapped road though, the more detailed eighteenth century OS maps show tracks and paths linking the dwellings on the north side of the glen, as well as connections across the river. This means the various route options identified above as available for non-motorised travel up and down Glen Artney are long-established and themselves have historic provenance.
