Clach nam Breatann (Stone of the Britons)

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Having completed a succesful reascent of Beinn Chabhair I drove two miles Northwards on the A82 up Glen Falloch and pulled in at the parking area for The Falls of Falloch, an attractive little waterfall on the East side of the glen, my objective however was on the opposite side of the glen and unlike the falls is almost never visited by tourists or anyone else for that matter. There are no signposts for Clach nam Breatann and all I had to go on was the Ordnance survey map which has Clach na Briton marked as a cairn on the featureless hillside. After changing into my dry Lowa boots I decided not to cart my heavy rucksack and just stuck my uneaten pasta meal in my jacket pocket before crossing the road climbing a fence and setting off through dense tangly undergrowth consisting of brambles, dead bracken and thick tussocky grass. The next hurdle was the West Highland railway line which had a six foot wire fence either side of the tracks, scrambled over these and headed uphill again with the going just as tough through thick grass and juniper bushes, after scrambling up to the top of the first rise I was surprised to see the unmistakable outline of Clach nam Breatann on the horizon off to my right looking to be about a 15/20 minute walk away. It was then it struck me that I hadn,t brought the tripod with me so having spotted an underpass on the railway line off to my left from my high vantage point I began back down towards it raging with myself for forgetting the tripod as I obviously wanted to get some selfies with this famous stone. After passing through the small tunnel beneath the railway which is known as a sheep creep, I found myself on a rough access track which I followed back down to the road and back across to the car. Although the track was steep and rough I decided to give it a try in the car and thankfully it made it which gave me a nice easy start and in hindsight this is the perfect place to start a hike to Clach nam Breatann. Getting underway for a second time at 3:45 it was back under the sheep creep and up over the crest of the hill through the thick grass and juniper bushes and then just headed directly to the stone which was now visible on the horizon again. In about 20 minutes I had reached it. I first became aware of this stone watching an episode of Weirs Way back in the 1970s when I was a young teenager, to my knowledge its the only time it has ever featured on television. Tom Weir explained Clach nam Breatann or Stone of the Britons in English, is an ancient boundary marker between the three kingdoms which made up Scotland about 1,500 years ago, these being the Britons of Strathclyde to the South, having their capital at Dumbarton, the Scots of Dal Riata to the Northwest and the Picts to the Northeast, the site itself consists of a large mound of earth covered boulders with a circumference of 180 feet, topped with a few giant rocks and perched on top of these another giant megalith of a boulder protruding outwards and upwards like a stoneage howitzer. The overhanging rock creates a space underneath big enough for one or two people to shelter and indeed Tom Weir says none other than Robert the Bruce supposedly took shelter here in 1306 on his way back from Strath Fillan where he and his men had been defeated in a battle with the MacDougalls. There is no agreement among experts whether the mound is natural or man made but it is widely accepted that the large pointed megalith resting on top of the structure was deliberately placed there. There is also a legend that an 8th century battle between the Britons and the Dalriads was fought in this area near a large stone called Minvirc and it has been suggested that this is that stone. The whole thing from the base of the mound to the tip of the capstone is over 15 feet high and its location is around 770 feet (235 metres) in altitude on the Southeastern slopes of Cruachan Cruinn on the West side of Glen Falloch just over a mile North of the Falls of Falloch as the crow flies. Having taken a good few selfies and photos from all directions including posing on the top and a wee video I ate my pasta meal and soaked in the atmosphere enjoying the solitude, I would be surprised if even a handfull of people visit this site per year but I felt very pleased that I had now been here after first hearing of it over 40 years ago and it had stuck in my mind ever since. Made the walk back roughly the same way as I,d come up and got back to the car at 5:25 so a total time of an hour and 40 minutes though 45 minutes of this was spent at the site and my moving time was 53 minutes according to strava so just under half an hours walking each way from my high starting point. First thing I checked on arriving at the car was that all the tyres were intact and that I hadn,t sustained a puncture on the way up the track, thankfully all were fine though I noticed on looking downhill towards the road that someone had shut the gate I,d driven through earlier, if it was locked I,d be stranded but luckily it had just been pulled closed and once through I headed home back up the A82 to Crianlarauch then down through Glen Dochart and Glen Ogle, through Lochearnhead, Strathyre and Callander and onto the motorway at Stirling, got home about 7 p.m. my legs felt absolutely knackered and I got cramp in both my quads while lying in bed that night.