- There and back walk with a loop around the lochan: 3.58 miles
- what3words address for parking: ///bronzes.confronts.flexed
- GPX File
There is a free car park beside the Tobermory distillery – the Ledaig car park – which is where the what3words address will take you. It gets busy for obvious reasons (it’s also beside where the tour boats leave) but we managed to find a spot on each of the times we drove to Tobermory.
The walk has several steeper sections, most with some form of steps, but it’s not a difficult walk.
This walk follow the coast from the car park to Aros Park where there are a couple of impressive waterfalls; the most spectacular being the upper waterfall. There is also a car park in the woodland, signposted from the main road (car park: ///masters.scrubber.derailed) if you just want a shorter stroll, or do this walk in reverse, and that is very close to the falls.
This isn’t a long walk, and easy to follow, but it was very enjoyable and exceeded our expectations. The first section follows the coast through woodland with frequent glimpses through the trees across the Sound of Mull to mainland Scotland. The whole walk is through woodland and, despite its popularity, was very peaceful. Good for the soul.
At the end of the coastal section the route turns south, passing the lower falls where bridge over the stream affords a great view of them. Other, published, versions of this part of the walk loop around the lochan clockwise but we chose to go anticlockwise so that we approached the upper, and more spectacular, falls from in front; if you loop clockwise you can hear the falls but they first appear over your left shoulder and you are then walking away from them.
At the foot of the falls is a conveniently placed bench and we had a lovely view for our lunch. There is just one bench and this area is popular so we were lucky!
From the bench the path turns left through the vegetation to a long(ish) flight of steps that take you to the banks of the lochan. This was a beautiful section. There were thousands of water lilies and the path was flanked with many rhododendron bushes that were in flower when we visited: it was very picturesque.
At the end of the lochan we looped to the south towards the Aros Park car park, which we skirted, before re-joining the coastal path and returning to Tobermory.
There are public toilets at the Ledaig car park and toilets and picnic benches at the Aros Park car park.
We really enjoyed this walk and, if you’re in Tobermory with a couple of hours or more to spare I’d definitely recommend it.
Download file for GPS
