Coran Lochan – Donich Website

Lovely Evening

donich_admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 21:18:15 +0000

It turned out nice late this afternoon after a dismal Sunday and Monday. I went for a walk out towards Coran Lochan and it was very pretty indeed on the high path.

The days for going through the cow field are numbered for this year though – as it is the worst place for flies, and I notice they are already gathering. This is in the absence of the cows and Billy the Bull, however, as this year the farmer is keeping them in the field by the road.

The sheep have just been brought into the field across the road for lambing time – and this is when we normally have a few visitors in the garden. It would be nice if they brought some lambs with them if they do come.

Mega-walk Today

donich_admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2016 21:22:37 +0000

R is still studying for his exam (or that is his story and he is sticking to it), so today I did the ‘Artgarten Circular’ walk on my own. You walk down the Duke’s path to Coran Lochan, turn left and walk along the side of Loch Long. Eventually you pass Coilessan Glen, and a lovely walk is to turn left at this point and follow the Cowal Way up and over the bealach between the Brack and Cnoc Coinich. Today I didn’t though, partially because there was low cloud and the high pass is at 520m, and partially because I wanted to see how long the other walk was. So I kept straight on, through Artgarten and on to a forestry track winding along the side of Glen Croe.

At this point you really know why it is called the Rest and be Thankful, because it goes on and on and up and up. There are some great views of the mountains, only somewhat spoiled by traffic noise from A83. Eventually the path bends to the left and meets the Beinn Donich path near a mobile phone mast. Then it is another forestry track all the way back down Glen Mhor to home.

I enjoyed most of it greatly, though I have to say that the last few miles I was getting a bit footsore. So it was 21.5 miles, 50,000 steps, and the equivalent of climbing 330 flights of stairs. It remains to be seen how my legs will feel tomorrow, but it was a good start towards the ViewRanger ‘Walk 1000 miles in 2016 challenge’ which I am taking part in.

Keep right on to the End of the Road…..

marionmccune — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 20:17:03 +0000

Today (as it was not actively pouring with rain) we did what we have wanted to do since we arrived, and walked right down the east side of Loch Goil as far as the end of the peninsular where Loch Goil meets Loch Long.

From the Ordinance Survey there are two paths up to the end, a high level one which winds through the hills and joins a forestry track at Coran Lochan, and a lower level one which follows the side of the Loch. We were hoping that although there is a gap of about 500 yards between the two paths, that it would be possible to scramble between the two and make the walk a circular one.

We left on the upper path at about 9am and walked for about two hours up a fairly steep path through woodland with some sensational views of the loch through gaps in the trees.

The woodland then gave way to open moorland and the peace and solitude was complete, only observed by two sheep and a solitary buzzard high overhead. Around noon we arrived at Coran Lochan.

We were a little surprised to find three green huts and a military Land Rover complete with a signals mast set up there. One soldier with a sub-machine gun (hopefully loaded with blanks!) was guarding the camp and as it was right next to the picnic table where we had hoped to have lunch – we pushed on to the end.

Bizarrely, right at the end of the track, quite literally in the middle of nowhere – were two Portaloos. I honestly can’t imagine the sort of person who in the middle of a wilderness area like this would have any requirement to look for or use this kind of facility – I mean (not to put too fine a point on it) what are bushes for!

Shortly after this, we could see the junction between the two lochs and over the bay to the base at Faslane.

We then had a bit of a disappointment. The reason the two paths don’t join – which isn’t clear either online or on the ordinance survey map – is that there is a pretty steep cliff between the two. It might be possible to get round this by coming off the path earlier and skirting round part of the loch at the bottom – but by this time it was drizzling and we were a bit tired. Anyway – it would be much easier to try to make our way from the lower path to the upper once we have seen what the situation is like on the other approach, so next time, we will do the walk the other way round.

We ate our sandwiches sitting on a rock overlooking the sea. Bizarrely from here we could clearly hear the noise of traffic from the road at the other side of the lochs. By distance it was probably only a mile or so to the road – but in time taken unless you could fly it would be about four hour to get there.

We retraced our footsteps as far as Stuckbeg (an isolated farmhouse) and then took a steep and rough track down to join up with the lower path. By this time it was raining hard and we were glad to arrive home the back of 3pm. This took 2 reasonably fit people six hours to walk and six hours later I am still stiff and tired. Apart from the soldiers, we saw precisely two other walkers and one dog.

My test for the week starts on Tuesday, so tomorrow I need to try out my rotovator – hopefully I will be recovered by then.