Route Description

This is truly a beautiful route, one of the most beautiful you will ever see in Scotland, it is very quiet and a pleasant tour. Navigation is a little tricky in places as the path is a little indistinct, but when I did this  route I realised at the car park I had left my map and GPS sitting on my desk at home. Nevertheless with a little luck I managed to find my way almost all the way around the route with no problems. apart from near the end of Glen Carr. As it happens I managed to find an "alternative route" back through Birnam wood, although this did involve a bit of a trudge over farmland which was a bit boggy and climbing a few fences. my alternative route is route B, although my official route is route A - i.e. the route I intended to take

Motto of the day - don't forget your map and compass! (circular thingy with an arrow that points north for the younger of my readers)

Starting Point is the same car park I used for the Birnam Hill route - (streetmap.co.uk link) If you don't wish to do this route there are about 4 different other routes on the map at the car park - some shorter, some longer. Failing that just a mile up the road is Craigvinean Forrest, or the Loch Ordy Route

From the car park go under the railway bridge and take a right - this starts off as a wide track then narrows to singletrack - keep following this until you come out onto a wider track and pass some cottages. At the end of the cottages take a gentle left turn (not the orange route signposted on the sharp left turn) and head down towards a gate - past this and you follow a burn (stream) upstream through Birnam wood

At 2 miles from the car park you come to a T junction - take the left turn signposted Balhomish. Climb up the wide track and follow it as it leads you out of the woods and towards the farm. Just as you approach the farm there is a style which you cross and then turn right away from the farm. From here carry on for a short distance away from the farm until you see a low old dry stone wall running parallel to a fence heading back and to your left. here you will see a sign for glen Carr and Bankfoot.

Here the navigation becomes a little more difficult - the basic rule of thumb is just keep heading straight on. there is a path, but particularly in summer when the ferns are at their highest and most lush the path is a little hard to follow. You basically will have climbed back so that the farm of Balhomish is down on your left.

The is a gate to cross before you really encounter the ferns - keep heading straight on  (SSE) on and following the narrow path.

The valley narrows down as you pass through glen Carr - the land falls away sharply to your right so if you don't have a head for heights then walk this section, but after a couple of hundred yards this becomes a lot less steep. the path itself is not tricky here - its just the fall away to the right!

keep heading down the glen, with the path gradually turning left (eastwards)

This is where without the map I ended up going wrong. I should have turned right and gone down the hill - across the fields - instead I went straight on following the wall (NE) which took me to Birnam wood. From here you hit a firetrack after crossing a gate and carried straight on over the shoulder of the hill (DO NOT take a left here - it doesn't go anywhere) - carried on descending on a rapid descent through Birnam woods and out onto the B867 - took a left and followed the road for a couple of miles back to the car

What I should have done - is headed down the field (as the footpath is marked on the map) until I hit a farm track which took me to an unclassified road and back to Bankfoot. From here you can either just take the road (B867) through Bankfoot and head back to the car, or take the road which leads up beside the burnt out church - follow it as it becomes a track and head straight on - this will eventually bring you out much further up the B896 near the car!