The Black Wood of Rannoch

The Black Wood of Rannoch is the real thing, a surviving piece of the great Caledonian Forest that once covered most of the Highlands. It runs along the south shore of Loch Rannoch, between Dall and Camghouran, and woodland has grown here more or less undisturbed since the ice pulled back around ten thousand years ago. That makes it one of the oldest living things in the country. The trees are descended from natural seed rather than anything planted by hand, which sets it apart from almost every other wood in Britain. Among the younger pines stand the old ones the foresters call granny pines, gnarled and twisted, some of them two or three hundred years old. It's a Site of Special Scientific Interest now, home to red squirrels, pine martens, the odd osprey and the rare Scottish crossbill. There's a network of paths through it, and a longer loop for anyone on a gravel bike. Come in winter after snow and the whole place bends and glitters. Come in summer and the light falls soft through the canopy onto a floor of blaeberry and heather. Either way it's a quietly extraordinary place.

The marked trails through the wood are the easiest way in, starting from the Carie forest car park a couple of miles east, where there are picnic benches and a shelter. From there you can wander as far as you like among the old pines, with the Dall Burn for company and the loch glinting through the trees. For cyclists there's a longer gravel route, a loop of around fourteen miles that climbs up the Allt na Bogair gorge, tracks along the forest roads high above the loch, then drops back down to the lochside road for the run home. Reckon on two to three hours in the saddle, and expect mud after rain. Along the lochside near Dall you'll pass the abandoned outdoor swimming pool that once belonged to Rannoch School, a boarding school that ran in the old Dall House from 1959 until it closed in 2002. It's a strange thing to come across out here, slowly going back to nature. Keep dogs close in the Black Wood itself, as it's a haven for ground-nesting birds and wildlife.