Schiehallion – The Built Path and the Boulder Ridge

The walk

Schiehallion's main way up is a trip of 6¼ miles, about 10 km, there and back from the Braes of Foss: Forestry and Land Scotland says to allow at least 5 hours. A built path climbs from the east to the rocky summit ridge, and the last stretch is rocks and boulders to the top, 1,083 metres up. The walk starts at Forestry and Land Scotland's car park at the Braes of Foss, on the south side of the minor road between the B846 and Kinloch Rannoch. From the B846 between Aberfeldy and Tummel Bridge it is 2½ miles west along the road signposted for Schiehallion; from Kinloch Rannoch, 6½ miles south-east. For a satnav, PH16 5NN is the nearest postcode, and Perth & Kinross Council gives the car park as grid reference NN 7529 5577. Parking is £3 for the day, paid by coins, card or the RingGo app, and free for Blue Badge holders with the badge on show. More than 20,000 people a year make for the summit, the John Muir Trust says, and the car park fills. The overflow car park is 600 metres east, and on a fine weekend it is worth having a plan B. By the entrance stands a memorial to the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne, who used the hill in the 18th century in his experiment to weigh the world.

Before you set off, Forestry and Land Scotland asks for good walking boots, warm and waterproof clothing, food and drink, a torch in case the day runs long, and a look at the weather forecast. After the car park there are no waymarkers on the hill at all, the John Muir Trust says: come prepared to navigate safely. Carry a map and compass and know how to use them, and do not rely only on a phone or GPS, because if the battery fails you still need to know where you are. Leave word with someone of where you are going and when you will be back.

A footway leads south from the car park over two footbridges, and a few hundred metres on, the hill path leaves the lower paths and climbs onto the open moor. The John Muir Trust has owned the east side of Schiehallion since 1999. It moved the main path onto a new line after it took over, and keeps it up, to stop erosion harming the limestone ground and the plants around it. The path is not waymarked, but Forestry and Land Scotland calls it clear to follow. It climbs west as far as the rocky summit ridge, with stone seats and a viewpoint about halfway, Perth & Kinross Council says.

The built path ends where the rocky summit ridge begins, and from there it is a walk across rocks and boulders to the top. Forestry and Land Scotland calls these final sections rough and rocky, and the John Muir Trust's own map marks the stretch as an undefined rocky route, not a path. There is no made line to follow and nothing to mark the way, so in cloud the ridge gives little help. This is where a map and compass, and the skill to use them, count most.

The end of the built path is also the place to decide. Conditions on the hill are often much colder and windier than at the car park, even on a clear summer day. If the cloud is coming down, the wind is rising or anyone is tiring, turn back: Forestry and Land Scotland asks walkers to turn back if they get tired, or if anything looks unsafe. Under snow there is no avalanche forecast for Schiehallion. The Scottish Avalanche Information Service forecasts six other areas, from Lochaber and Glencoe to the Cairngorms and Torridon, and that is no sign there is no risk here.

The summit is 1,083 metres, or 3,553 feet, the council says. On a clear day the John Muir Trust names the view: across Loch Rannoch and the wilds of Rannoch Moor to the hills of the central Highlands, as far as Glencoe and Ben Nevis. The name comes from Gaelic words meaning the fairy hill of the Caledonians, Forestry and Land Scotland says, and in winter the Trust says to look out for ptarmigan in their white coats on the snow.

The way down is the way you came, back along the boulders with care to the start of the built path, and down it to the Braes of Foss. Forestry and Land Scotland makes the whole trip 6¼ miles and says to allow at least 5 hours, so leave plenty of daylight for it.