Loch Tay - The Old Village of Lawers

The Lawers Hotel is on the North side of Loch Tay and it was here we parked to go off in search of the old village of Lawers. A sign in the car park states that hillwalkers are welcome to park provided they spend some money in the hotel upon return so assuming this also applied to Geocachers we got our boots on and went for a walk.

The first cache here Melting Mouths ~ Lawers isn't very far at all, in fact it just outside the car park next to the road to Kenmore. This was soon found and replaced and we set off again to find the old village.

From the road, a farm track leads down towards the Loch and it's at the very foot of this at the waters edge where the village was. It wasn't until we were actually on the track that we realised quite how far it was to the loch and how far down. The going was pretty steep and after a week of walking activity we were suffering (and not looking forward to the return journey).

The village is today completely ruinous and has mostly been so for many years, however the last inhabitant moved away as recently as 1927. It was featured on an episode of Weir's Way, when the intrepid Scottish explorer told tales of the Lady of Lawers. The Lady (or Baintigheam Labhuir) was a sooth sayer in the late 17th century and made many fairly specific prophecies which came true (albeit some took a long time to do so!).

The first cache we looked for within the village was Weir's Way: Lady of Lawers but although we were pretty certain about the location of this cache it was nowhere to be seen. We were fairly disappointed by this as we've found an other in the Weirs Way series of caches and it contained a DVD containing an episode of the old TV programme.

The other cache in the village Old Village of Lawers is at the opposite end and so we enjoyed a wander through the village. The details of the first cache claim that the village hasn't changed much in the past 30 years, however the state of the buildings is deteriorating rapidly and a number of gable walls have collapsed over the past few years. This was why when we eventually found the next cache we were so horrified. After a short search I spotted something inside the walls of one of the buildings right where the coordinates were pointing. A closer look revealed the cache, however it was a large tub and there appeared to be no way to extract it without dismantling the wall. We did so with care and carefully replaced the stones afterwards, however the potential for causing serious damage here is enormous. This is the reason the Geocaching.com rules state that caches are not allowed in dry stone walls.

After a long plod back up the hill we visited the hotel. A round of hot chocolate soon had us heated up and the log fire helped too.

Loch Tay - Kinnell Stone Circle

Next to the Falls of Dochart Inn within the village of Killin are two large gate posts. Beyond them, an old road leads off into the trees. This track goes past some old cottages and more gate posts like the first before straightening out to lead down to Kinnell House. The track itself is in a poor condition with some huge potholes which, as it had been raining just before we visited, had become massive puddles. Thankfully the kids had their wellies on. They had a great time splashing.

Kinnell House was a former seat of the clan Macnab whose historical territory stretched from west Loch Tay and Killin across Glendochart to Tyndrum. Parts of this house are said to date back as far as 1580. At the end of the track are another set of large stone gate posts on top of which are two strange lion statues. These would look more at home outside a Chinese restaurant as they look slightly oriental in their design. It is here that the Kinnell Stone Circle cache is secreted.

The name of the cache refers to a small but well preserved circle of six stones which is thought to date from between 2000 and 3000BC. We went over to have a look closer look (avoiding an electric fence) and tried to imagine what this strange construction might have originally been for.


This is a short but interesting walk if you are in Killin. We can highly recommend a visit, but remember your wellies if it's been raining!

For those interested in the connections to Clan Macnab, there is also a private burial ground in Killin which can be found next to the bridge over the Falls of Dochart. Access to this requires a key but this is can be obtained upon request nearby.

Loch Tay - The Birks O'Aberfeldy

The Birks O'Aberfeldy is a lovely walk which follows the Moness Burn up the steep sided gorge through which it flows. Starting and finishing at a small free car park on the edge of Aberfeldy, the path starts as a gentle stroll but fairly quickly becomes quite a steep trek up zig-zagging steps until finally reaching the top of the gorge where it crosses over a bridge above the spectacular Falls of Moness before returning back down the opposite side of the gorge to the car park.

Robert Burns apparently visited this spot in 1787 and was so inspired that he wrote the poem "The Birks of Aberfeldie". In case you were wondering, "Birks" is an old word for birch which along with oak and beech is one of the main varieties of tree found in the glen.

