On a previous walk up Vorlich, we didn’t manage to get over to Stuc A’Chroin.

As we had a wee trip to Callander organised, decided to walk it from this side. Forecast was for showers and wind picking up in the afternoon and we were a bit later setting off than planned which came back to haunt us!

We got dropped off up past the Bracklin Falls car park – if you drive about a mile beyond this there is a an area (just before Braeleny Farm) where you could park the car just where the road turns to a path and take you down to the falls through the woods.

First part of the walk is fairly easy in that it’s farm track. This takes you past the Braeleny Farm and then just follow it and cross over the river at the 2 new bridges that cross the river and take you up to the ruins at Arivurichardich. From here you can pick up the walkers path that skirts up the side of Meall Odhar and gradually climbing before heading higher up. It’s all fairly easy and the path is pretty well defined in most places though. Just as we were crossing the stile in the fence the first of the days forecast showers appeared and we decided to get into full waterproofs which was a good choice given pretty quickly the rain was fairly constant. There’a a short, sharp section of climbing following the path, and it then takes you across a bit of fairly flattish walking before heading towards the top of Stuc. Some spectacular views from this part back into Gleann an Dudh Choireinn between Stuc and Ben Volich….although by this time the wind had whipped up and it was blowing a hoolie and raining so getting too close to the edge wasn’t an option! Walking on a bit, the wind was really whipping up by this point and whilst we were probably within 20 mins of the top, we decided to take a bit of shelter behind a big rock and grab some lunch before deciding whether we should turn back or not.

After a bite to eat, the wind seemed to die down a wee bit and the rain eased and so we headed on to the top picking our way through the boulders and path – it was nothing other than a quick touch of the cairn at the topand then an immediate turn back! As we headed down again the weather changed and the sun came out a bit and made the descent quite pleasant (isn’t it always the case!). Given the rain that had fallen, the path on the side of Meall Odhar had become a stream for the most part and we just had to pick our way down that to get back to the ruins and then pick up the farm path again. All in all it was just short of 12 miles out and back from where we were dropped off and had taken us just short of 5 ½ hours including our half hour stop which was not too bad considering conditions.

We ended up walking back into Callander for a well earned drink and met the other half and daughter which added another couple of miles onto the day, but easy walking and all downhill. Fair stretch of the legs for one top, but that’s it done and it was good to get the legs stretched again after a long lay off.