For the team at Aspen, winter is a time for planning and doing reccies. A reccy (reconnoitre) is my favoured term for the joyous pastime of exploring a new area for the purposes of checking its suitability for clients, customers, and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants. To this end, foremost in mind are considerations like: Can we cross the rivers safely? What are the campsites like? What’s the ground like? Are the paths even there? Is it too difficult, or too easy for our intended groups?

Josiah Spong, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Officer for Renfrewshire Council, approached me in November with the idea of checking out a new 45km Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award route in Lochaber, an exciting loop starting and finishing at Corrour train station, taking in Loch Treig, Kinlochleven and Blackwater reservoir. A Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition route is undertaken over four days, by a group of four to seven participants (16 to 25 years old), independently and self sufficiently.

This area of Lochaber, in the west of Scotland, is pretty wild and remote. The starting point, Corrour station, has no road access at all. There’s just a station and station house (now a super cafe, open during the spring-summer-autumn period). From there we would journey west to Loch Trieg and onto a remote bothy called Meanach. Day two would involve trekking southwest towards Kinlochleven, then day three east towards Blackwater reservoir and northeast to another beautiful bothy called Loch Chiarain. Day four would take us back to Loch Treig and Corrour station.

Josiah and I met up, in mid-January 2023, at Dalmuir station in Glasgow and took the train north to Corrour, a wonderful two-hour-plus journey, through some of Scotland’s best scenery. Disembarking at Corrour, it began to snow; big snowflakes swirled around in the wind. The platform and normally boggy moorland terrain were frozen, requiring a lot of care not to slip and fall. Our bags were heavy. We intended to eat well: fry-ups for breakfast, chicken curry, lamb and tatties, custard, and cake were on our much-looked-forward-to menu. Plus we had fire logs in our packs, to keep us warm in the bothies.

About four hours of walking brought us to Meanach. The evening light was wonderful. It was cold and clear and the hills were covered in snow. Our fuel did little to keep us warm, but it certainly boosted our morale.

Day two was fantastic. Sunny, cold, and clear. One of the finest winter days trekking I’ve had in Scotland. Early on in the day, we were presented with one of the biggest challenges of the entire trip, getting across the river Abhain Rath. Thankfully the river level was relatively low. It became apparent in crossing that the river would be uncrossable in spate conditions, an important safety consideration for how the route could be used and supervised in the future. As you can imagine the water was a bit cold.

We soon warmed up once moving and the sunshine and views were wonderful. Towards the end of the day, we descended down a stalker’s path to the valley, through which the river Leven flows, from Blackwater reservoir to the small town of Kinlochleven. There, in a birch wood, we found a fantastic campsite. Through Josiah’s research beforehand he’d spied a flat grassy area on an aerial photograph, a site that was once a First World War prisoner of war camp.

On day three the sky clouded over a bit and it was a bit warmer. We trekked up a lovely path, by the river Leven towards the Blackwater dam and reservoir. The dam and reservoir were one of the earliest and largest hydroelectric schemes in Scotland, constructed 1904-1909, to provide electricity for a huge Aluminium smelter works in Kinlochleven. The construction of the 900m long concrete dam was a monumental effort, built with hand tools by thousands of ‘navvy’ workers.

Another interesting bit of history along our route was a lonely monument, a cairn and cross, on the moorland, north of Blackwater reservoir. The cairn marks the spot Rev. Alexander Mackonochie died, presumably of exposure, in 1887. He apparently got lost walking there with his two dogs, a Skye terrier, and a Deerhound.

Further north we arrived at our last camp, Loch Chairain bothy. The bothy was large and comfortable, with four rooms. We used up the last of our fuel and ate well, lamb and tatties! The next day we woke early and walked north to Loch Treig and then back to Corrour station, catching the midday train back to Glasgow.

Although the distances each day weren’t long, the terrain was pretty tough. The route would present an excellent challenge for Gold team, looking for a remote wilderness experience.