Near the car park stands a metal sculpture of a stag. It is here that the Melting Mount ~ eye eye cache is located, however it has been missing for a while now and although we went for a look anyway, it was nowhere to be seen.

Moving on we went in search of The Birks Tree Collection. This is another cache which is near the car park and which can be collected easily even if you don't want to tackle the full walk. The name of this cache refers  to the area around the car park which has been planted with a large selection of tree types. Each of these has a small plaque to identify it. This was extremely useful to us as we don't know much about trees. The cache is located at the base of a certain type of tree and once we'd found the example of this type of tree we went off in the direction of the GZ armed with a few samples of its leaves (lifted from the ground). This did the trick and we very quickly found a tree in the correct area which matched the clue.

Following the path up the glen we arrived at a little view point where a bench has been installed. This isn't just any old bench however as it has a sculpture of Robert Burns perched at one end gazing off into the distance. The Robert Burns - Aberfeldy cache is located nearby and was a simple find. After finding this cache we had some fun taking photos to complete one of the Geocaching Challenges and Mr Burns got some kisses from Super Kid, Super Girlie and even Mrs SC.

A bit further on is another area which resembles a bench, however I'm not too sure whether it is man made or natural. It's here that a plaque commemorates Burns writing his poem. The view from this spot isn't great so I would doubt it was here that he actually sat to pen his masterpiece. The Birks of Aberfeldy. - Robert Burns cache is marked as being near this spot however we found the coordinates were pointing at a location a bit further on and ended up having to backtrack to here to look for the cache. The cache itself is hidden in a location which also does not match the clue, however luckily someone has posted a replacement clue which does indeed help finding it.

After a stop for a rest and a bite to eat (by now were were exhausted!), we came to the The Birks - At the Top cache. No prizes for guessing where on the walk it was hidden. This proved to be a simple find after which we went to have a look at the water falls (skipping a further cache which appeared to be somewhere off across some fields). At this point the path crosses to the other side of the gorge but the wooden bridge over which is leads is directly above the top of the falls. This is very impressive but I must admit I was a bit wary about going over it. The kids on the other hand had no such fears.

Coming down the opposite side was a relief, however our legs were beginning to complain a bit. Two more caches awaited us on our descent. The first of these was The Birks - In miniature (themed swaps) which was found by Super Girlie. As it's name suggests this was a themed cache where swap items were to be miniatures, to be honest I have no idea what we swapped from here although I think is was pretty empty. The second and final cache of the day was The Birks - Up the Grassy slope which again is as it's name suggests up a grassy slope, grassy, slippy and muddy.

We finally got back the the car a short while later and were relieve to get our boots off. This is marked as a simple walk, however we found it pretty tough going. I'm not sure however if this was because of the amount of walking we'd been doing over the few days prior which included climbing a munro. That said it's a great walk and well worth the effort... and thankfully being October, there were no midges!

Loch Tay : 51 Caches in a day!

Since deciding to come to the Loch Tay area for our October holiday we'd been planning to spend a whole day geocaching in an attempt to collect 50 caches in a day. The day we chose however, was in hindsight not a very good choice, as it was cold, wet and windy. This isn't great weather to be clambering around on remote Scottish hills and in windy glens.

We'd started at out around 10am after having a look out of the window and deciding it looked okay out. It didn't look like the best of days but in October you run the risk that it'll be chucking it down for the rest of the week. So off we set along the twisty single track road on the south side of Loch Tay towards Killin.

After staying here last year, we'd already found the majority of the caches along this road, but there were still a few to grab and aside from one located up the hill at a cave where a scene in a Monty Python film was set we completed the lot. These are all fairly straight forward with a few requiring a little hunting around and head scratching. Half an hour later we'd found;

• Melting Mouths ~ Falls of Ardeonaig
• Melting Mouth ~ Meatloaf
• Melting Mouths ~ Fiddlers Bay
• Melting Mouth ~ Uni
• Melting Mouth ~ The Best Ben

Passing Killin we headed back towards Kenmore along the north side of Loch Tay. From this road we would turn off and head up past the Lochan na Lairidge dam to the Bridge of Balgie. Before this however there were three more park and grab caches to be found;

• Melting Mouth ~ Sittin' In Killin
• Melting Mouths ~ Pipein' Killin
• Melting Mouth ~ Killin View

