Monday 18th April 2016 – 932.95 miles
Plenty of rain overnight but beginning to clear up by the time we left at 7am.

Gradually the skies cleared a little and the sun came out.

Our walk took us along the river for a while and under the railway which was a bit of a squeeze as it wasn’t very high!

The path took us uphill and then along the old military road. The path was mostly good underfoot except for one small section which was shared with a herd of cows – it was somewhat muddy!

We came to Crianlarich Crossroads a place which purports to be half way along the WHW. Not sure about that though because that claim is also made by a place further on. Nice view though.
We met two yoing men from Germany – Nicolai and Jonas. They asked us if we were the ones that had left the message in the bottle as they had found it when they camped. They said it was a nice story and had put it back in the bottle for other people to find. Like us, they were carrying their full packs and mostly wild camping – great to meet you both Nicolai and Jonas.

The path led us further uphill giving us beautiful views all around before descending through woodland and crossing over a main road.
We passed by the remains of St Fillans Priory.

St Fillan was a traveller who came to the area to spread the teachings of the Christian way of life to the Scots and the Picts. The priory was built in his name after his death. Nothing much remains now.
We walked on along a narrow track – the wind had picked up and it was quite cold too.

We passed by the sight of the Battle of  Dalrigh. Here comes the history lesson:- In 1306 Robert the Bruce and his men, who were being persued by McDougal of Lorne, threw their heaviest weapons into a small lochan. They were caught at Dalrigh but killed McDougall’s men and escaped. We also passed by a small loch or lochan which, legend has it, may contain the sword of Robert the Bruce. 

Further on we came to the outskirts of Tyndrum which also claims to be the half way point! A large board described the history of lead mining and processing in Tyndrum. There was an area of ground where nothing much grows – this is where the lead processing works were.

Now there are several sculptures reflecting Tyndrum’s past. It was just a short walk along the river before we arrived at The Green Wellie Stop at Tyndrum – a general store, gift shop, restaurant, snack stop, takeaway and filling station. We sat in the restaurant and had our usual pot of tea for two and also a bacon roll each while we charged up our phones and uploaded yesterday’s blog. We bought a few things from the shop then made our way out of Tyndrum.

It was a gentle uphill climb for a while then we followed the valley. We met Max from Frankfurt in Germany. He had walked from Kings House (about 16 miles away) and was heading for a b&b at Tyndrum. We gave him our flyer and wished him well for the rest of his journey to Milngavie.

Soon afterwards we were relieved to find a great place to camp for the night. Flat and dry with a stream running by.