About Falls of Falloch
The Falls of Falloch (Eas Falloch in Scottish Gaelic; meaning the Hidden Falls) was a short excursion waterfall that we made a stop for while driving between Fort William and Stirling Castle (and ultimately Glasgow).
Because it had been raining heavily for almost the entire drive between Fort William and the falls, the River Falloch was in full spate.
It flowed with such a fearsome amount of power that I made sure I stayed clear of riverbank edges as a slip and fall in there would’ve surely meant a drowning.
Even though the Falls of Falloch was only 30ft tall, it had a very thick and angry appearance.
Indeed, the way we saw it was a far cry from the more graceful flow that was shown in the literature during our trip research.
Because it was such a short walk, I was actually able to survey this waterfall twice.
Not wanting to deal with the heavy rains, Julie initially had me go out and experience the falls while Tahia was napping.
But when I returned to the car less than 25 minutes later (showing how convenient it was), that got Julie and Tahia to don their waterproof gear and make their visit.
Thus, this was definitely a family-friendly excursion given how short the walk was.
However, we did have to keep an eye out on our daughter given some mild exposure to the dropoffs into the River Falloch.
At the far end of the trail, there were benches as well as a handful of overlooks presenting a frontal view of the Falls of Falloch.
There was also a less-used trail paralleling the main one alongside the River Falloch, and that less-used trail showed partial views of other smaller cascades further downstream.
But as far as the waterfall lookouts were concerned, there was an open one yielding the photo you see at the top of the page.
That said, there was also a caged walkway leading to an alternate lookout that got us even closer to the waterfall across its plunge pool.
There was prose engraved at the overlook describing “the Vale of Awful Sound” by Dorothy Wordworth in 1803.
Apparently, this caged walkway also had another engraving that said “Woven Sound 2014 John Kennedy”, but I wasn’t clear whether this was referring to JFK or someone else that happened to have the name John Kennedy.
Even though the weather was bad when we arrived at the Falls of Falloch, when we returned to the car park after our short walk, there were at least a half-dozen other vehicles filling the car park.
I guess that attested to the popularity of this waterfall rain or shine.
Authorities
The Falls of Falloch resides in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park near Crianlarich in Stirlingshire, Scotland. It is administered by the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
Driving to Falls of Falloch from Fort William, we drove roughly 50 miles along the A82 road towards the town of Crianlarich.
We then continued on the A82 from Crianlarich for another 4.5 miles to the signed-but-easy-to-miss turnoff for the Falls of Falloch car park.
True to its name, the car park was somewhat hidden from the A82 road even though it was right next to it.
In fact, we actually missed the turnoff and had to do a three-point-turn to get back to it.
Overall, this drive took us nearly 90 minutes.
Going in the other direction from Stirling (of Stirling Castle fame), we would go west on the A84 road for nearly 30 miles towards Lochearnhead.
Then continue on the A85 road for the next 16 miles towards Crianlarich.
Finally, drive the last 4.5 miles on the A82 from Crianlarich to the relatively hidden car park for the Falls of Falloch on the left.
This drive would also take about 90 minutes.
Finally for some additional geographical context, Stirling was 97 miles (about 2.5 hours drive) southeast of Fort William, 81 miles (about 2 hours drive) southeast of Glencoe, 27 miles (over 30 minutes drive) northeast of Glasgow, and 37 miles (about an hour drive) northwest of Edinburgh.
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View of the falls in full spate thanks to heavy rain from a caged walkway dedicated to JFK
Right to left sweep showing numerous side waterfalls feeding the stream in full spate before ending with a direct view of the main waterfall itself
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