The twentyish miles between Killin, on the end of Loch Tay, and Trossachs-gateway Callander, are some of my favourite bits of the National Cycle-route Network. NCN7 runs, and occasionally stumbles over rocks, nearly 550 sometimes questionable miles in its entirety from Sunderland to Inverness.
I’ve done this section of it a couple of times before, but I was pleased to come back today. There’s something about this part of Scotland that gets under your skin, mainly thanks to the midges.
The weather forecast had been for wall-to-wall sunshine, so on the basis of 2024 so far, I wasn’t surprised to spend most of the day in chilly grey cloud and drizzle. I’ve cycled in the Trossachs around a dozen times, and it’s been rainy and dull for about twelve of them.
But the scenery is always great, and I always enjoy the ride. The railtrail from Killin swoops along some forest roads before a fine mostly tarmac stretch on the old railway line down Glen Ogle and then on gravel paths alongside Loch Lubnaig. It’s wonderful, especially as doing it this direction means it’s gently (and occasionally abruptly) downhill virtually all the way.
I like the town of Callander, a pleasantly touristy town with friendly pubs and shops, where a ‘Scottish tablet’ is not some illicit pharmaceutical, nor a home-grown piece of tech, but a hard, sugary confection. I like it as much as Kendal mint cake. Not, in other words.
Callander stirs grainy childhood memories for me of watching Dr Finlay’s Casebook on telly in 1960s black and white. Trevor Duncan’s irresistible March was the theme music, with those insistent major triads that he never quite manages to capitalise on compositionally.
I did manage to capitalise on something though: the £2 pint offer at the Waverley Pub. Vital assistance for the serious business of writing postcards.
(Ask an old person if you don’t know what a postcard is…)