Loch Coille-Bharr – Beavers and an Abandoned Village

The walk

Barnluasgan car park is just off the B8025 on the Achnamara road, about a mile from Bellanoch on the Crinan Canal. Parking is £1 for up to an hour or £3 for the day, by card or RingGo, and free with a Blue Badge. Forestry and Land Scotland's Loch Coille-Bharr Trail starts here, a 5.1 km circuit of the loch that takes about two hours. It's graded strenuous, with many short steep slopes and rough steps, narrow rocky stretches, roots and mud, kissing gates and a piece of road. Beavers live wild in these lochs, and the signs of them are all along the water: felled trees, stripped branches, canals, and a dam you can look at from a floating pontoon. Dawn and dusk are the times to see the animals themselves.

The loch has a crannog, an artificial island built long ago, and a ruined mill. On the far side is Kilmory Oib, an abandoned township whose roofless stone houses stand in a green clearing among the trees. Timber is being harvested close to the trail near Kilmory Oib, so follow the signs and the staff on site, and keep away from machines and log stacks. Some of the trees left standing by the loch are liable to blow down. Forestry and Land Scotland asks walkers to avoid this trail after severe weather and may close it at short notice. The beavers' own felling and flooding can bring a diversion too.

There are no toilets or café here. The nearest are at Tayvallich, three miles south, or Crinan, three miles north. The Argyll Beaver Centre is close by: look at its own website for its hours before planning round it. Keep dogs under close control. From November to January set off by 1pm.