Dollar

Why base here

Dollar is a small town of about 2,840 people, by Wikipedia’s 2020 estimate, one of the Hillfoots villages strung along the A91 between the Ochil Hills to the north and the River Devon to the south. What sets it apart from its neighbours is what stands at the top of its High Street: Dollar Glen, a wooded gorge the National Trust for Scotland owns and lists as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and above it Castle Campbell, which Historic Environment Scotland describes as standing alone on a narrow ridge under a crescent of the Ochils. Wikipedia records that the castle was first called Castle Gloom, and that in 1948 the owners of the Harviestoun estate gave the glen to the Trust.

The hills are modest by Scottish standards. King’s Seat Hill is 648m and Ben Cleuch, the highest of the Ochils, is 721m. The case for Dollar is that they begin at the edge of town, and that a walker without a car can still reach both.

On foot versus by car

The glen is the walk from the door. Walkhighlands starts its Castle Campbell and Dollar Glen circuit on West Burnside, beside the museum, and gives 3.7km and 184m of ascent in one and a half to two hours, on a narrow path above a steep gorge with railings in places, footbridges, steps and steep sections. The castle is on the way.

King’s Seat Hill can be climbed from the town as well, Walkhighlands says, though its own route crosses it from Tillicoultry to finish in Dollar beside the museum: 9km and 622m of ascent in four to six hours, on hill path with some indistinct and boggy sections, passing on the descent a memorial to three Spitfires that crashed there in January 1943. Walkhighlands suggests the bus back, or a 4.5km section of the Devon Way.

Ben Cleuch begins at Upper Mill Street in Tillicoultry, about 3 miles west by the A91. Walkhighlands gives the circuit as 9.5km and 731m of ascent in four and a half to six hours. Getting there needs no car: the Devon Way runs from Dollar to Tillicoultry along an old railway line, 5km with 5m of ascent by Walkhighlands’ figures, and the H2 bus runs between the two towns.

Practicalities

The Devon Valley Railway that once linked Alloa and Kinross through Dollar closed in 1964, Wikipedia says, and the nearest station is now Alloa, reopened in 2008 and about 6.6 miles away by road. Clackmannanshire Council lists the buses: the H2, which Midland Bluebird runs from Dollar through Tillicoultry and Alloa, and the 23 from Kinross through Dollar to Tillicoultry, run by Glenfarg Community Transport.

For the glen, the National Trust for Scotland lists the Quarry car park above the town and a smaller one higher up. Walkhighlands points to street parking on the two Burnside lanes off the High Street, and notes that starting from the walkers’ car park higher up leaves out part of the walk. The Trust says livestock graze the site and asks for dogs under close control.

With children

Walkhighlands calls the glen circuit a good walk to interest children, though steep, and asks for care with them near the drops in the gorge. The Trust adds that its paths are strenuous and uneven, unsuitable for buggies, and that there are no toilets on site. Castle Campbell opens seasonally, by the Trust’s listing, and Historic Environment Scotland mentions a fact-finding quiz and a spot in the garden known as John Knox’s pulpit, where the Protestant preacher is said to have given a sermon in 1556. Where the glen asks too much of small legs or a buggy, the Devon Way is the alternative: Walkhighlands calls it suitable for all-terrain buggies, flat for its 5km, with the bus back from Tillicoultry.