Rannoch Moor to Perth by Chris Bolton Part 3

The best route is to turn left after the gate, up a short hill then down to a bridge and round to the far side of the stilling basin. If the dam was releasing, that would be the put-in, but it wasn’t worth even trying to paddle, so we trolleyed to the grade 4 section, which would have been impossible for canoes at that level, and put in below it.

The Gaur from the usual put in

Looking upstream at the grade 4

Downstream… still rocky

There wasn’t really enough water for the shallow bouldery rapids, but probably half the distance was deep flat water, and even wading between boulders was better than trolleying along a road. Eventually, we reached Loch Rannoch, but later than planned, and stopped for lunch. Then we rigged sails and continued. We chose to follow the South shore, not wanting to be away from a landing if the wind changed and required taking the sails down, and to be close enough to shore to spot potential campsites. The wind started well but changed direction, and we were reminded that canoes without leeboards just go sideways if the wind is anything other than astern. Andy’s bigger sail began to show its worth.


Then it dropped completely and after we’d put away the sails it blew against us for a while. Our planned camp was on Dunalastair Water, but we clearly were not going to reach there before dark, and we found a reasonable site about 3km from the end of the loch. It was close to the road but shielded by trees.