The Wilds of Glen Beich

[past my sell by date]

One of the advantages of living where I do is that I can take my daily allowed exercise on the local hills outside my door, and because there is as yet no limit on how long that exercise can be, I am free to walk as far as I like
On my walk from Killin to St. Fillans https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=94503 I climbed over a low ridge, descended into the upper reaches of Glen Beich, climbed back out of it on a track to the 450m beallach and descended Glen Tarken .

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This part of Glen Beich is extraordinarily remote, and if it were not for the hydro scheme, I suspect it would be visited hardly at all except by whoever farms the land. Not having taken any photos on the above trip, I felt minded to return to the tiny reservoir in the valley to remedy that omission.
I have found in the recent past, that driving 2 miles or so West from the St. Fillans village to a parking place, and starting directly up Glen Tarken, knocks well over an hour off the total walk time going up that glen. Although it is not encouraged, I decided to take the risk of arrest and incarceration and follow this practice today:lol:
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A track starts at this gate just beyond the car park

And zig-zags up through oak woods to cross the cycle path/disused railway a few hundred metres East of the new bridge built by the park authority a few years ago

Looking along the cycle path towards the bridge

The track zig-zags quite steeply past some derelict cottages: I was feeling rather too warm at this point
Apart from Glen Vorlich almost all the valleys around Loch Earn are hanging: - you climb quite steeply for 2-300 metres and they then flatten out. As soon as I reached this level, a fresh breeze kept me at a pleasant temperature

the track passes through a number of gates

A solitary scots pine by the burn

you continue up the Western side of the glen

Looking up to the head of the glen, and Creag Dhubh

Eventually you come to a junction: down to the R the track circles round the head of the glen: straight on leads over the beallach into Glen Beich

Looking back from the high point:
Just beyond here the track turns R and heads diagonally down to reach a small reservoir behind a dam.

A solitary group of trees just below the dam: apart from these there is not a tree for miles

The reservoir above the dam

From the other side: the debris on the bank shows that it has been about 2m deeper recently - flowing right over the dam

and the volume of debris shows how much of it is brought down by the burn in spate

I pushed on 50m or so to where I had crossed the burn: a lot less water in it this time: what a wonderful spot to self-isolate the chances of meeting anyone here on a Sunday must be close to nil

A wider view: at the head of the glen is a three way beallach: either carry on (Rob Roy Way) down to Ardeonaig on Loch Tay or head down R into Glen Lednock

Looking North to the ridge: I must have come down from somewhere near the snow patches just R of centre

Returning, the the track heads S for 50m or so and then turns R and goes diagonally up the hillside

What a huge expanse of "nothing" there is at the top of this glen I heard a Curlew calling

Zoomed viw of the Vorlich group - the weather was closing in and looking a bit threatening
On the way back I decided to climb the 50m or so to the top of Creag Dhubh - someone had told me it was a good viewpoint
Views from Creag Dhubh

Views looking North - the weather was definitely deteriorating

Looking down on to the high point of the track

Down Glen Tarken

A wider view of the whole glen with the track circling round its head
I got back to the car just as the first few drops of rain started to fall

[Gordie12]

I'm not jealous, honestly, I'm not............................

I remember when doing the Rob Roy Way I got the map out at Lochan Breaclaich and noticed how I could easily (at least looking at the map) link up with the Glen Beich/Tarken track. Having already done the Sma Glen to Ardtalnaig, Comrie to Ardtalnaig and Comrie to Ardeonaig I might as well add this route to my list.

I'm off to read your linked report on the through route now.

Thanks for posting.

[past my sell by date]

I'm not jealous, honestly, I'm not............................

I remember when doing the Rob Roy Way I got the map out at Lochan Breaclaich and noticed how I could easily (at least looking at the map) link up with the Glen Beich/Tarken track. Having already done the Sma Glen to Ardtalnaig, Comrie to Ardtalnaig and Comrie to Ardeonaig I might as well add this route to my list.

I'm off to read your linked report on the through route now.

Thanks for posting.

It sure is a wild area Gordie - not as dramatic as other parts of the highlands but wild with a capital W
I was up there again yesterday to knock off a Graham top Meall Daimh 693m - Litle fish are sweet at the moment . There was an awful lot of tussock and peat hags - I would only have gone in wery dry conditions

[past my sell by date]

I was intrigued by the clump of trees at the dam*** - which even the Woodland Trust couldn't identify - and I decided I had to return when they were in leaf to see what they were. It looks a long way on the map, but with the good track it only took me just over two hours .

They can be seen from miles away and are the only trees in the upper valley

Zoomed view

Close up

Aspen
I was still unsure, but I found a leaf, took it home, photocopied it and confirmed that they were indeed Aspen
I was a bit surprised , but as I learnt from the John Muir Trust today Aspen was the first tree to colonise the British Isles after the ice age. and are very tolerant of soil conditions.
It seems quite possible that when the dam was constructed soil containing the seeds was disturbed and slightly sheltered from grazing by the riverbank they were able to grow.
There were masses of seedlings around - which just goes to show how much tree cover we could get back if only we could fence out the grazers for a while
***[EDIT- Actually Ithink it is just one tree]