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Loch Dowally Walk

Every Saturday in the fishing season I spend most of the day on Loch Dowally. As a friend and fellow fisherman says  the fishing is just a bonus on such a beautiful little hill loch.

From Dunkeld go north on the Old A9 and take the turn towards Blairgowrie, passing the timber yard on the left. A little further there is a rough road leading to Calley Carpark. Cars are not permitted unless authorised by Athol Estate so from here you must walk. But it is a lovely hike. At first the track leads through forest, much of which has been cleared. Here you should watch for coal tits and goldcrests that favour conifers. Some of the forest was felled last season and clear patches attract finches and warblers. Near the house at Hatton there is one of the few places locally where it is possible to hear chiff-chaffs [as well as the screeches of peacocks].

After Hatton the road becomes open amid scattered oaks and there are often jays flitting unobtrusively among them. Where the road crosses a burn there are mature oaks near a gamekeeper’s cottage. The old keeper tells me that in his young days this was a prime place for capercaillie; alas they are all gone now. The road twists through the trees to open onto a superb view of a curving, tree-filled valley backed by low rugged hills. There are often fallow and roe deer in the bracken on both sides of the road if you are early enough. Green woodpeckers laugh their yaffling cry, said to predict rain, and red legged partridge run along the road in front of you.

At the Glack, a cottage set well to  the left of the track, there is a padlocked deer fence with a gate beside it for walkers. From here on the road is rougher and the terrain more impressive. A climb up from the deer fence and you reach Milldam - a pike-filled artificial loch. Once it was bigger, but the dam infringed EEC rules and had to be lowered. In winter milldam supports many wildfowl but by summer only mallard, tufted duck and mute swans remain. Every year the swans hatch cygnets which invariably succumb to pike. The next loch is Rotmell, favoured by common sandpiper and both pied and grey wagtails. This loch is let to foreign visitors and stocked with big rainbow trout: I was once allowed to fish it and had two five-pounders in no time. From here on watch for hunting ospreys who regularly tantalise me with their greater fishing skills.

From Rotmell the track climbs through massed primroses in spring and heather in summer to reach Loch Dowally. This a gem of a loch with distant views of Ben-y-Vrackie and Farragon. As the crow flies it is not far above the A9 and the railway from which distant police sirens and trains remind one that the real world exists outside this peaceful haven. Here there is constant birdsong from thrush and blackbird; kestrels chatter and curlews lament. This is a good place for tree pipits and occasional crossbills; canada geese and mallard sail by us with their families as we fish. We often hear the amourous cooing of blackcock on a nearby lek and there are occasional hen harriers, peregrines and buzzards. Strange birds crop up too; once we saw a guillemot and a little egret flew over astonished fishermen. Stonechats, whinchats and wheatears flirt among the rocks and, if lucky, there may be a redstart flirting its tail.

One early morning, on hearing what I thought was a large trout rising, I turned to see a small, round black head contemplating me. The otter seemed to size me up as just another fisherman, ignored me and fished with me for an hour proving himself the better angler.

Loch Dowally is always different: it has a micro-climate of its own and in a single day the wind can blow all the airts. Down in the clear depths lurk some fine fish; 8lb rainbow and 5lb wild brown trout sometimes come to the lucky angler’s fly; but on bright fishless days it is a great place to be while the swallows dip and the willow warblers sing their endless cadences.

If you have time and energy you can follow the track to Loch Ordie; but for me, a day’s fishing on Loch Dowally is a great easer of tension as well as providing a delicious supper.    

by Robin Hull