Rannoch Moor to Perth by Chris Bolton Part 1

My friend Andy wanted a canoe trip to commemorate a significant birthday, so we settled on the Rannoch Moor crossing and descent of the Tummel system. This classic route starts at Ba Bridge on Rannoch Moor, crosses Loch Ba, descends the infant river of Abhainn Ba to Loch Laidon and then the river Garbh Ghaoir to Loch Eigheach. From there, we’d portage the dam and go down the River Gaur to Loch Rannoch, at 15km the longest loch on the trip. Next, portage a barrage onto the start of the River Tummel, to Dunalastair Reservoir, and then the Upper Tummel, a grade 3/4 whitewater run. Loch Tummel would then provide a rest before the Lower Tummel, another whitewater section, leading to Lock Faskally and Pitlochry.

The trip was planned for the last week of October, set by the date of Andy’s birthday, but as the time grew closer and planning became more detailed, we became worried about the lack of rain and low water in the rivers. This was exacerbated by discovering that although the dams on the Upper and Lower Tummel have ‘freshet’ releases during summer, the last ones would be just before our trip.  We followed two SEPA gauges, one at Victoria Bridge on Rannoch Moor (although on the westward draining Orchy system) and one on the Tummel at Pitlochry. There are no publicly available levels between these points (we were to find out why not!). We also hypothesised that the reason there were no freshets after mid-October must be that the natural levels come up in the autumn and none are necessary. Two weeks before the trip it rained heavily and the SEPA gauges showed reasonable levels, and having been initially concerned about low levels, I began to worry that the two major whitewater sections would be beyond us – the Youtube videos of whitewater kayakers showed some big drops and solidly white water.

The plan was to drive from the Manchester area to Rannoch Moor on Friday, drop off the boats and gear, drive the van to Pitlochry and take a taxi back. A check on taxi companies in Pitlochry suggested that it might be hard to find one on a Friday evening. The nominal duration of the trip from Loch Ba to Pitlochry was 4 days, and we had a week, so why not take the van to Perth, where there would be plenty of taxis, and if there was time we could paddle down the Tay as well; if not, it would only be short bus or taxi ride to fetch the van up to Pitlochry.

The planned trip (base map copyright Ordnance Survey)

The drive up went fairly well with only an hour of delays, which we’d allowed for, so after stopping at the Green Welly shop in Tyndrum for gas cylinders, we reached Ba Bridge at 4:15pm. I ferried the boats to the camp spot while Andy focussed on getting his tent pitched and gear sorted. Rannoch Moor looked spectacular in the evening light.