A good day for the ducks — or so Donna informed me, having apparently been using this phrase her whole life. I’d never heard it before today, which she found hard to believe. The jury’s still out on how common it actually is.
We’d come to Glencoe hoping for a mountain but the weather had other ideas: driving rain and wind that would have made any ridge walk thoroughly miserable. Glencoe Lochan turned out to be exactly the right call — the forest canopy provides a surprising amount of shelter, and the walk itself is peaceful, beautiful, and completely manageable in even the worst of conditions.
There are three distinct routes on offer, which can be joined together depending on how much walking you’re looking to do. We boiled the kettle in the car park, made a cup of tea, then set off on the easiest path — a gentle loop through the trees and around the lochan itself.
Glencoe Lochan through the trees
The lochan is stunning. The surrounding forest feels almost magical in the mist, and the reflections on the water (when the rain lets up for a moment) are worth the trip alone. Benches are dotted around the pond with metal BBQ risers built into them, a nice touch to protect them from fire damage.
The forest path around Glencoe Lochan
This wasn’t our first visit — we’d walked here on a cold New Year’s Day a couple of years back, after a night camping at the Red Squirrel Campsite just up the road. That was equally wet, but considerably colder. Both times, the walk has delivered.
Glencoe Lochan in the rain
If you’re in Glencoe and the mountains are off the table, this is the walk to do. It’s sheltered, accessible, and genuinely lovely — not a consolation prize at all.
