Ben Vrackie

I picked TT up after work last night and we headed to Perth.  We checked into our hotel and went out in search of food.  We were lucky to get a table in a lovely Indian restaurant and had some really fabulous food.

We woke to a bright and beautiful morning so we stocked up with a picnic and headed up the A9.  We parked at Moulin and headed off up Ben Vrackie.  It’s not a particularly long walk – but it is fairly steep and I soon had to strip my layers off and as it was t-shirt weather. TT was glad he had put his shorts in!  We have been up Ben Vrackie before and all I could remember was the steepness, with some brief respite by the loch.  The good weather had brought loads of walkers out, so we weren’t on our own.  Very quickly we had excellent views all the way to the Lomond Hills in Fife.  I was much younger and fitter the last time I did this walk (or any decent hill walking), so it was all quite a shock to the system, but the panoramic views from the top were well worth the climb  – we could even see Ben Nevis.  We had lunch at the top before the very rapid descent.

We descended to the Loch, then instead of continuing down, we extended our walk by taking the path along the north shore of the loch as we were then heading to Killiekrankie.  Once we were on our descent again, we made quite rapid progress.  From Killiekrankie we walked by the River Gary and Loch Faskally back to Pitlochry (witnessing a bungee jump en route), and then back up the hill to Moulin.  I was glad to get back to the car for a rest!  It was a fantastic walk on an amazingly bright and warm day. 

We rounded the day off with a delicious meal in Perth and a few drinks to rehydrate!

Here is TT on the top about to claim our lunch spot.  It was a great view.