A walk along the West Highland Way paths at Tyndrum
Rudy’s walk at Tyndrum took him from Upper Tyndrum, down the hill and along to the Lochan of the Legend of the Lost Sword before catching his train home at Tyndrum Lower.
Rudy’s face when he was given the choice between a boring zig-zag road or a grassy shortcut path down the hill.
Of course he chose the shortcut down the hill! The path is fairly well worn suggesting lots of others before us have chosen to avoid the gentler (but much longer) zig-zag of the road.
Once across the main road through the village there’s a short forested track next to holiday lodges before opening out into hillside moors.
Any walk that includes part of the West Highland Way is going to have lots of photos taken and even on the short wander we took the scenery encouraged plenty stops to enjoy the view.
The Lochan
A lochan is a small loch (lake). There’s no strict sizes that define a loch versus a lochan and usually it’s local custom or context with a lochan in the highlands often being larger than a loch in more populated areas. Rudy isn’t fussy though, he’ll pose in front of whatever.
The Legend of the Lost Sword
The legend goes that after a defeat at nearby Dalrigh, Robert the Bruce and his army threw their large & awkward weapons, including the Bruce’s claymore, into this lochan to better speed their escape.
The legend seems to be just a story, even the tourist signs at the lochan admit to it being a good story but with little evidence to back it up. We like a good legend story though!
Crom Allt Picnic
Even a little walk in the highlands is a lot for a little terrier dashing ahead along the path and running back telling us to catch up – Rudy was definitely trying to tell us it was time for lunch! We stopped next to Crom Allt (The Crooked Burn) for sandwiches and to refill our water bottles.
A last little forage for blaeberries and a picture of the onward path before turning off and heading for our train home.
Due to ScotRail running a reduced timetable when we visited Tyndrum we had a shorter visit than it deserved without time to go into the village proper.