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Grey Mare's Tail and Mamore Lodge

A waterfall, a shooting lodge and a ramble down the West Highland Way.

Distance 3½ miles (5.7km)

Minimum time 2hrs 15min

Ascent/gradient 984ft (300m)

Level of difficulty Medium

Paths Well-made paths, one steep, rough ascent, no stiles

Landscape Birchwoods leading to long views along Loch Leven

Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer 384 Glen Coe & Glen Etive or392 Ben Nevis & Fort William

Start/finish NN 187622

Dog friendliness Off lead unless sheep near by

Parking Grey Mare's Tail car park, Kinlochleven

Public toilets Kinlochleven, at bridge over River Leven

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Description

Aluminium is a very common metal: around eight per cent of the earth's crust is made up of it. It's very reactive, which means that it's extremely difficult to extract the aluminium atoms out of the ore called bauxite. There is no chemical method for this process. Instead, it's done by dissolving the ore in molten cryolite (a fluoride mineral) and applying vast quantities of electricity.

Directions

1 A smooth gravel path leads up out of the car park to multicoloured waymarks pointing left. The path rises to a view through trees of the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall, then descends to a footbridge. Here turn left (blue waymarker) to visit the foot of the spectacular waterfall, then return to take the path on the right (white, yellow and green waymarker). Follow the stream up for 100yds (91m), then turn left at a waymarker. The path, quite steep and loose, zig-zags up through birches to more open ground.

2 Here the path forks. Take the right-hand branch, with a yellow and green waymarker, to pass under power lines. The path follows the crest of a heathery spur, then bends left to cross two streams. Immediately after the second stream is another junction.

3 The confusing waymarker here has eight arrows in four colours. Turn left, following a white arrow slightly downhill, to cross a footbridge above a waterfall and red granite rocks. The path leads up under birches. Here the ground cover includes the aromatic bog myrtle, which can be used to discourage midges, though it is less effective than a chemical repellent. When the path reaches a track, turn left (white arrow). Below the track is a tin deer used by stalkers for target practice: it's more convenient than the real thing as it doesn't wander off just when you're creeping up on it. A signed footpath bypasses the Keepers' Cottages on the left, then rejoins the track beyond, to a junction above Mamore Lodge.

4 Keep ahead, above the lodge, climbing gently past two tin huts, self-catering accommodation labelled 'stable' and 'bothy'. At the high point of the track there is a TV mast on the right, a bench on the left and a view along Loch Leven ahead. The track descends gently, with slabs of whitish quartzite above. The wide path of the West Highland Way (WHW) can be seen below and gradually rises to join the track, with a large waymarker planted in a cairn.

5 Turn left down the West Highland Way path, which drops into the woods below. Watch out for a junction where the main path seems to double back to the right; take the smaller path, continuing ahead with a WHW waymarker. After crossing the tarred access track of Mamore Lodge, the path fords a small stream to reach the village. Turn left along the pavement and fork left into Wades Road to regain the car park.

Useful information

While you're there

The Aluminium Story Visitor Centre at Kinlochleven is worth a quick visit, although its displays are entirely audio-visual. Alternatively, you could tour the Atlas Brewery, in a disused part of the aluminium works (after 5:30pm).

Where to eat and drink

The Tailrace Inn, in Kinlochleven, is a service station on the West Highland Way. They welcome children (if having a meal) and dogs (if well behaved). In summer, you won't get through an evening without a rousing chorus of Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond. Try the Atlas Brewery's 'Wayfarer' ale, brewed for thirsty West Highland Way walkers.

What to look for

The view down the length of Loch Leven, which is such a feature of Walks 13 and 14, ends on the left with a small pointed mountain. Though only 2,434ft (742m) high, it's one of Scotland's sharpest peaks outside Skye. 'Sgurr na Ciche' describes its shape exactly: less explicit English translates it as the 'Pap' of Glencoe. Alan Breck and Davie Balfour sheltered high on its slopes in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Highland novel Kidnapped.

Background to the walk

As a result, aluminium processing doesn't take place where you find the bauxite, but where you find the electricity, with lots of water coming down steep hillsides, and a deep-water harbour at the bottom, such as Kinlochleven.

The village of Kinlochleven was built around the smelter. Two lochs above have been dammed for hydro-electricity, and six huge pipes bring the water down from a control station above the Devil's Staircase footpath.

A pipeline on the OS Landranger map is a dotted line, rather like a path. And it may be that the path of this walk happened by mistake, as walkers mistook the pipeline for a path, walked along it and so created the path that they thought was there in the first place. The pipeline path leads from the outflow of Loch Eilde Mor, around the head of Loch Leven along the 1,100ft (335m) contour, giving superb views towards the Pap of Glencoe and the loch's foot. Eventually, it carries Loch Eilde's water to the Blackwater Reservoir.

Why has the water from Loch Eilde been taken all the way round this hillside to the Blackwater Reservoir, instead of straight down to the turbines where it's actually needed? You need to glance across the valley at the six descending pipes for the answer. At the foot of those huge reinforced pipes the water is under 30 tons per square foot (300 tonnes/sq m) of pressure. A second such set from Loch Eilde would cost far more than the much longer, unpressurised pipe to the other reservoir. Besides, we wouldn't have ended up with this fine contour-line walk.

The Kinlochmore smelter started as one of the largest in the world, but by the end of the 1900s it was the world's smallest. It closed in 2000, although its turbines continue to generate electricity, which is now diverted to the smelter at Fort William or into the National Grid. The smelter had been the reason for Kinlochleven, and its main employer. Projects to keep Kinlochleven alive include the fine, newly constructed path system, the visitor centre and the Atlas Brewery on the site where carbon electrical connectors were once made.

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