Wednesday Walk - to the mysterious Fairy Bridge of Glen Creran

For this weeks post I'm looking back on a walk we took to get to the Fairy Bridge in Glen Creran, Argyll, Scotland.

This bridge is a complete mystery. Its quite small and old with these amazing upstanding rocks built into the structure. But it is literally in the middle of nowhere and seems to serve no real purpose - so it begs the question as to why it is there at all !

Its pretty hard to find. Its located in Glen Creran - a Glen is a Scottish word that roughly means valley. The Glen is quite remote, located on the West Coast of Scotland, around 10 or so miles north of the town of Oban. There are some scattered houses along the glen, but very few people live there.

To get to the bridge you have to drive up the lochside to the end of the road in the glen, where there is a car park, and then take the path noted on the sign above. However, the bridge is not located on that path - at the furthest bend on the path on the right - you then have to leave the marked path, and join a small track leading through the trees, that will eventually take you to the bridge. It is not easy to find.

The marked path is quite decent, and goes through the forest, up the hillside and is quite a pleasant walk.

The marked path is a properly maintained Forestry walk, and has features like this lovely wooden bridge to cross.

But once you leave the main path, the track is quite small and continues through some lovely scenery. When we were there it was a lovely summers day, and there were bluebells everywhere on the forest floor.

It probably took about an hour to get to the bridge. We took a picnic and stopped there for a while to take in the scenery - it really was stunning.

Its one of the prettiest bridges I've ever seen - it really feels mystical, and the name, fairy Bridge is entirely apt. It sort of has legendary status in the area because many people have heard of it, but not many have actually seen or found it.

As said, the oddest thing about it, is why its there at all, because there is absolutely nothing else near it - so it appears completely pointless. But its stunning ! Above you can see our dog, Buster, checking it out !

We took a different path down and passed this lovely waterfall on the way, just down from the bridge.

Then back before we got to the road there was this derelict old building - it looks liked something industrial, but it was hard to tell really.

Back out by the main road were were treated to some lovely views of the Glen and hills.

We also passed some beautiful flowers on the way back to the car park.

I was also intrigued by this orange lichen we saw on a wall on the way back to the car park. I understand lichens like this are a sign of good air quality.

It really was a lovely walk which we enjoyed thoroughly. It was such a stunning day, the bridge was amazing and the nature was fantastic - all great. But just one thing - why is that bridge there ?........