Callander

Callander lies on the River Teith in Stirling council area, at the point where the lowlands give way to the Highland Boundary Fault and the hills of the Trossachs begin. It calls itself, with some justification, the gateway to the Highlands, though it sits outside the Highland local authority area and outside “the Highlands” as most Scots would use the term: this is the Trossachs, a place often described as the Highlands in miniature precisely because it is not quite the real thing, closer to Glasgow and gentler in scale.

Why base here

Callander is the busiest and best-equipped town on the eastern side of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, with a full range of shops, cafes and accommodation along its long main street. It sits within easy reach of Loch Katrine, Loch Venachar and Loch Achray, and of Ben Lomond and its loch a little further west, while remaining under an hour from Glasgow and Stirling by road, which makes it a realistic short-break base rather than a long-haul one.

On foot versus by car

Bracklinn Falls, on the edge of town, is a signed link path of about a kilometre from the town, by Walkhighlands’ count. Ben A’an, the shortest hill walk in the list at 3.7km round, is a short drive west along the A821 to its own car park on the shore of Loch Achray, and Walkhighlands lists the Trossachs Explorer bus to it from Callander and Aberfoyle. Ben Ledi, a 879m Corbett about 6km north-west of the town, starts from the parking area at the Pass of Leny off the A84, 2km on foot past the Falls of Leny from the same bus’s stop at Kilmahog, and Walkhighlands puts the round by Stank Glen at 10km with 770m of ascent. Ben Vorlich, a 985m Munro, is the larger day: it is climbed from Ardvorlich on the south shore of Loch Earn, and Walkhighlands gives the round with Stùc a’ Chròin as 14.5km and 1,145m of ascent. Loch Katrine, with its Sir Walter Scott-themed steamship and level cycle path, is a few miles further on the same road.

Practicalities

Callander lost its railway in the Beeching cuts of 1965; part of the old trackbed now carries National Cycle Network Route 7 and the Rob Roy Way. Dunblane is the nearest working station, but Stirling, on the same line, is the one with a bus on to Callander, the 59 via Doune. The town’s car parks fill on summer weekends, when day traffic from Glasgow and Edinburgh is heaviest.

With children

A waymarked path from a car park at the edge of town is all it takes to reach Bracklinn Falls, no climbing involved, and a metal footbridge, opened in 2023 after its predecessor was condemned as unsafe, looks straight down into the gorge, all inside a couple of hours there and back. Ben A’an, a short drive west, is a different proposition: only 454 metres and just over three and a half kilometres round trip, but the final stretch is loose and steep underfoot, and better suited to families with older children than to anyone still holding an adult’s hand on the flat. For a day off from walking altogether, the steamship Sir Walter Scott, built in 1899 and still in service, sails Loch Katrine a few miles further up the same road, with one and two-hour cruises from Trossachs Pier and a deck that takes a wheelchair or a buggy without trouble.