I made the trip to Benmore Gardens via the train and ferry to Dunoon. I was seeking an easy day in the sunshine and that's just what I got.

I was using Ronald Turnbull's route from one of his books. I started from the Benmore Gardens car park, crossing the River Eachaig on a private bridge. This led to a path along the west bank of the river, with splendid views of the hills all around.









Eventually, I came to a bridge that took me back across the river and towards the A815. I crossed the road to join a path leading up to Puck's Glen.





Following the path a little further, I came to path signposted up Puck's Glen. There was an old sign there as well, I like seeing these old fashioned signs.



I immediately entered a prehistoric world of ferns and a narrow gorge. I followed the path up, across several wooden bridges and past many, many waterfalls. There was also a family taking a dip in a pool a bit higher up.







Part of the path was closed off, so I took a diversion up to a forest road. This knocked out my sense of where I was as I crossed across a few forest roads on the way up, so I ended up taking a diversion up through more open ground. It was a pleasant, if very hot diversion, with lots of insects and a small flocks of Coal Tits and Chaffinches around. I saw lots of Scotch Argus butterflies as well as Common Darter and Gold-ringed Dragonflies. I really enjoyed the way the forest opened up after the closed in feeling from lower down. It also feels like a more "natural" forest setting and is no doubt much richer in biodiversity than the ravine I've just passed along.





I rejoined the main forest road and eventually came to a point where I should have been if I was able to follow Turnbull's route. There was a sign pointing up to Upper Puck's Glen.



This was a continuation of the lower path, and led up to the highest point of the walk at about 300m. I stopped here for lunch before making my descent. I'm not normally bothered too much by midges, usually get annoyed with clouds of them floating around my face but nothing more, but while there weren't big clouds like that here, there were still plenty of them around. I felt a little tickle on my elbow, and then realised "ah that's what it's like to be bitten by a midge!".



I managed to finish my sandwiches despite the midges, and then followed the ominous sign leading to the Black Gates of Mordor, made my way back down to the forest road. There are a few places along this road where you can drop back down to Benmore Gardens, but I continued on to the third path, and this again led to a pleasant, more open forest path with lots of wildlife.



All in all a good day, but very hot!