Tall Trees Trail

Hiking With Kids

Sign at Start

With the summer holidays are in full swing, we had decided to spend a few nights away in a wooden lodge. This was located on the shore of Loch Awe, which is near Lochgilphead, less than an hour from Oban. There is plenty to do in this area of Scotland and I'll go through some of these in a later post. What did take our fancy was a 3 mile hike in the woods called the Tall Trees Trail.

The distance of this trail is well suited to smaller legs. There are blue marker posts to allow you to navigate the walk, although it is pretty obvious as the walk is just one big long loop. The track starts from the car park and heads down towards the loch shore. The track at this point is soft underfoot and the descent is gentle. 
Waymarker

Soft Start


There is access to the loch itself and this gives views over what is left of a Crannog. This is an ancient iron age dwelling that was built on the loch. They were wooden structures that were built on piles or stilts. As you can see there isn't much left today on the picture below. 

The Crannog

We didn't spend too long here as the midges came out in force. We retreated back to the main track and continued to follow the curvature of the loch down to Mackenzie's Grove. The track here was much firmer and solid underfoot. 

The track dips down to Mackenzie's Grove, this is signposted so you can't miss it. The track takes a right turn up through the tall trees and past a small waterfall. The track does get steeper at this point and there are sharp drops near the waterfall. This is the highlight of the walk and you'll spend most of the time craning your head upward at the high of some of the trees here. 
The Name Says it All

Tall Trees

Woodland Walk

At the top of this part of the walk the track curves around and back down to the roadside. At this point you are able to get some good upper views of the Loch and the surrounding area . It then dips back into the soft wood covered track that is similar to the start of the walk before ending up at the car park again. 
View over the Loch

Back To The Car

Overall this is a good walk that only takes an hour and a half to complete, with plenty to see. The kids enjoyed it too, even though a couple of them complained all the way around. 

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