About this blog

The journey from John o'Groats to Land's End took place in 14 sections, starting in 1996 (a week or so each year). The idea came to me in 1995 and I completed the British JoGLE Watershed in June 2009.

I was joined by a number of relations and friends from time to time. Most notable among my walking companions were my son Tim (7 sections) and nephews Peter and Jonny.

After walking the first section in 1996 I discovered that Dave Hewitt had already pioneered the Scottish Watershed (to Cape Wrath) in 1987, and had published his excellent account Walking the Watershed in 1994. We have been in touch since then, and he has been a great encouragement.

A simple definition of the watershed is that any rain falling to the left of the path finishes in the North Sea or English Channel, and anything to the right flows into the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea or the Bristol Channel.

I believe that this was the first walk along the full length of the British JoGLE Watershed. I became aware just after I completed the journey that the late Mike Allen walked a slightly different version (from Land's End to Cape Wrath) between 1988 and 1994, so he will have covered the same ground apart from the most north-easterly 220km.

There have subsequently been several walks and publications about parts of the JoGLE watershed, including Peter Wright's 2010 Ribbon of Wildness account of his Scottish section walked in 2005, which has brought the subject of watershed walking in the UK to a wider audience.

I hope you enjoy this blog. I'm planning to publish a full account in 2013/4. A summary of the walk appeared in The Angry Corrie volume 76 in 2009.

Malcolm Wylie.

Wednesday 30 June 1999

Day 42 - Stronachlachar and a rest day

Today's walk was along a fairly gentle ridge between the northwestern ends of Lochs Lomond to our right and Katrine (see photo) on our left. The highest point was Beinn a Choin (769m).

We descended through head-high bracken and an unidentified sweet-smelling white flowering plant to the little settlement of Stonachlachar, nestling between  Loch Katrine and Loch Arklet.

We camped at 402093 overlooking Loch Arklet.

That evening we hitched down to the Inversnaid Hotel for a meal, and were picked up by the first car, driven by the hotel owner! The following day we rested - taking the steamer SS Walter Scott from Stonachlachar to the Trossachs Pier. Tim then hired a bike and cycled down to Aberfoyle for some shopping. We walked back along the south side of Katrine, and were adopted by "Bruno" the labrador for several miles.

That evening we took the tent a little further along the Watershed to save ourselves a bit of  time tomorrow - and camped at 396075, to a good sunset.

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