Timber Walk
The walk takes you down towards the shore of Loch Awe then along the lochside track. From the shore you can see the remains of a crannog, an Iron Age settlement one of over 40 along the lochside. These were circular thatched buildings on stilts over the loch, which housed both families and their animals.
At the furthest point of the walk is MacKenzie's Grove where some of the largest conifers on the west coast are being allowed to grow to maturity. The trees here were planted around 1922. Much of the surrounding Inverliever Forest blew down in a tremendous gale on the 15th January 1968. MacKenzie's grove sits in a small sheltered pocket where the trees survived.
The damp atmosphere of the grove provides the ideal habitat for the wide variety of ferns and lichens, and echos the native woods of the west coast of America from where the Sitka spruce originates.
How to get there:
Timber Walk can be started from Cruachan in Inverliever Forest which is part of West Loch Awe. Dalavich and Ford are the nearest towns or villages.
From Lochgilphead -, A816 to 1 mile north of Kilmartin. , Follow the B840 to Ford then the unclassified road for 6 miles to Cruahan , From Oban or Glasgow - , Follow the A85 to Taynuilt then the unclassified road south to Kilchrennan and through Dalavich.After about 2 miles you will reach Cruachan
OS Grid Reference: NM955103
Mammals: We have information about Red squirrel, Red deer, Roe deer and Otter
Birds: If you observant and fortunate you may be rewarded with a sighting of an osprey swooping fast on its fish prey, or see a black throated diver out on the loch as both species are recorded here every year. We have information about Osprey