Once onto the 9 mile road up past Ben Lawers, Meall Nan Tarmachan (which we'd climbed earlier in the week) and the dam, the caches started coming thick and fast. Along this road there's a cache every couple of hundred metres and with a plethora of passing places it's never difficult to stop. Before long we'd cleared this entire road of caches aside from two we couldn't find;

• Hunter Gatherer
• Hugely Goodly
• Hair Gel
• Highest Giant
• Hurdling Gazelle
• Hill Gazer
• High Ganglions
• Has Gusto
• Hypnotic Gleam
• Hilarious Gold
• Happy Gobbling
• Honest Guidance
• Hairbrained Genius
• Hacking Gardener
• Herbacious Groans
• Control The Flow

Has Gusto was interesting cache as it lies at the foot of the Lochan na Lairidge dam. This is an impressive structure from the road, but once you are right down beneath the dam wall itself it takes on a whole different scale. This is a seriously huge structure and the thought that the loch is just on the other side is more than slightly worrying. 

We'd visited the final two of these caches last year without success. Herbacious Groans had defeated us as our GPS was jumping all over the place and we had no phone signal to download maps. This time we were armed with two mobiles, a handheld GPS and print outs, however when we arrived at the GZ a white van man also pulled in and sat there making a stealthy hunt very difficult. After waiting a while for him to leave we decided to have a spot of lunch but with our lunch finished he still hadn't moved. I decided to go for a look anyway taking one of the kids with me for cover. As it turned the van had no rear windows so we were free to hunt and found the cache really quickly. Control The Flow was the other cache we'd DNF'd last year despite me taking off my socks and shoes and going for a wade in an icy cold stream in full flow. This year the stream wasn't quite as full but it wouldn't have mattered if it was because the cache was an easy find (although it took a while). This year I managed to keep my socks on!

From here we turned west and headed towards Loch Lyon collecting more caches along the way;

• Higher Geography
• Harmoniously Gregarious
• Healing Guru
• Hellish Guide

Upon reaching a turn off we followed a track up towards Loch an Daimh until we reached a large gate. I'm not sure if this was to keep animals in or us out but on the other side was a large a herd of highland cattle with the biggest scariest horns I've ever seen. After waiting for a short while for them to move off down the road I plucked up the courage to go through the gate on foot to find the How Gorgeous cache which was exactly where the clue suggested it wouldn't be. We decided to leave the final cache on this road (which is located right at the dam at the east end of the loch) for another day.

• Honourable Guy
• How Gorgeous

Back on the main road again and the caches kept coming; 

• Hurling Grains
• Hearty Guffaw
• Hullabaloo Generator
• Hazy Grasp
• Hastily Gambolling
• Hides Galore
• Handouts Guaranteed
• Herding Goats
• Lyon
• G.T.G. Lubreoch
• G.T.G. The Dam Road
• G.T.G. Meall a' Chall View
• G.T.G. Scratching Boulder 
• G.T.G. Lairig 
• G.T.G. Learg nan Lunn 
• G.T.G. Bunting Rocks 
• G.T.G. Pipe Dream 
• Its Good To Talk - Innisraineach 
• G.T.G. Kenknock view 
• Rumble in the Glen  
• A Drive In The Country - Boulders 

Of these only a couple were interesting although Hastily Gambolling was more fun than interesting as it involved crossing a very wobbly bridge which was strong enough to cross but which I wouldn't try jumping up and down on. Herding Goats was at the foot of another dam where a rather macabre rams skull watches over the cache.

By this time I was tired, soaked to the skin and freezing cold and Mrs SC, who had done an excellent job driving some incredibly badly pot holed roads, was exhausted. Meanwhile in the back of the car the kids were happily playing with all the new "treasure" they'd swapped along the way but had given up getting out at stops to help search. A quick count of the caches we'd found came to 46 so we decided to head for Killin to get some dinner and perhaps find the last 4 caches we'd need to reach 50 afterwards. However once we got to Killin another count came to 51 and we were all glad that there would be no more caching that day.

Dinner was excellent in the Capercallie in Killin which is really laid back and welcoming with a big open fire and large portions... an ideal end to the day!

