Scotland’s Heart 200
Willie Shand is on the road again, enjoying the nation’s latest trail.
IT’S hard to beat a good road trip, as anyone who has driven the North Coast 500 – Scotland’s Route 66 – will know. Lots of interesting and varied places strung together by country roads through stunning scenery – what more could you want other than good weather and, of course, your camera?
Needless to say, having enjoyed the North Coast 500 so much last summer, I didn’t need much persuasion to take a few days and go for a run round Scotland’s latest trail – the Heart 200.
Officially launched on
July 1, 2019, this 200-mile-long route is centred on Highland Perthshire, Kinross-shire, Stirling and the Trossachs – the very heart of Scotland.
Two hundred miles might sound like something you could easily knock off in five or six hours, but forget that! With so many places to visit along the way, to do it any justice I’d allow at least a week.
Being a circular route, it doesn’t matter where you start, but leaving the M90 at Kinross, where better to begin than with a run round Loch Leven?
From Kinross-shire it’s on by Gleneagles to Crieff and Comrie.
Rather than taking the direct road for Lochearnhead, we then strike south for Dunblane and Stirling, over to Doune, Callander and the
Trossachs before heading north for Loch Tay, Tummel Bridge and Blair Atholl.
The furthest north we go is Bruar before returning south by Pitlochry, Blairgowrie and Perth. This, of course, can be extended by including as many as 30 sub-tours.
A sail across to Castle Island on Loch Leven is a great escape in the summer months, as is a trip on the steamship the SS Sir
Walter Scott on Loch Katrine in the Trossachs.
If you’re planning this journey for the autumn there’s one addition I’d definitely recommend, and that’s a run through Fortingall and into Glen Lyon.
Linking Scotland’s two National Parks – Loch
Lomond and the Trossachs, and the Cairngorms – it goes without saying the scenery throughout the trip is among Scotland’s finest.
Its mood changes from day to day – and sometimes hour to hour, with the fickle whims of weather and light.
But don’t just take my word for it – many of the places we pass en route you may recognise from scenes in favourite TV series or from the big screen.
The Scottish Highlands have, after all, been voted the World’s Best Cinematic Destination.
Just outside Muthill, at the end of a long, tree-lined driveway, Drummond
Castle was used as a location in the filming of “The Bruce”, “Man To Man” and the epic “Rob Roy” with Liam Neeson.
Rob actually had a real historic connection with Drummond Castle.
When one of his men was evicted he paid the earl a visit, threatening him with the wrath of his clansmen if he wasn’t reinstated.
The earl was happy to
accommodate his request and even invited Rob to join him for breakfast!
A short detour north from Crieff takes us into the
Sma’ Glen and a location for the film “Chariots Of Fire”. Stirling Castle may stir memories of “Kidnapped”, “Gregory’s Two Girls”, “To End All Wars” and “Colditz”.
From the Castle Esplanade we’ve a grand view across the winding Forth to the Ochils and the National Wallace Monument.
Oddly enough, much of “Braveheart”, depicting the Scottish hero William Wallace, was shot in
Ireland!
The drive west from Stirling to the Trossachs and shores of Loch Katrine is particularly pleasant, with Loch Achray often found with amazingly clear reflections. Rob Roy would have known this landscape well as he was born at Glen Gyle above Loch Katrine.
Just the other night I happened to watch Billy Connolly’s film, “What We Did On Our Holiday”, and one of its locations was here at Loch Katrine.
I continue north for Lochearnhead with a short detour to visit Balquhidder Kirk. Rob Roy MacGregor lies at rest in front of the old kirk door.
Although we may be on a road trip, there are nonetheless endless opportunities to stop and take a hike.
From Balquhidder Kirk, a lovely walk for any season heads up into the Kirkton
Glen and Creag an Tuirc. For the more adventurous, Ben Lawers, Perthshire’s highest mountain, or Schiehallion beckon.
But if I’d to pick just one day for the hills it would be Ben Venue, rising high above Loch Katrine.
Between Lochearnhead and the Lix Toll junction for Killin, we climb steeply through Glen Ogle, “Scotland’s Khyber Pass”.
The eye-catching, 12-arched stone railway viaduct served the Callander/Oban line but is now reduced to carrying the occasional walker.
At Killin, where the gentle Lochay and the furious Dochart meet before spilling into Loch Tay, we enter the village over a narrow bridge above the dramatic Falls of Dochart.
You may remember David Niven driving past these falls in the 1960s film “Casino Royale”.
From Killin’s main street, the Tarmachans and
Lawers Group of mountains loom ahead and stay with us all the way along Loch
Tay to Kenmore.
Ben Lawers rises to
3,983 feet above sea level and, driving in its shadow, I recall the story of Malcolm Ferguson who, giving Nature a helping hand, decided to build a 20-feethigh cairn on the summit.
Thus, for a brief while in history, Lawers could boast that it fell into that elite band of Scottish mountains over 4,000 feet high.
If I’ve a favourite time of year to be tackling this part of the country it’s late October to November, when the autumn colours are at their best.
Catch the Trossachs, Kenmore, the Birks of Aberfeldy, Glen Lochay or Glen Lyon on a crisp autumnal day and every silver birch, beech or chestnut tree will have you reaching for the camera.
Crossing the Tay over Wade’s Bridge at Aberfeldy, I continue on through Weem, past Castle Menzies to the wee village of Dull – twinned with Oregon’s village of Boring.
At Tummel Bridge we join the Road to the Isles.
“Sure by Tummel and Loch Rannoch and
Lochaber I will go . . .”
Tempting as it is to follow that well-sung route west, here I turn east and make for another place well recorded in song – Killiecrankie.
A brief stop there, at the National Trust Visitor Centre, gives the opportunity to visit the Soldier’s Leap over the River Garry.
The soldier, one Donald MacBean, was being hotly pursued by Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie.
When he reached the river he had a choice – be killed or jump the 18-feetwide raging river. Surprisingly, he made it across and no-one was brave enough to follow.
With more time to spare, a longer hike can take you to the much less visited Falls of Urrard.
Turning north again, we make for Bruar, with grand views to the Ben y Ghlò range and Blair Castle. Here, another fine set of falls beckons – the Falls of Bruar. They make for a pleasant wooded circular from the House of Bruar Centre.
It’s our bard, Robert Burns, we have to thank for all the trees that grace the river’s banks.
When he visited in 1787 there were no trees and, thinking this a great omission, he wrote a poem to the Duke at Blair Castle.
In the poem Burns gives the river a voice, asking for this to be put right.