This circuit through the Glen Duror forest plantations is pleasant enough, and interest is added by the bothy and the connections with the Appin murder.
Summary
Forest tracks and waymarked paths throughout; there is a reasonable amount of ascent
Terrain
Users'
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1. Turn off the A828 onto the minor road that leads past a campsite before ending with a small Forestry Commission parking area. The walk begins along the lower track which heads through the gate and is signed for the Birthplace of James of the Glen. Continue along this track for about two kilometres, ignoring other small tracks off to the left and right. The track is marked with yellow marker posts and the yellow Saltire symbol of the .... clan. After crossing a concrete bridge, there is another signed junction.
2. The birthplace of James of the Glen, which is now a bothy, is visited by turning left uphill here (after visiting the bothy you will return to this point). The much smaller track winds as it climbs uphill and is marked with the yellow Saltires. Ignore a concrete bridge on the left (with a 3 ton limit) and continue on the track as the gradient begins to ease and finally becomes slightly downhill. Soon the track passes between two posts into a felled area with more open views; the slopes of Beinn a'Bheithir are on the left.
3. A short distance further on the bothy is reached; it is maintained by volunteers from the Mountain Bothy Association. Please help by carrying out any rubbish you find here as well as not leaving any more; also leave a report on the condition of the bothy at its webpage here. James of the Glen was born here. He was the man who was wrongfully hung for the murder of a government tax inspector in this area in the years after the Jacobite rebellion. The true story formed the basis of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, Kidnapped.
4. Return from the bothy to the main track at the floor of the glen left earlier. Turn left along it, and after a fairly short distance, take the yellow-waymarked path off to the right. This crosses a wooden footbridge and then begins to climb quite steeply through the trees. Once it levels off and bends to the right it joins a forestry track once more. Continue along this as it gently descends and, after a little over three kilometres, leaves the forest. Here the track bends right and follows the bed of the old railway line (tracks long since removed) before reaching the road near Abhainn Cottages. Turn right along the tarmac road to return to the start.
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Route profile
