Rannoch Station to Carn Dearg
If starting from Loch Ossian Hostel allow 25 minutes for the walk to Corrour Station. If taking the convenient 8.30am train, you can then enjoy breakfast at Rannoch Station tearoom on the island platform. (If you miss the train, you can walk along the path from the hostel to Point 3.)
1 NN422578 Cross the footbridge to the start of the long road down towards Loch Rannoch, and follow it for 2.5km to Loch Eigheach. After crossing its inlet stream, a track back up left is signposted as the Road to the Isles.
2 NN446578 The track rises across the shoulder of Sron Smeur, then dips towards Allt Eigheach river. Ignore a track forking off to the right, ford a side stream and reach the riverside. The track crosses a new bridge and runs upstream, passing an underground bunker suitable for some future Bond villain. Ok, it’s really a half-buried turbine station, with a useful sheltering wall for donning waterproofs. The track then rises past a small plantation and bends left.
3 NN430612 In 500m the main track bends uphill. (Here a smaller and narrower track keeps ahead: the Road to the Isles, recently improved to quad-bike standard. This smooth, dry trackway continues past the ruined Corrour Old Lodge and Peter’s Rock above Loch Ossian, Point 5.) Follow the main track up and bending right. Where it levels off, leave the track and head up the slope on rough grass to Sron Leachd a’ Chaorainn.
4 NN425633 The ridge, with a small, intermittent path, runs down past a pool, then continues roughly north, over several rises and dips, to the well-built cairn of Carn Dearg (Carrn Jerrack, the red
stonepile). Turn down north-west, on a well-defined ridge with traces of path and steeper drops to your right. The ridgeline levels off and turns north. From the end of the levelling turn north-west, then west, down rough grassland getting rougher, to reach a bend in a small, firm track (Road to the Isles).
NN393669 The main track bends abruptly downhill here. Peter’s Rock, a small granite boulder, has Peter’s plaque on its downhill side. The track slants down directly towards the head of Loch Ossian. Ahead, it would pass below the craggy towers of Meall na Lice to the lochside near the hostel. But for a fine wee hill to finish, head down the track for just 1km.
6 NN384671 Turn up left onto the slopes of Meall na Lice (Mell na Leaka, the hump of slabs). It will give great views across Rannoch Moor and down onto Loch Ossian, but the going’s a bit rough. Head up heathery grass to the hill’s north-east spur, and up it to the first summit above crags dropping towards Loch Ossian. Walk round the head of a grassy gully dividing the crag to the cairned main summit.
7 NN380666 Descend west to a wide grass path (quad bike track) across the moor. Follow it north and it soon upgrades to a firm surfaced mini-track. It rejoins the Peter Stone track just above the main track junction alongside the youth hostel. Turn left for Corrour Station. Alternatively rough wheelmarks run ahead through a small swamp to the youth hostel, with a better track a few steps off to the left.