1. Kayaking on loch Tay which everyone agreed was awesome!
2. A climb (with Munro weary legs) up Sròn a'Chlachain.
First, kayaking on Loch Tay - this was a first for us - but such a fun experience. We managed to time it to a sunny morning where we really had the loch to ourselves with the exception of one fisherman.
Here we are collecting our kit and carrying our paddles down to the loch.
The kind people at the outdoor centre helped us take the kayaks down to the loch.
And off we went - it was, at first, a little daunting - reminding the kids not to stand up as we would all land 'splash' in a deep, dark, and very very cold loch - but the kids were luckily very sensible!
It was quite hard paddling for little arms....
...but actually it was amazing how quickly you go the hang of it and Freyja and I soon found that if we timed it well - left, right, left, right - you could actually pick up a bit of speed without too much effort!
The best part of kayaking was being able to appreciate the view of the landscape from loch level and from a vantage point you don't often see.
Being able to look down and see what was in the loch and being able to spot birds etc. in the banks was another bonus....we saw a pair of mergansers, for instance...
Basically the kids loved it and neither wanted it to end after 2 hours...
The views out to an empty expanse of Loch Tay were quite something....
We followed the river down to the loch and then wound our way around three islands passing trees sticking out of the water and peering into the vegetation on the islands - we saw what looked like beaver activity on one island.
We had to watch out for the depth of the loch around the island and at one point J and L ran aground!
Then it was back up the river - here we went further upstream than before and had some fun kayaking down under low trees which felt like being an explorer on the Amazon.
It was then back to the harbour, pulling the kayaks up onto the shore, and off up to killin to return all our stuff.
In the afternoon, with our legs sore from yesterday's Munros, and our arms sore from kayaking, we decided to do another wee hill.
Hills don't need to be Munros to be a good walk and this one had a truly spectacular view. It was well worth the effort!
Sron a' Chlachain, 'the
peak that resembles a nose above the village', is situated on the west
side of Killin. This route follows a hill path with an ascent of only about 400 metres
(1300ft) but it is very steep.
We started this walk from the north of Killin village centre. Before going through the park and starting up the hill, we took a detour left to visit Fingal's Stone, supposedly the burial place of the
mythical celtic giant, who also gave his name to the cave on Staffa and
the causeway in Northern Ireland. According to legend Fingal was
murdered by a love rival in Loch Tay and his head cut off. His followers
buried him in Killin, marking the grave with this stone.
The first part of the walk was a steep climb through a pretty wood and then a steep zigzag ascent, but the views are wonderful very quickly, and although it was a little overcast Loch Tay looked magnificent nonetheless.
The kids enjoyed a birds-eye view of the islands we had kayaked around earlier in the day and despite achy legs they found plenty of energy still in the tank.
Keep following the grassy path as it climbed steeply, the gradient eased briefly before a steeper climb in a series of tiers. Two routes rejoined before a steep climb led us to up the line of crags known as
Sròn a'Chlachain, reaching a cairn at the top of the crag. There were some truly stunning views looking back down over Killin and Loch Tay. One interesting thing we sound was a huge amount of quartz in the mountainside.
The descent was by the same route, the aerial, toy town view of Killin getting bigger all the time
The kids really enjoyed pointing out the Munros that they had climbed the day before ;)
Then back though the wood and down to the play park where we started - a lovely wee hill with spectacular views!
Sightings: what looked like a red-breasted merganser while we were kayaking on the loch (male and female), a deer that morning, a couple of hares, a red squirrel. What looked like beaver damage on one of the islands...
Kit: waterproof trousers on the kids!
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