Driesh & Mayar trail head by Glen Doll Visitor Centre.
Fork left 200 metres after Glen Doll Visitor Centre for route to Driesh.
Start of path (”Kilbo Path”) towards Driesh and Mayar.
| Driesh & Mayar from
Glen Doll Driesh Mayar |
| Estimated net time | 4-5 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | Running water from streams in the lower part of the route. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage from the saddle where the path comes up and half-way up to Driesh and all the way up to Mayar (April 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at the car park by Glen Doll Visitor Centre (£2 per stay, per 2014). | ||
| Start height | 260 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 900 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 14.4 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From road A90 near Forfar, in eastern Scotland, exit west onto road A926 and drive to Kirriemuir. From Kirriemuir follow signs for B955 and Glen Doll and drive approximately 24 km (15 mi) to Glen Clova Hotel. Turn left and drive another 5.5 km (3.4 mi), and then turn left across the small bridge. Drive another 250 metres and park on the large car park on the right hand side of the road. This is a pay&display car park with cost £2 per stay (per 2014).
Start your walk by following the gravel road into the valley, on the left hand side of the Visitor Centre. Make sure you fork left (not the road to Glen Doll Lodge) after a little less than 200 metres. Continue another 350 metres and turn left across a bridge, and then turn right in the T-junction after another 140 metres. Continue another 360 metres and turn right onto a path, signed "Kilbo Path", immediately after a left curve. Follow this path 1.3 km to where you're almost through the forest. Turn right across the stream and continue through the forest on the other side. You soon get out of the forest and should stay on the path up to where the terrain gets flatter at 830m (there is a pile of stones here).
In order to get to Driesh turn 90° left and follow the (partly vague) path all the way up to the summit of Driesh, which is marked by a trigonometric point cairn surrounded by a stone shelter. From Driesh head back down to the top of the Kilbo Path and turn 90° left again, in order to get to Mayar. This path runs directly west, except for the last section that heads south-west up to the pile of stones at the summit.
Descend from Mayar by reversing back down to where the Kilbo Path comes up, and then back down to Glen Doll.
I had flown from Ålesund this Friday morning and drove down A90 and up to the end of road B955 in Glen Doll. There had been dense mist throughout the drive and conditions in Glen Doll weren't any better. But there was no rain and very little wind so the planned hike to Driesh and Mayar was definitely on, thanks to me having loaded a number of way-points to my GPS.
There were a number of other walkers around the car park, but I didn't meet any other hikers during my hike. And I didn't see much else either, except for a few grouse.
After the hike I drove to Dunkeld and got myself a room at the reasonably priced The Royal Dunkeld Hotel, where I enjoyed a couple of pints of 80-shilling and a nice slow-cooked piece of lamb.