Having done Glen Avon as part of my two day trip from Blair Athol to Kingussie via Linn of Dee a few years ago, I wanted to do the loop from Linn of Dee around Ben Avon and Glen Derry in one day. As it turned out I got myself into another epic adventure worth doing it.
Glen Avon is not the longest route you could do and neither technically the hardest. However don’t be fooled, it’s tough! The hardest sections are at the end, from Faindouran bothy crossing river Avon through to Glen Derry, and they are essentially hard singletracks with lots of pushing and carrying. To get to Faindouran there’s some hard tarmac to tackle. The tarmac is soft and sandy, and I was surprised how much power it needed to get myself moving reasonably fast on it. These sections go through some proper wilderness and there isn’t much margin for error there.
A special part are the Fords of Avon. I can never find a good spot to ford the river and neither I could this time. So I ended up just crossing the river with everything on. Anyway, I was quite wet from the bogs and other river crossings along the route before, so not a big deal at this point.
To get to Glen Derry there is some really technical and rocky singletrack which involves substantial carrying, but once you get to the top of Lairig and Laoigh, the views and the descent back to Linn of Dee are spectacular and pretty much the reward of the day after all the suffering!
Enjoy the photos!
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- Loch Builg
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- Linn of Avon
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- Entering Glen Avon
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- Single track from Faindouran to Fords of Avon
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- Fords of Avon. And I wanted to buy some GoreTex shoes to keep my feet dry. So useless!
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- Selfie at the top of Lairg an Laoigh.
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- Lairig an Laoigh. This descent was my reward after the whole day.
Lukáš Soľanka 