After the Rannoch Marathon: Bridge of Gaur and Rannoch Station

The Route: Kinloch Rannoch → Bridge of Gaur → Rannoch Station → Glasgow or Pitlochry → airport Logistics: Road along Loch Rannoch, then a day on the West Highland Line, which runs only a handful of trains each way. The route is slow, thin on services and unhurried by design. Marathon Month: October Duration: 2 nights

Kinloch Rannoch ──(30 mins by road)──> Bridge of Gaur
                                            │
                              (road west to Rannoch Station)
                                            │
Glasgow Queen Street ◄──(about 3 hrs ScotRail)── Rannoch Station
        │
(bus/train to Glasgow Airport GLA)

The Rannoch Marathon runs round the loch the guesthouse looks onto. For some of the race the runners pass through the western end, and on the Monday after, that same quiet road is a pleasure to see with no marshals and no cones. This is the itinerary for anyone who wants the loch to themselves for two days and has accepted that the logistics will be slower than a town break.

October at the head of Loch Rannoch means cool days, frequent rain and a sky that changes by the hour. Dress for wet and wind, and treat clear intervals as a bonus. Daylight is short, and there is little street lighting once you leave the village.

Nights One and Two: Bridge of Gaur

Bridge of Gaur Guesthouse is a small base at the western end of the loch, a road transfer from the race park. It suits a long stay with a driver or an agreed taxi. The catch is the race itself: the course passes through this area, and phased road closures can affect your journey in on race weekend, so arrive the day before the race or sort out the access with the guesthouse. By Monday the roads are open again. Check that the guesthouse is open in October before you book, and ask about evening meals, since choices nearby are few.

For recovery, the old bridge and the lochside road are a gentle walk. The road is the one the marathon used, so it is surfaced, but it carries some traffic and has no pavement along parts of it, so pick a time of day when it is quiet and keep to the verge. Go as far as legs allow and turn round.

The West Highland Line

Rannoch Station sits on the West Highland Line, a different railway from the Perth line, and it is on the edge of Rannoch Moor. The road to the station is a dead end, roughly five miles beyond the main junction, and the marathon turns somewhere short of it. Trains here run only a handful of times a day, with fewer on Sundays, so check scotrail.co.uk before building a day around a departure.

One option is the short run north to Corrour, a station reached only by train or on foot, which is among the highest on the British network. At Rannoch the sensible plan is to go out on one train and come back on the next, and check how long the wait is between them, because a gap of several hours is possible. If the timetable does not fit, spend the day on the loch road and skip the line.

Getting home

You have two ways out. A prebooked taxi back through Kinloch Rannoch to Pitlochry connects with the ScotRail service to Edinburgh Waverley, about two hours, then the tram to Edinburgh Airport (EDI). The alternative is to take the West Highland Line south from Rannoch Station to Glasgow Queen Street, roughly three hours, and continue to Glasgow Airport (GLA) by bus or train. Check which suits your flight, and book the taxi leg from the guesthouse early.