Abriachan Trails

NH542355

Grid ref

8km/5 miles

Distance

Key

Grade

3 - 5 hours

Time

Bog Factor

Abriachan Forest car park, west of Loch Laide
[Map of start point, satnav coords and directions]

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1. Abriachan Forest Community Trust purchased the forest and moorland traversed by this walk in 1998, and have set about increasing the native woodland and constructing recreational paths to enhance the environment and create local employment. Take the steep road up to Abriachan from the A82 near Abriachan Nursery; if approaching from the Fort William direction you'll need to use the turning circle on the opposite site of the road as the turn is so sharp. Take the left fork after passing through the scattered houses of Abriachan, and after passing Loch Laide turn left up the forest track (signed) to find the car park on the left. There are picnic tables and toilets here, as well as information boards about the forest and numerous possible walks. Start along the flat trail from near the toilets, signed for the 'wee tree house' and Loch Laide. The path soon becomes a wooden boardwalk and there's a seat at a junction. To see the treehouse, turn left here, before returning to the junction and heading right. Soon you'll reach another t-junction; turn left this time. Keep straight on at the next junction where another path goes off right. The path bends left and leads to an excellent wildlife hide with a view over Loch Laide. Look out for whooper swans and other birdlife.

2. Return back along the path; you can detour to the left at the first junction to visit a dragonfly pond; otherwise continue straight ahead, and again keep ahead this time at the junction where you arrived from the right earlier. Turn left at the next opportunity, passing a children's play fort. Keep left along the path, which soon leads to a reconstruction of a bronze age hut. Beyond the hut, turn left, and at the next fork, keep left again (the path heading right here is for mountain-bikers). You've now explored the easy access area close to the car park (with its many junctions!) and are heading uphill.

3. Soon you'll reach a bench beautifully carved out of a tree-trunk; the view from here stretches away across farmland and forestry to Ben Wyvis in the north. Higher up, there's a signed junction. Take the left hand path, marked for Carn na Leitire. This path soon passes an even more imaginatively carved bench as it begins to head across the moorland. Keep left at the next junction.

4. Continue across the moorland on the excellent path, which soon leads to the cairn on the 434 metre summit of Carn na Leitire, with an excellent view. Continue on the path which is now heading slightly downhill, to another signed junction. Take the left turning once more, signed 'Peat path, Balchraggan' (turning right would give a shorter walk); there's a wooden sculpture here. Keep left again at the next junction, signed for the Balchraggan and the Shieling. Slowly trees are beginning to appear and the moorland becomes less barren.

5. Soon you'll reach the reconstructed shieling. Its low stone wall base is built up with peat turfs and crowned with a turf-covered roof; inside is an excellent place for lunch on a windy day. From the shieling, continue along the path which soon reaches a forest track. Turn right along the track. Further along, ignore the path coming down from the right, which leads back to where you were earlier; instead continue on the track. Soon you'll reach a signpost indicating a left turn for the 'whisky still'. Our route is to continue straight on (signed for Great Glen Way), but you can visit the reconstruction of a whisky still first by detouring down the hill to the left for around three hundred metres. The still is well hidden as you approach (you could be an excise officer!) as it is mostly underground, but there is a door and you can explore inside. Return to the forestry track.

6. Continue along the track, which has an excellent view of Loch Ness; after about half a kilometre another larger track joins in from the left; keep right onto this track, which is part of the Great Glen Way. You'll soon pass a marker for the highest point on the GGW, and further on a signpost indicates Abriachan Forest Walks off to the right; keep straight on on the track here, signed Abriachan Forest Paths P (parking). As you pass a barn and some buildings, keep right. The track now runs very straight towards the car park; after a junction, you can follow a path to the right which runs parallel to it - but keep in the same direction to reach the start.

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