Strontian

Loch Sunnart

Loch Doilet

Polloch

Corrante mine

Walk 1

Use O.S. Landranger sheet 40

Walks around Strontian

North

Walk 1

Start at the village green in Strontian. Take the public road west towards Salen till you see a sign for the Benview Hotel. Follow that up a made road becoming a track as you pass a wood on your left. Continue on this track over open moorland till you reach the public road from Strontian to Polloch  Follow it back to Strontian.

Generally road or good track with no severe gradients. May be a little wet after rainy  weather on the section of track beyond the wood north of the Benview Hotel..  

What you will see.

From Strontian west is by  a pleasant country road  though mixed woodland then  more open with views down Loch Sunnart. Turning off you will see some interesting houses and a small mushroom supplies enterprise then up beside a coniferous wood with a burn on your right. Once on the open moor you have wide views over Strontian and of the mountains at the head of the river Strontian valley.

Turning back down the public road to Strontian you will see almost all of the various stages of croft house evolution, in various states of repair and alteration/improvement. Pace the boundaries for the “garden”ground of the various properties and you will see that this is a planned settlement.

You may wish to turn of at the old bridge by the church and visit the  burial ground accessed  left after the bridge. You can then complete down either bank of the river and if observant you will see the remains of the mill dam/s from the days before the Corn Laws when grain was a viable crop in this area. Note the derelict steading from the same period, across the burn east of the burial ground.

Walk 2.

Go straight ahead where the road to Polloch turns sharply left uphill. There is a public car park a few hundred yards on. Continue on the track which leaves the woods to cross the face of the hillside till it reaches the old mine workings. Return the same route, or you may follow the alternative route I and the OS show but it is ill-defined  i.e. I could not reliably identify it.

If you ignore my optional return route the going is  a good track, rough but generally dry. Since this was designed as a cart access road to the mines there are no significant gradients. Generally a steady rise out and fall back.

What you will see.

The woods of oak, birch, alder and some, probably planted beaches etc., are being conserved as native oak woods by fencing to encourage regeneration and by the removal of later pine planting. For the first few kilometres the track goes though this woodland, not to dense and with interesting insect life which can be interested in you to. I would suggest a dry sunny day with a little breeze or lots of “Skin so soft”.

The character of the walk changes suddenly  with the abrupt end of the wood. The track now rises steadily across the bare slope of the mountain . The view ahead is silver gray  craggy mountains. On the slope below you will see the occasional very old holly tree. These may mark abandoned habitations or be the remainder of wood land that was clear felled for charcoal then suppressed by grazing. There is a superstition in parts of rural  Scotland that it is unlucky to fell a holly.

The old mine workings are interesting to t hose interested in old mines. There have been several phases of operation and it is not at all clear what you looking at. The terraces covered in fine gravel were the sorting floors where the lead was separated from the crushed ore. The prominent stonework beyond was probably a housing for a water wheel driving a crusher. Further on you will see an adit entrance to your left. The spoil heap yields small fragments of various minerals but being the type location for Strontium the area has been picked over by generations of rock hounds. Finding a good specimen is very unlikely.

Food note;- If asked nicely and given the usual inducement the Ariundle Centre ,at the beginning of the walk, provides rather splendid cakes to sustain you on your way.

Walk 3

Start where the road down from the baelach finally flattens out. You will see a track to your right with a scary sign post provided by the Scottish Rights of Way Society. Follow it to an informal car park then across a bridge. Turn right and follow the track till it rather surprisingly turns into a public road. After the cottage keep to the left and follow the track with the burn on your right. .  Stop when you feel like it or when you run out of track. Leaving the track is not advised. Return the same way.

The track is pretty good and the gradients gentle. Quite a comfortable cycle even on a road bike. .

What you will see.

Walking down from the public road the view down Loch Doilet lies to your left and to your right some good hazel nuts in season. There was once a excellent Victoria Plum, which shows what can be grown in this soil and climate, sadly now gone. Across the bridge the walk on a forestry road is quite open with mature trees on your left and the river showing on the right. Some way in there is the remains of an avenue of Beeches suggesting an attempt to “civilise” the landscape which aforestation erased.

