A Sunday adventure to Crieff
Today’s adventure took us to the lovely historical country town of Crieff. Crieff has many happy memories for me growing up as my grandparents lived there.
As we have a property or two (Locherlour Mill Cottage and The Lookout at St Nininan’s ) in or around the area, I thought it would be a good idea to get out and about and see how the town has changed and what it can offer our lovely guests.
Mac and I are very lucky today as the sun is shining bright and its warm. The leafs on the trees are trying to come through and spring flowers are in bloom – a perfect spring day!
To get to our starting point , we drove through Crieff, following signs for The Famous Grouse Experience (Glenturret Distillery) and parked in the visitor car park. This is a beautiful distillery that offers tours, tastings and a lovely bite to eat (I think they also have a room for weddings too)!
Walking down past the cafe and shop, we crossed over the bridge, and followed the river back through woodland, up toward the main road. This a very busy road be careful crossing it. We turned left and followed the pavement toward McCrosty Park gates.
After walking through the park (following posts for Currochs Walk), we then crossed another road and went down on to Lady Mary’s walk. After reading up on this route, I discovered it was gifted to Crieff from a local landowner called Sir Patrick Murray of Ochertyre. This was one of his daughters’ (Lady Mary) favorite walk and was named after her.
We followed the River Earn all the way along through trees and sunshine. Although the trees are bare, it still looks beautiful. During summer this walk is lovely and cool as the beech trees which line the path, provide the perfect sun canopy! During autumn, the leaf colours are outstanding – it really is the perfect all season, all weather walk!
As it’s such a scenic walk with good paths most of the way, it can be very busy at peak times. It is a dog friendly area too, as there are many access points to the river for them to have a splash.
We followed Lady Mary’s path to the end and turned right at the sign post, then turning immediately left up through the wee kissing gate onto a hill. The views were outstanding, looking back toward Crieff and the Ochill Hills.
We followed this path up and then turned right at the next gate, all the time being spoiled with spectacular views over Crieff. The snow streaked hills surrounding Loch Turret are now visible, they look very dramatic with the bright blue sky backdrop.
We follow the path until we turn left again following the sign for Turretbank Road. This leads us down the side of a field and into another through a small gate – dogs need to be kept under control as there is sometimes livestock in the field (enter with care). We headed down the field and looked for the marker to tell us to turn down toward the houses and through a gate which leads to the main road again. Mac and I retraced our steps back through the wood toward the distillery. Walk Highlands suggests a slightly different route back to the car park but Mac was warm at this point so I wanted to get him down to the water for a drink and a paddle. This circuit took us around 1.5 hours to do but we do like a fast paced walked. Most of the paths are good to walk on but I imagine can be a bit muddy in the wet weather.
Crieff itself has so much to offer. There are numerous shops (including the famous Gordon and Durwards sweet shop) and lovely Cafes. I have eaten at Yann’s Restaurant before on more then one occasion and it has been excellent every time. The Crieff Food Company offers locally sourced produce in their food hall and has a cafe and gift shop.
Located just off the High Street on Comrie Road is The Natural Clinic which offers various massages and treatments, a perfect idea to help you relax on your holidays.More can be found out about Crieff’s history at the Visitors Centre which includes a exhibition on the Highland Drovers and is home to the fabulous Caithness Glass where you can create your own glass paperweights.
All in all Crieff is a fab place to visit (just look at Mac’s happy face – says it all)!
