It
is but a 30 minute drive from Milngavie
out to Aberfoyle on the A81 and
this walk within the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.
A leaflet used in describing the walk is available from the Forest Park
office on the right of the approach road into Aberfoyle about 100 yards past the
Rob Roy Hotel or at the car park at start of the walk.
Drive through the main street of Aberfoyle and continue straight on
alongside the River Forth in the direction of Kinlochard.
In one and a half miles there is a sign to Loch Ard Forest. Take the
narrow lane to the left for about half a mile to the large car park.
Four trails radiate from this car park. They are graded by length from
1.5 to 8 miles and each is given a different colour band
which you will find on the waymark posts at the side of the trails.
The red trail, of some 4.5 miles is described.
Leave the car park and follow the track straight ahead signposted
‘Kinlochard’.
There are conifers on either side of the track and a few silver birches
in the marshy areas.
It is easy to tell that this is a very wet area because the tree trunks
are covered in moss and lichen and the ground is covered in several
different species of moss.
A lochan is soon reached where in the shelter of a pine there is a
picnic table and bench.
Beyond the lochan the track rises and at the top of the rise is a bench
with the following inscription:
“I'm from Alaska with needles blue
“I grow quick and tall and useful too
“I'm sitka spruce”.
Not in the same league as the Romantic poets but a handy way of
remembering what this tree is like.
At the tips of the branches, the needles of the sitka spruce really are
blue as one can see in the nearby legions of them.
The track winds downhill to Loch Ard.
There are side tracks but ignore them and concentrate on following the
waymarker posts with the red band.
Where the track reaches the Loch there is a picnic table and bench and
above them on the pines are metal silhouettes of brightly coloured
squirrels which children should find entertaining.
They are the first of several sculptures at intervals along the
lochside. From here there are beautiful views along the loch.
Turn right — the loch is on your left hand side.
On a rare sunny winter's day, when the deciduous trees on the bank of
the loch are bare, the views across the loch are unimpeded and
attractive.
On the far tree-lined shore are three
magnificent houses erected perhaps by wealthy Glaswegians in Victorian
or Edwardian times.
At its eastern end Loch Ard is linked to a small loch where there is a
cluster of substantial houses on its far bank —more Glasgow money?
In front of each is a boat house. The latter are in a sad
half-submerged state although the main houses are well maintained.
Just past a cottage named ‘Lochend’, you meet the entrance road where
you turn right and ascend gently uphill to the car park.
:: Aberfoyle
& Menteith Hills Gallery 