Then the surprise of the walk. You expect roads to peter out into tracks and paths. In this case, in a clearing in the middle of nowhere, the track reverts back to a short length of tarmac “public” road, with small fields between it and the river. Beyond Glenhurich Cottage you are back into forestry, but once again the track is quite open with diverse plant life and softened by vigorous pine regeneration- very pleasant.   

Whitesmith mine

Start at the car park with the brown hut. Walk West along a forestry road for as far as you feel like it. Return the same way.

A very good track with gentle gradients suitable for road bikes..

What you will see.

A walk through a  mature pine forest but not too enclosed. Interesting examples of moss colonisation.

Views of the reed beds that the Polloch river winds though. The sign-posted excursion to the view point is strongly recommended. The forest you will pass through is more like a natural forest than a plantation and the view will not disappoint. When you have turned the corner of the peninsula Loch Sheil is open to your left and pine woods to your right. Probably best as an afternoon walk when the sun is in the west illuminating this shore and the humidity may have dropped a little.

Walk 5.

As you take the Polloch road up through Scotstown you will see, near the end of the houses, a road/track running back off to the south.Take this then follow a prominent track leading turning right uphill. Continue on this over the baelach down to a ruined stone building. Turn downhill till you reach a large burn. Follow the line of this downstream keeping it on your right till you come to a forestry fence. Cross the burn and head north till you hit a good track descending with a pine wood on its right. This track takes you down to the public road at Loch Doilet. Walk eastwards along this road then back over the baelach to Strontian.  Some persons lacking in moral fibre might think it a good idea to have a friend with a car and some chilled beer meet you at the east end of Loch Doilet to avoid the unrelenting 1000ft climb up the road to the Baelach.From bitter experience I would associate myself with the decadent option. [Note;- This walk differs from the others I suggest. The section from the ruined building till you join with the track down to Doilet is rough going. This is not a frequented route. The path shown on the O.S. has not been  discernable for many years and you should make the west to east  crossing of burn to the east of the point shown on the O.S. where there was once a bridge. The reason being that the gradient of the burn steepens at that point , and if the burn is high any mishap crossing there could see you carried into the gorge below. It is however a varied and interesting walk well worth the effort if you are up to it  i.e. accustomed to finding your own way and navigating in rough country. ]

What you will see.

At the start you are crossing open moorland on a good track with views out over Strontian and Sunnart on your left. As you turn up the hill it becomes more rocky as for a while you keep company with the a pleasing burn which was till recently the Strontian public water supply. At the bare rocky baelach the full mass of Ben Resipol comes into view and you realised you are entering remote countryside. There is supposed to be a well with magical properties on the Baelach. [ The Scottish concept of a well can sometimes best translate, for those who envisage fine masonry, a rustic tiled roof and a windy up bucket, as a seep, which may be why I missed it.]

Below you a wide afforested corrie and the now enigmatic remains of the Corrantee Mine, which once boosted two rope haulage ways, sluices etc. etc. You can still see the mine offices and at the foot of the slope by the burn the remains of the crusher water wheel housing with its characteristic engineering quality drystonework. Also note the fine gravel which marks the position of the crusher. The absence of any lead ore in this shows the efficiency of this stage of the separation process. The walk north along the burn with forest on either side is pleasing[don’t expect to cross it dry shod] as is the section of track down through mature pine forest to the loch. Look out for glacially smoothed rocks on the right of the track. One section has ribs of quartzite standing a few millimetres proud of the general surface. This is rough a measure of the amount of chemical weathering that has taken place since the rocks were glaciated c. 9000 years ago.   

The reach along the loch is gentle road walking with views over the loch and pine woods to you right. The next section of the walk is a 1000 foot slog up to the Baelach and though not unpleasant might best be enjoyed from car. Once you reach the baelach the descent to the village over open moorland, past the Glashgorm and Whitesmith mines is very agreeable, particularly the unrelenting “downwardness.”

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Walk 4