Corrour to Dalwhinnie on the Thieves Road
Date(s) walked: 8-9 June 2026
Date(s) walked: 8-9 June 2026
Scotland has a great many “thieves roads” all across the country, named so for being the routes taken by the cattle thieves that once roamed the region. Historically, cattle have been one of the most expensive possessions a person could have and in a lawless, clan-based society they were naturally targets for anyone looking to better their station in life. A. R. B. Haldane in The Drove Roads of Scotland writes: “It almost seems that cattle raiding was in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the chief occupation of the people of Scotland”. The people of Speyside were particularly keen on the thieving, driving the cattle through Dalwhinnie to Fort William to be sold. I was not aware of the history of the route beforehand, I’d just spotted what looked like a nice stretch on OS maps between two locations easily accessed by public transport. The cattle drovers would mostly have travelled in the opposite direction, starting in Dalwhinnie and passing through Corrour, but due to the bigger hassle of getting to Corrour, I decided to start there.
Day 1: Corrour to the northern slopes of Ben Alder | 19.24 km
And so it was that I was forcing myself awake before 6 am on a Monday morning to start the train journey to Corrour. I’d decided to get the slightly earlier train from Edinburgh to Glasgow to (a) leave time for any train issues (I really didn’t want to miss the Glasgow-Corrour train), and (b) pick up some breakfast in Glasgow. I made it to Glasgow without issues so in my half an hour in between trains I picked up a pastry and the summer’s first iced coffee from Starbucks. I don’t generally like Starbucks coffee but their iced lattes are my weak point. The train to Corrour (pronounced kuh-ROW-er, not kor-OOER, even though all the train announcements use the latter one… big pet peeve!) was not too busy, I was able to have a 4-seat table to myself. The journey itself is such a treat with magnificent views of the Highlands. Most others on the train appeared to be tourists, many staying on the train to Glenfinnan, the “Harry Potter train location”. My biggest anxiety on this train route always occurs at Crianlarich where the train splits into 2, one part going to Oban and the other to Mallaig and you better make sure you are in the right carriage! I’ve never managed to get it wrong but almost every time someone is madly scrambling to get their stuff together because they realise they are not where they are supposed to be.
I alighted the train at Corrour at 11:20 along with a big Duke of Edinburgh group.
The hostel is in the copse of trees in the middle of the picture
Photo
John Mann
cc-by-sa/2.0
Corrour Shooting Lodge, Saturday, 10 November, 2007
Creative Commons licence
Powerhouse off to the left
Uisge Labhair bothy
The access track came to an end at a bridge not far from the hydro powerhouse.
"soul-destroying"
"Worst Path in Scotland"
Looking down to the Uisge Labhair that I had laboured my way along with Loch Ossian in the far distance.
The walk up to Bealach Dubh was so nice.
That’s Ben Alder hiding off to the right of the picture. I walked down the bealach on a fairly steep section until I came to flatter part by the Allt a Bhealaich Dhuibh. It took a bit of heather-hopping and bog-traversing but I found some great flat ground to camp on for the night.
Day 2: Northern slopes of Ben Alder to Dalwhinnie | 21.74 km
Woke up to glorious sunshine - the opposite to the forecast. Now forecasts are always unreliable, especially in Scotland, but I don’t get how they can be so wrong so often on my hiking trips. This is even (and particularly!) the Garmin inReach off-grid forecast that is supposed to use a better model for remote areas. This time at least it was a pleasant surprise - sunshine instead of rain.
I packed up and picked up the fantastic stalker’s path from the previous day.
View looking back
I was having such a good time following the path gently downhill. There were a few bigger stream crossings that required navigating and getting your feet wet but nothing gnarly.
The path then passes Culra Lodge, a luxury accommodation with a sauna and supposedly Britain’s highest altitude hot tub.
Lodge just visible to the left
Next to the lodge are the foundation remains of Culra Bothy.
From here onwards the path gets worse as it crosses flat wetlands for a while. There were horses grazing on the riverbanks - I saw no cows or sheep the whole walk (unusual!). Neither did I see any deer although Ben Alder has a very dense deer population.
I bypassed Loch Pattack and followed estate tracks to Ben Alder Lodge on the shores of Loch Ericht. The estate has built a series of very fancy houses across the property, what is merely the gate lodge pictured below!
They seem to be oddly obsessed with turrets (as am I to be fair!) - every house was riddled with them!
I stopped for lunch by the track, basking in the sunshine.
I’d been dreading the walk from here to Dalwhinnie a bit because I knew I would just be following the straight loch on estate tracks for about 8 km. People on walkhighlands have called it an absolute slog. In the end, it wasn’t bad at all. There was quite a lot of traffic on the “road” (sandy track that blew into a cloud with every vehicle) that kept me entertained. They had also recently cut down quite a lot of trees that opened up the views and certainly reduced the slog-factor.
By this point I was speedwalking a bit to make it to my planned bus at 16:40 but I still had to stop to admire the passing ScotRail train.