Loch Tay : A day in Pitlochry

Whilst on our October week holiday at Loch Tay we decided to take a wee trip over to Pitlochry. The previous day we'd all attempted to climb Meall Nan Tarmachan. This is a hill which lies to the west of the better known Ben Lawers with commanding views over Loch Tay, Killin and from the top Glen Lyon. The mountain is often tackled as part of a circular ridge walk but as this was to be our first serious hill walk with the kids in tow we decided to go for the direct route to the top and back. Meall Nan Tarmachan has two summits, one lesser top at 923 metres and the Munro at 1044 metres with the route to the top visiting both. This is said to be one of the easier Munros to tackle due to the high starting point which makes for a shorter vertical ascent. This made it an ideal choice as a introduction to hill walking for the kids. In the end Super Kid (5) made it to the 923 top after which she chose to stop (I'm sure she could have made the top with ease though), and Super Girlie (7) made it to the very top and bagged her first Munro on the first attempt! So proud of them both!!

So back to Pitlochry... after the previous days exertions all we wanted was an easy day to rest, no hills, forest walks, etc, we'd also promised to treat the girls for their brilliant efforts on the hill, so Pitlochry it was.

After buying what seemed like all the toys in the town, and a great lunch in one of Pitlochrys many eateries we decided to head back to our accomodation at Loch Tay via a few caches. There aren't many caches in Pitlochry itself and although there are a few just to the North we were going the other way.

Our first stop was Esmeralda Hic! This was located at the Blair Athol Distillery which makes 12 year old Single Malt Whisky for Bells. The distillery was established in 1798 and is one of the oldest working distilleries in Scotland. Unfortunately it wasn't until we started looking that we realised it hadn't been found for a while with many DNFs and after our own thorough search we logged the same. The cache has since been archived.

Next up was Dunfallandy. This cache is located next to the house where the CO grew up and apparently is where their parents still live. Personally I don't like this sort of thing as it makes it a bit awkward when searching knowing the curtains are probably twitching. Thankfully I had my two secret weapons with me, the kids. The find was quite easy in the end. Just down the road from here we stopped at a small turn off and walked up to an old graveyard. The gravestones here are for the Fergusson family but it's not these which are of particular interest. This is also the site of the Dunfallandy stone, a pictish cross-slab which features ornate decoration of human figures, pictish symbols, animals and knot work. This is the first pictish stone like this which I've seen. It dates from around the 9th century and today is enclosed behind a protective glass case (which also makes it difficult to photograph).

Finally we stopped near the Pitnacree Bridge over the Tay and collected Pitnacree View. This was a simple park and grab next to the river.

Loch Tay : Fortingal to Dunalastair Water

Last year we spent our October week holiday in a lovely lodge on the Southern side of Loch Tay and enjoyed it so much we decided to go back again this year.

On our first full day we decided to go for a drive and a walk and to hopefully collect a few caches along the way. After a look at the maps we decided to head towards Loch Rannoch with the intention of getting all the way along to the remote Rannoch Station as seen in the film Train Spotting. As things usually turn out we never got anywhere near that far but we still had a great day.

First up were a  few simple roadside park and grabs. None of these were particularly interesting, although at the GZ for the last (Jean's Figurine) we discovered where all the metal work sculptures which are common around the area are made.

• A Drive In The Country - PG Road 
• A Drive In The Country - The Stanes 
• A Drive In The Country - Ooo Missus! 
• Jean's Figurines

Following these we headed North and eventually reached a junction where the road we were to follow turned East. Very near to here however was another cache Tomphubil Lime Kiln and so we took a little detour to go and find it. Upon arrival at the GZ we were glad we'd come this way as the cache is hidden near a rather impressive stone Lime Kiln structure in a stunning setting overlooking Loch Kinardochy. A Favourite point was awarded.

Moving on we collected another cache at the entrance to a small car park which is located at the foot of the path up Schiehallion (the hill of the faeries!). We could have used a faerie today to fly over the squelchy boggy ground to retrieve the Braes of Foss cache.

