Tour de Cabins - Callander Meander 1

If you are staying at Forest Holidays, Strathyre then a great way to explore the area is by bike and one of our favourite rides is along NCN7 the Lochs and Glens Way into Callander, it makes for an equally lovely ride in the opposite direction. The route follows the track of the old Callander and Oban Railway. Running from 1870 it passed into national ownership in 1948 and closed in 1965, look out for some of the old fixtures as you take advantage of the slight downhill run all the way to Callander. The route passes through some beautiful old oakwoods and past the Falls of Leny on the course of the Garbh Uisge, otherwise known as the River Leny as they tumble over the Highland Boundary Fault. For hundreds of years, cattle were brought to this narrow point to be herded through, an important gateway between the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland. Soon you will reach Kilmahog which was the site of an early 19th-century toll house and later a tweed mill. There is a local pub, near the site of an old chapel, called The Lade Inn another great stopping point. You will find a repair station, with tools and a pump here too. Nearby, Samson's Putting Stone sits precariously on Bochastle hill and the Great Trossachs Path heads off towards Brig O Turk and Loch Katrine, past the remains of an ancient hillfort at Dunmore overlooking Loch Venachar. Take care as you keep straight on and cross the road and onwards to Bochastle where you will pass the remaining earthworks of a first century Roman camp attributed to the campaigns of Agricola. Further on you will reach Little Leny Meadows, a traditional wet meadow and the ancestral burial ground of the Clan Buchanan and the burial place of Dugald Buchanan, the Gaelic poet, before arriving in Callander at the Meadows, where you will find picnic benches, cafes, cycle parking and the Hill of Kessog mound, named after one of Scotland’s most important early Celtic saints from the 6th Century.