Thursday 5 February 2026 - Stank Glen

Given the continuing dreich weather, we decided on another low level, short, walk.

This time we drove to the Ben Ledi car park and took a stroll up Stank Glen, heading first along the road to the Strathyre cabins.

Leaving the tarmac, we enjoyed a well graded 300 metre ascent through woodland that was as pretty as could be expected on a wet day in February. 

We soon passed a waterfall that was clearly connected with the local hydro works.

We mostly followed the blue posts, but on reaching one where there was a 'Danger - Landslip' sign, we took a higher path as planned.

A good single track path led around the head of the Glen. We didn't reach the cloud base, but any attempt to go higher today would have resulted in a few complaints about temperature and wind levels. 

Soon after 11am, Mike lay down on an elevenses rock, only to be ignored as the rest of us plodded past to a better spot by a river. It's pictured below, after Mike had caught up and assumed his trademark prone position.

Luckily, the river was not in spate, so crossing it was a formality.

After contouring gently around the head of the glen, we descended past the Danger Zone, observing that the landslip had destroyed a bridge and left the track rather difficult to cross. 

Near here we encountered a couple of friendly mountain bikers who were the only other people seen on today's walk. 

We continued down to the cabins and a couple of kilometres of road walking back to the cars.

En route, we uncharacteristically failed to pause at a café, in the knowledge that refreshments and lunches awaited us in our Tigh Mor houses.

Here's our route - 8.5km with 300 metres ascent, taking us rather less than 3 hours.

That was a nice morning's outing for a wet day.

Wednesday 4 February 2026 - Conic Hill

Nine of us set off from near Drymen on a dreich morning. It was a day on the West Highland Way. Unusually, there were very few people about. Mainly dog walkers. 

There was lots of lichen on view, this one being Fishbone Beard Lichen.

Elevenses were taken in the shelter of the forest. Mike adopted his usual position. 

Conic Hill, 361 metres, lay ahead.

It was a good track all the way to the summit.

After leaving the windy summit, the cloud cleared briefly.

The descent was steep, and punctuated by lunch.

Apparently some 250,000 people visit Conic Hill every year. The path has been upgraded to cope with this.

Eventually we reached Loch Lomond, where a pair of Shelduck flew off to avoid us and some of the team lined up for another photo.

It was a pleasant walk along the beach.

The Gorse is coming into bloom. Snowdrops were also in evidence.

We finished with a forest walk to pick up cars that had been left at Cashel Farm.

Here's our route - 14.5km with 410 metres ascent, taking 5 hours.

Later, Sue's Chocolate Truffle Torte went down very well after a good helping of lentil and aubergine moussaka. 

Delicious!

Tuesday 3 February 2026 - Primrose Hill

Leaving Tigh Mor (pictured above) at 10am, all 13 of us drove a short way to the Loch Katrine car park (£5 for 4 hours), from where the Primrose Hill walk was recommended by those who had been there before. "Ideal for a wet day" they said. It was a wet day, so we set off briskly past the harbour from where the ferries were running despite the miserable weather. 

We soon passed some luxury 'pods'. They didn't seem to be occupied.

Still on tarmac, but lacking any traffic, we soon came to the Glen Finglas waterworks. 

A little further on we left the road to ascend the Primrose Hill path that climbs gently about 200 metres to the course of an old tramway at around 300 metres.

There were good views across Loch Katrine towards Ben Lomond, which was obscured by the mist and rain that had thankfully petered out in our vicinity. 

There are several good viewpoints along the track through the forest and we paused at some of these to 'muster the troops'.

We passed high above the Brenachoile Lodge pier.

Eventually the waymarked path (the green route) led back down to the tarmac, where we waited for the backmarkers to catch up.

We soon came to the pier that we'd already passed high above, and this proved to be a good spot for elevenses. 

There was very little by way of flora and fauna to admire today, although a large animal with diarrhoea had recently passed this way, but we did observe robins and a dipper. Sue also found some Membranous Pelt Lichen to add to her long list of 'already seens'.

Signs along the way, attached to newish railings where sidestreams cross the road, indicate that this is a popular place 'in the season'.

Back at the waterworks, some of us climbed up to the impressive weir.

Then we wandered back to the car park and paid a visit to a viewpoint platform that was installed in 2024.

After that it was back to Tigh Mor to finish our lunches.

Here's today's route - 12km with 350 metres ascent, taking 3.5 hours.