Dunkled offered the perfect place for my friend Lynsey and I to meet for a day of walking. She drove north from Glasgow, while I drove south from Inverness. We wanted a route that would allow us to walk side by side and chat. We did this for hours and hours and managed to walk almost 23km and some 580m of ascent – and all of it was off-road.
A search on-line revealed a Walk Highlands route of 23.5km from Cally car park, near Dunkeld, on mostly wide tracks to visit Loch Ordie, among other lochs, and an ascent of Deuchary Hill.
We mostly followed this route although because we were chatting so much we did miss a few junctions. Once or twice we retraced our steps.
When we overshot one junction, we were treated to a lovely view along the River Tay valley from a stone seat. Sometimes, if you get a bit lost you come across gems.
Later on, when we failed to turn along a track again, we simply looked at a map and adjusted our route to head along a different path through forestry that still returned us to the car park.
Highlights of Loch Ordie and Deuchary Hill
- Free parking at Cally car park.
- Easy going trails with plenty of lovely views.
- Waymarking and signposting if you want a shorter out-and-back or circuit.
- Beautiful lochs including Ordie, the largest, as well as Dowally, Rotmell and Mill Dam.
- The opportunity to make a short but steep climb to Deuchary Hill at an elevation of 511m.
- Fabulous wide-ranging views from Deuchary Hill.
- Options to walk as far or as little as you fancy and plenty of different choices for winding in and out of forestry and to different viewpoints.
- An unexpected detour (because we strayed from our route a little) to a seat overlooking the River Tay and valley.
- Sightings of deer, which may have been fallow or roe.
- The perfect option for a low-level walk when the weather at higher elevation is windy or wet.
- Cafes and shops in Dunkeld.