Our next cache was actually the reason why we'd headed in this direction, you see the 14th October 2012 was an Earthcache day and the next cache along the road was an Earthcache. The Limestone Pavement cache is located at just that, a limestone pavement made from Dalradian Limestone and is around 500 million years old. There's no actually cache container at an earthcache, instead you are asked to answer a few questions and maybe take a photo as evidence you were actually there. Usually however the questions related to information provided at the site on information boards and such, however upon reaching the site and after a good look around there were none! As a result we were only able to make a guess at one of the answers (not knowing the first thing about geology) and we also uploaded a photo. The log entry hasn't been removed yet so hopefully this was enough!

Our final cache of the day was McGregors Cave. This is supposed to have been a cave used by Rob Roy McGregor at some point in history, however it's actually just a victorian folly. After parking at the suggested spot and enjoying a spot of lunch we headed up the road  a bit to a small cottage and down a private track. This was a lovely walk which led down to Dunalastair Water and the kids had fun collecting conkers on the way. Once at the water the scenery was simply stunning, breath taking! From here the path led us up into the forest and we had a great time pointing out things to the kids who had a ball. Eventually came to a stream... er river... but we managed to cross with care. Once at the "cave" we we're suitably impressed and the view from the spot in front is superb. From here the cache was just a bit further on but when we got there we were stumped. However, after widening the search we eventually found it. On our way back Mrs SCs feet we're killing her as her boots we're hurting but we made it.

On the way we had a chat with a lovely man who lives at the gate. We we're telling him about our walk and he told us that the cave is not the original but a Victorian Folly. The original is supposedly now under water since the level of the water has been raised by the dams.

Cochno Road

After a day visiting relatives in Bearsden we saw we would be passing this cache Cochno Road on our way home so made a quick stop to log it. The cache was a simple find and Super Girlie did the honours.

Barcraigs Reservoir

After an early morning visit to Kia in Linwood for some warranty repairs on one of the cars I decided to take a quick detour on the way home to grab a few caches. I hadn't really planned for this to be much of an effort but in the end it turned out to be quite an adventure.

First up was A Fine Reserve and after negotiating some rather curious fishermen (or were they anglers?) I quickly reached the GZ. As luck would have it this cache was hiding in the very first place I looked... todays gonna be easy I thought... but no, the next two weren't nearly as simple!

From here, I followed the path around the edge of the reservoir and then along the boundary road until I reached a gate back down to the dam. After dodging some more anglers (who seemed to be attempting to catch birds in mid flight with their lines) I got to the top of a sort of levy or overflow channel and followed the arrow down it to The Green Mile, now where could the cache be hiding? After ruling out a few places where I felt the cache would surely never survive I hunted for a further 10 minutes without luck. Out of desperation I then started checking those places I'd ruled out too. Surprise surprise it was exactly in the place I'd ruled out first! Doh! I thought this was a really interesting spot for a cache and I guess it is technically a waterfall so makes sense considering the CO was Amazo. Favourite point awarded!

My final cache of the day Water Water Everywhere........ was probably meant to be quite simple, just a walk over a causeway and there you are, but the bridge at the far end of the causeway was down (poachers apparently!) so it was the long way around for me. It may not seem much farther around from The Green Mile on the map, but most of the way is ankle deep mud and knee deep bog. Add to that the local sheep and cows who have helped decorate the place with coo pies everywhere and you have quite a challenge to get to GZ. I eventually made it only to find coos hiding in the bushes right where the arrow was pointing. Not being a big fan of the bovine race I was ready to turnabout an abandon the cache but I'd worked so hard to get there I decided they weren't going chase me away. So, armed with a big stick I did my impersonation of Sir Alec Guinness as Obi Wan (when he chases off the sand people) and just like in the film, off they scarpered (the cows, not sand people!). The contents of the cache itself were a little disappointing so I added a few bits of treasure and signed the log (I may have used the word evil a few times which reflected my mood at the time nicely!!). Before heading back the way I'd arrived I decided to have a look at the broken bridge from the other side and yes it's knackered but it's only over a small weir so providing the water level is low it's wade-able using the bridge to hold on to. I did just that and got a bit wet but it helped clean off the mud and coo poo from my boots and troos! Another favourite point was awarded!

Cumbrae

Saturday and it was a lovely day so after the kids clubs were finished we decided to go for a cycle. It was supposed to be Brownie camp that weekend and we'd promised Super Girlie that we'd do something nice to make up for it being cancelled. Our first plan was to head up to Strathclyde park but after a quick rethink we got the bikes on the car and headed towards Largs and the ferry to Cumbrae. I'd never been to Cumbrae myself although some of the other Super Collectors had so this was all new to me and what a great place it turned out to be. Oh and we did some caching along the way!

