> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ourspectrumadventures.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A walk along the Menteith Hills and the Highland Boundry Faultline - URL: https://www.ourspectrumadventures.com/a-walk-along-the-menteith-hills-and-the-highland-boundry-faultline/ - Published: 2026-10-13T10:35:13.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T10:47:08.000Z - Description: The Menteith Hills lie along the Highland Boundary Fault Line separating Scotland's lowlands from the highlands. Today we walk part of the ridge along the Menteith Hills between Aberfoyle and Callander in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park - Author: Ian Alderman - Tags: The Outdoor Guide, Compendium You don't need to travel far to find something new; you can explore what's right in front of you and still find something unexpected. The saying “can't see the wood for the trees” comes to mind, and it describes this walk perfectly as we travel back 400 million years! The Menteith Hills are a line of small hills between Loch Venicar and Callander in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. If you’ve walked the Rob Roy Way (if you haven't, I highly recommend it), you have passed them—probably without knowing it. ****Don't want to see adverts and support us 😀** We’d love for you to join us! As a member, you will stop seeing adverts, get articles delivered to your inbox for free, and receive our deepest thanks. [Membership ](https://www.ourspectrumadventures.com/membership/) Jutting out of the landscape and looking out of place on an OS Map, the Menteith Hills are hidden in plain sight and demand little attention. But look at them as part of the wider landscape, and you will soon see something familiar. They form part of the [Highland Boundary Fault Line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland%5FBoundary%5FFault?ref=ourspectrumadventures.com). Eve and I started our walk from the (free to park!) [Braeval car park](https://maps.app.goo.gl/nhzM7bwNg4jzN4LRA?g%5Fst=ic&ref=ourspectrumadventures.com) near Aberfoyle. As we left the car park, we immediately started to gain height, picking handfuls of the season's last blackberries. The view over the lowlands behind us stretched as far as the eye could see. The road noise faded, replaced by the sound of trees swaying in the breeze. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6778.jpeg) Finding the track in the trees to start the ascent Following forestry tracks, we aimed for a break in the trees to begin the short climb northeast into the Menteith Hills. When we got there, we were surprised to find that someone had already created a rough track heading in the general direction. After a few minutes of climbing, we reached a clearing; beyond it, a boundary fence, where we took our first break and put off our waterproof jackets to keep the wind chill off. Above the treeline, the Menteith Hills felt wild and detached from the surrounding landscape. The ground was rough, and with Eve leading the way, we had to make several big steps onto large boulders to follow an increasingly faint trail. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6832.jpeg) Looking towards Ben Venue with rainbow forming on the right Reaching the first peak at just 323 meters felt like an achievement beyond the effort it took to get there. The reward was a view over the [Lake of Menteith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake%5Fof%5FMenteith?ref=ourspectrumadventures.com) that showed the landscape's drama and the area's vast geological history. Incidentally, the Lake of Menteith is the only lake in Scotland and not a Loch! There are a few theories why this is, with one being an error by a cartographer and another one because Ordnance Survey called it a lake in 1838 due to romantic Victorian literature. Either way, the name stuck and Scotland had a lake! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6847.jpeg) The Lake of Mentieth - the only lake in Scotland ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6839-1.jpeg) Overlooking the Lake of Mentieth ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6834.jpeg) Walking through the heather to the trig point on Craig of Monievreckie While planning today's walk, Eve and I deliberately didn't set a final destination or ‘end point’. We were going to walk, take the day as it came, and do what we wanted in the moment. I think days like this are the most rewarding in the hills. Not having a (sometimes) arbitrary goal is liberating. Knowing you have the time to stop, explore, or take a moment to appreciate how lucky and privileged we are to have time together is magical. We kept walking, passed the next peak at 393 meters, talked about Christmas, and hummed Christmas songs to each other to guess the tune. I don’t know why, but whenever we go walking, the conversation always ends up on the topic of Christmas! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6837.jpeg) Summit selfie! Reaching the trig point at 400 meters, Eve immediately stated, “you know I'm going to have to sit on that” to which I replied, “obviously!” Eve ran off ahead, stood on the edge, and started jumping backward to sit on the trig point so I could get the obligatory photo — or video. 0:00 /0:37 1× Views from the summit of the Mentieth Hills After taking a photo and a short video, we headed off to find somewhere for lunch. To find somewhere out of the wind (the wind chill was freezing), we walked to the top of the re-entrant a few hundred meters ahead. It was sheltered and warmer, with a beautiful view north towards the highlands. We sat there for over an hour eating homemade vegetable soup from our Thermos flasks and talking about… Christmas! During lunch, we decided our ‘end point’ for the day. We were going to walk down onto the Rob Roy Way, through Bealach Conasgach that was ahead of us. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6863.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6867.jpeg) Lunch time and our view as we ate hot soup From the trig point, the trail quickly faded and disappeared. We were now walking through rough heather, descending slowly into the Bealach, where we saw evidence of deer and other animals (probably Badgers) that had dug and churned the ground looking for worms. The forest between the Rob Roy Way and us had recently been felled. We walked slowly, picking our way through a tumble of branches, careful not to twist an ankle or get our feet stuck. This short section was the hardest part of the day. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6896.jpeg) Safely down Bealach Conasgach (steeper than it looks) On The Rob Roy Way, we headed slowly back to the car, picking more of the season's last blackberries and turning our hands a dark red. It was the perfect end to a wonderful, slow day of (hopefully) more to come this winter! I hope you enjoyed reading Ian & Eve ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/10/IMG_6913.jpeg) Braeval car park *P.S. We intend to complete the second half of the Menteith Hills this winter, possibly from Loch Venachar.* [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ca/04/ca040cc6-7ed4-4c37-bdec-dc07b16b6c8c/content/images/2026/03/bmc-logo.png)](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/OurSpectrumAdv?ref=ourspectrumadventures.com) I hope really hoped you enjoyed reading this - if you did please consider [Buying Me a Coffee](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/OurSpectrumAdv?ref=ourspectrumadventures.com). Thank you [Buy Me a Coffee ](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/OurSpectrumAdv?ref=ourspectrumadventures.com)