Loch Earn from Glen Tarken foot
The track slants uphill towards rocky moorland. At a junction, take the main track back up right. It soon zigs back left, through a small pass at 450m. Then it slants gently downhill into Glen Tarken. After 1km, a side-track turns down left: this is the short-cut route.
Short cut via Glentarken Burn
The short-cut track gives a walk of about 3hr, but its ford over Glentarken Burn could be impassable in spate.
From the junction above Glen Tarken, the side-track descends to pass below a hydro-scheme tunnel end, then goes through a gate. Now rather fainter, it contours left (south) across the top of a spoil heap (presumably from the water tunnel), then turns downhill to left of a stream. It fords the Glentarken Burn, then rises to join the main valley track beyond.
The main track contours along the valley side, passing some water intakes. After 3km it bends across the valley floor, before heading down-valley under the steep Creag Dhubh, then gently up the valley side. Where the main track turns sharply back right, take the smaller track ahead, slanting down towards Glentarken Burn.
After 1.6km, the short-cut track rejoins from the left. Now the track steepens downhill at the valley foot. It goes through a gate beside a sheep-dip complex, with Loch Earn visible below. In another 400 metres a cottage is visible across the stream. Immediately above a small pointy knoll, take a green track on the left. It crosses the stream by a ramshackle bridge, then contours out to the cottage. This building rejoices in views along Loch Earn, no road access, and the name of Jerusalem (NN669253).
The continuing path is invisible to start with. Contour forward (just south of east) through rushes, to pass through a fence by a gap with an old iron gate. Keep contouring, now through bracken, to a tall kissing-gate into a former plantation, now felled. The path is now visible, but narrow and little trodden. It continues at the same level to the start of the fine oaks of Glentarken Wood.
Now the path becomes a disused vehicle track, slanting gently downhill. Cross the torn-up path of tracked vehicles, a moment of World War I terrain, to continue on the previous line on a clear path.
The path crosses Allt an Fhionn by a footbridge, then descends with an old fence on its right. At a fork, the right branch is the disused railbed, but take the left to a bridge under the railway. Keep left on a track that weaves among the legs of a viaduct, then contours below the railway. After the first houses of St Fillans, the track reaches the end of the private road at the start of the walk.
Keep ahead down to the power station, and turn right down the steps to the walk start.
ROUTE 6
Ben Chonzie and Auchnafree Hill
| Start/finish | Loch Turret dam NN822264 |
| Distance | 19km/12 miles |
| Ascent | 1200m/4000ft |
| Approx time | 7hr |
| Max altitude | Ben Chonzie 931m |
| Terrain | Tracks and paths, with 4km of rougher ground including a steep ascent from Moine Bheag |
Getting to the start From the north edge of Crieff, take the lane past Glenturret Distillery and over Turret Burn; at once turn left in a very small lane with 10mph markers (speed limit obedience is assured by the very rugged surface).
Ben Chonzie is possibly the easiest Munro. It is, with more confidence, the easiest enjoyable Munro. Where other ‘easy’ Munros are a short but steepish up-and-down from a car park (Glas Maol, for example), Chonzie offers a stroll along a reservoir track, and a little path up authentic cliffy country. And the descent is a long, high ramble along a grassy plateau with a decayed fence to do your navigation.
The warm-up over Auchnafree Hill makes things only slightly more serious. After a rough slope to start, there’s a grassy Landrover track that peeps into the hollow of the Blue Crags and pauses at King Kenneth’s Cairn. Back in the ninth century Kenneth MacAlpin, had he been so inclined, could have lain in the long grass here and surveyed a large chunk of his newly united Scotland.
‘Dowchty man he wes and stout,’ King Kenneth, according to the 11th-century Chronicle of the Kings of Alba. So he’d have revelled in the tough little ascent onto Biorach a’ Mheannain, the steep grass and the deer path weaving among the chunks of crag. It’s a moment of adventure that makes all the more enjoyable the gentle ramble along Ben Chonzie plateau.
Start at Loch Turret dam car park, and take a tarmac path to the east end of the dam. A stile and gate lead out to a Landrover track. Turn right, down-valley, for about 50 metres, then turn left off the track.
The southwest cairn on Auchnafree Hill
The steepish slope above the track has heather and bracken, but you start up firm grass. As the slope steepens, useful sheep paths wind up through the heather. Gain 200m of height to meet a grassy track. Turn left up this, soon ignoring a side-track down right. The main track runs above the rocky hollow Corrie Barvick, then bends left below King Kenneth’s Cairn on Choinneachain Hill. It deserves to be the main hill hereabouts but is 2m lower than Auchnafree. A path leads up to the cairn on its stony base.
Rejoin the track, and follow it west for 500 metres to an even more imposing cairn above Loch Turret. The track now runs north across the top of the slope above the loch. It slants down to cross a stream, rises around a spur, then dips into a second stream hollow. After a first small stream, a peaty short-cut path lets you contour forward to rejoin the track. It now fords Gilbert’s Burn (alongside remains of a bridge).
Turn up the stream’s grassy banks, slightly west of north. In the peaty bog at the stream top, don’t go as far as a decaying fence ahead, but turn up left (northwest) over short heather to the summit cairn of Auchnafree Hill. Those who say Corbetts are just as good as Munros should compare flat, featureless Auchnafree with craggy Chonzie ahead. A more imposing cairn with views is 100 metres southwest.
The route from Moine Beag up the steep end of Biorach a’ Mheannain
From the main summit head northwest over short heather, joining the decayed posts of the former fence. The fenceline has a very small path, down just to the left (west) of a peaty col, then up the slope of the grassy transverse hillock A’ Chairidh. From its top descend grassy slopes northwest to confront the peaty col Moine Bheag and the steep nose of Biorach a’ Mheannain. As an alternative to Biorach’s steep nose, or in descent, less steep slopes are to the right, north.
This steep nose can be taken direct, zigzagging up grassy slopes between the small crags. Slant up left below the first crag, head up steep bilberry to left of it, then take a deer path across its top, across steep and slightly exposed ground. Head directly uphill (the top end of a shallow, rocky open gully is on your right). On reaching more open grass slopes, slant up right, on another deer path, to gentler slopes above another of the crags. Turn up left to the summit.
A cairn is poised on the edge of the southern drop towards Loch Turret. A path leads down from it, southwest. At the low point of the col, a worn path arrives from down left, the standard baggers’ route from Loch Turret. This well-used path, and the track beyond, give a short cut back to Loch Turret dam.
Follow the path up the broad northeast flank, or keep up left of the path following old fence posts for views down Loch Turret. Ben Chonzie summit has a large shelter cairn.
Continue southwest, following the old fence to its corner, then turn southeast for some gentle ridgewalking. The path accompanies the old fence posts. About 2km from the fence corner the descent gets slightly steeper and peaty, before the