After a fun ferry crossing we got our bearings and were faced with the choice... left or right. A handy information board showed us the route around the island and as Millport seemed slightly closer to the left, left won. We were hungry!

Our first cache of the day was Stinking Goat which came pretty quickly. After spotting this within seconds I decided to let the kids find it, but after a few minutes I had to resort to giving them clues. In the end I pretty much had to tell them where the cache was and it was a race to get to the hiding place first.

Next up was another goat, this time Green Goat. This cache was being guarded by a couple of divers who were sitting in the layby next to it having a chat. We nearly moved on, but using the kids as cover we had a quick look and came up trumphs! Log signed and back on the bikes I don't think the chin waggers had even noticed us!

Lion King was located at Lion Rock which as it's name suggests is a rock which looks like a lion. From the road this is quite impressive, however when you get close up you can see how much of it is being held together with cement. This cache turned out to be a bit tricky and the coords are definitely miles out. After a long hunt myself and Super Girlie were about to give up and head back down to the road when I happened to spot a rock in a hole which didn't look the same as any other rock in any other hole. Good job I'm not a short arse and I could reach in for a feel. Aha that feels like plastic... and so it was. Hint for others, we found this on the opposite side and opposite end from where our maps were directing us.

Back on the pedals again and we were nearly at Millport when we pulled over and Mrs SC and Super Girlie headed off down a wee path to look for Raiders of the Lost Ark. They were back in jig time so I guess it wasn't difficult but they reported that the log was unsignable. However it was a type of cache we've never encountered before so not all bad!

Once we got into Millport we decided to give the towns caches a miss and to leave them for the next visit. We were hungry and nothing unhealthy junk from a chuck wagon would do. After burgers and hotdogs on the beach and a visit to the local toy shop (they do excellent goodie bags) we headed off again to complete our circuit of the island. and soon reached Deadman's Bay.

Here we found a small memorial garden dedicated to members of the armed services who have died in the service of our country. This is a nice spot and aside from all the walkers and cyclists passing by is quite peaceful. This was another cache which took a while to find. At first we thought it was hiding in the middle of a huge scratchy bush, however after a look around we found an easier way to the middle and after several thourough searches, we finally searched properly and found the cache.

Further along the road we arrived at the coordinates for Shallow Grave. This was one of those caches which seems easy once you know where the cache is but which is amazingly difficult to spot. After looking everywhere I even ventured down to a little stream at the side of the road for a look and found a tunnel! Despite being fairly certain that the cache wasn't in there, I decided to make my way under the road just for a laugh. Once on the other side it was great fun surprising the kids who were wondering where I had gone! Back at the correct spot and after a few minutes I happened to stand in the right place and look in the right direction and spotted something which was silver and shiny. Ah ha!

By now we were all getting a bit tired and hungry again (junk food doesn't really fill you up!) so we decided to skip the rest of the caches we were going to pass and get them another day. That was the plan anyway, but it wasn't long until we were having a look for The Hunt For Red October (I just couldn't go past a cache with a name like that!!). This turned out to be one of the easiest caches of the day as well as the last.

We had a brilliant day on Cumbrae and will definitely be back to hoover up the rest of the caches we missed some time soon but for now it was back to Largs on the ferry and a lovely slap up dinner at the beautifully refurbished "The Waterside" just outside Seamill.

Return to the Trocal Pond

Back in December I visited the Shewalton Sandpits in search of Explore Shewalton Sandpits - Trocal Pond. Despite a long search on that day I came away without finding the cache. It's one of those DNFs which had been annoying me ever since and so it was time to go back for another look.

This time I decided to take a second set of eyes in the form of Super Girlie and it turned out to be a good idea. The reserve itself is a lovely place to visit and is a real haven for wildlife. It also has the added bonus of being next to a golf course and we came away with a few lost balls.

Upon reaching the GZ we were under tree cover which had the GPS flitting all over the place. After five minutes looking on one side of the hollow we widened our search and almost straight away Super Girlie came up trumps!! Brilliant!!