Some notes on the Rob Roy Way – One of Scotland’s Great Trails (?)
The scenery varies from good to magnificent, mostly the latter. In May June there are great swathes of lovely spring flowers. Most places en-route have very good real ale pubs.
There are opportunities to bag Corbett’s and Munro’s on a day off.
On the down side too much of the surface is hard, ether tarmac of forest roads.
From Drymen to Aberfoyle much of the forest section is tarmacked. Just out of Drymen a community forest and another forest before meeting the W Highland Way can be used to avoid road sections. In other places the verge can be walked. A tree felling diversion gave us a better route than the true route.
Aberfoyle to Callander is mostly path and very nice. Just before Callander an official diversion via a pleasant wood cuts a chunk of tarmac out.
Callander to Killin is mostly on a cycleway/od railway, very scenic and interesting but a hard surface.
We skipped Killin to Kenmore until later.
Kenmore to Aberfeldy is good walking with good waterfalls at the start and finish.
Aberfeldy to Pitlochry is lovely. The first 2 miles from Aberfeldy looks to be on a busy road, but as far as the distillery there is either a footpath on one side or a wide mown grass verge on the other. I took the grass. After the distillery there is a lovely riverside path until the road is left. As the path is below the road the noise is not bad. Just before Pitlochry the A9 has to be crossed at grade, but there were big gaps in the traffic.
How you rate this walk, or whether you do it at all will depend on your attitude to hard surfaces!