Walk: King & Castle atop the Ochils

📌 Ochil Hills, Clackmannanshire
★★★★

The Ochil Hills barely reach 700 metres above sea level, but provide some of Scotland’s most varied walks. This one includes dramatic gorges and waterfalls, rolling moorland summits, lush farmland, a disused railway line, a couple of towns and a picturesque castle as the icing on the cake. If that’s not enough, the route passes right by Sterling Mills Outlet Shopping Village (leave your more retail-minded partner here?). The start point – a random layby on the A91 – is chosen to break up the tarmac section, which your feet will thank you for.

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish at layby on A91 by the Devon Way, midway between Tillicoultry and Dollar

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NS 939974

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 56.157298,-3.709376

🚌 Bus to Tillicoultry / Dollar, at a different point on the walk

🚗 Layby

📝 Key info

▶ 15 km / 9 mi | ▲ 720 m | ⌛ 5-6 hr

Features: 🏠 Tillicoultry; △ King’s Seat Hill (648 m, Donald); 🏰 Castle Campbell ★★★; 🌊 Dollar Glen; 🏠 Dollar

⬤ Tough | Devon Way has tarmac surface. Very steep ascent above side of Mill Glen with some difficult route finding; good dirt path in Dollar Glen. Faint, grassy hill paths higher up, wet in places.

➡️ Clockwise circuit: start – Tillicoultry by Devon Way – path to east of Mill Glen – King’s Seat Hill – Banks of Dollar – Castle Campbell – Dollar Glen – Dollar – start via Devon Way

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Just the odd sheep wandering on the hilltops.

Weather: Early morning hill fog soon gave way to sunshine. One heavy shower on approaching Dollar. Chilly breeze, about freezing at the summit. North-facing snow patches.

February 2015