I should start this off by pointing out that I’m not great with left and right. I can (almost) always figure it out, but it does usually take stopping to think about it and checking once or twice. So that might be part of the reason that I made this walk a little longer than the route on here.

I’m a lot more confident in my ability to distinguish downstream from upstream, but we’ll get to the relevance of that shortly.

It all started off fine. I headed off from the carpark in Aberfoyle, followed the signs after the bridge and had no problems reaching the woods on Doon Hill.



There’s a small part here where I guess I missed one direction. I was happily wandering along, the sun popped out for a moment and I found myself distracted taking photos of some moss (as you do!). I thought I was following the only path to the top of the hill and so happily walked up to the top and followed the way marker off to the side and down again.

I was about half way down the hill when I wasn’t sure I was heading in the right direction and so grabbed my phone out of my pocket to check the route. At this point I realised I should have turned right at the top of the hill and I had turned left. Not wanting to come out in the wrong place (and happy to have a bit more of a hill workout) I retraced my steps back to the top of the hill.

This is where I realised that the only right turn option was down the steeper path I’d used to reach the top. Confused as to which way I should have come up, but happy to be on the right path, I headed back down this way.



All was fine for quite some time after this. I remembered to check the route and other than a brief distraction into a section of pine plantation (to look at lichens this time) I stayed on the correct route until after the metal gate.



At this point I realised why I used to download the gpx to my phone and why carrying a compass is a good idea even when you aren’t heading up a big mountain or into the wilderness.

The route clearly says to keep the river on your right and walk downstream. This was a bit of a double take for me because I seemed to have the option of having it on my left and walking downstream, or on my right and walking upstream. Due to my issues with left and right it took a fair amount of time to check I hadn’t just lost my mind or misread the instructions.

It turns out that right and upstream was the way to go, but me being me I managed to pick left and downstream. This took me along the river until I popped out a Cobleland campsite. I crossed the river just after this and found the cycle path that lead back to Aberfoyle.



It’s not like I was ever lost and I still made it back to the carpark before the forecast rain started, but the riverside walk did look more pleasant and better on my knees and back than the longer tarmac route to Aberfoyle that I took.

The lesson I’ve learnt is that although I thought I was totally prepared with my suitable clothing, water, snacks, phone and whistle for emergencies. I should have packed my compass. It lives in my rucksack for bigger adventures and doesn’t usually get pulled out for a two hour waymarked stroll.

I’ll also go back to downloading the gpx like I did last year – I blame the winter for making me forget that!

I returned to check it out again the next day and found the ‘correct’ path up Doon Hill – which turns left of the main track and then right up into the woodland, rather than the left straight into the woodland that’s just ahead.

The sharp left after the metal gate is a bit overgrown at the moment but there is a bit of a path through the trees to the track that runs along beside the river. A lot easier to find the second time when I knew which direction I was facing and which way it was back to Aberfoyle.