01 Sandy and I did the walk shown in this web gallery on 27th June 2007. It is as you can see a circular route and in the past we had always done it anti-clockwise, parking near the dam on Clatteringshaws Loch and walking along the Raider's Road Forest Drive as far as the Rig of Craig Gilbert, and then from there up the green route shown in this map. There has always been a bit of a hassle getting through from the forest drive up onto the rig - there aren't any paths and you just have to find the easiest way through the trees that you can. There has been recent felling around there and going through recently felled ground is murder with all the branches lying in wait to break a leg on.
On this occasion we decided to do the walk clockwise so that we could see the best route down more easily from above. However as we were heading down off Cairnsmore towards Rig of Craig Gilbert we spied a likely route as shown in the blue route avoiding the rig altogether. This route brought us out near the toll at Laggan O' Dee. We are not great enthusiasts of walking along forest tracks and this route shortens the distance you have to walk on the Raider's Road. As forest tracks go the Raider's Road is really quite scenic and in fact people pay to drive along it for the scenery - hence the toll. The Raider's Road follows the valley of the River Dee south east from Clatteringshaws. Notice that a river runs into Clatteringshaws at it's north west corner. This is the same River Dee - Clatteringshaws was in fact created by damming the river for hydro-electric purposes. For more information click here