GUIDE TO THE WATER OF RUCHILL

NAME OF RIVER: Water of Ruchill.

WHERE IS IT?: This flows down Glen Artney into the River Earn at Comrie.

PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: See below.

APPROX LENGTH: Unknown.

TIME NEEDED: Unknown.

ACCESS SITUATION: Unknown. See the SCA ACCESS NOTES ON SCOTLAND.

WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: Needs plenty of rain.

GRADING: Grade 3/4 and one section of 5.

MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: Unknown.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Follow a minor road South up the valley. A couple of miles up the road, it suddenly flattens out. There is an old ruin on the right, and the hills open out. Stop at the ruin and walk down to the river to see the most difficult rapid on the river. I've done this trip twice, in high water everyone portaged the hardest rapid, one guy thought long and hard about running it, but decided against it (class V?). At a lower level 3 of us ran this section (Grade 4 max, if that, but quite a few still portaged). Now carry on up the road, it drops down to where a stream comes in from the left. There's an obvious car park. Put in here.

Tom Saffell adds (1/5/00)...'I ran it some time in winter '98. It requires a lot of water, which it had when we ran it. There is one rapid of great interest. I would grade it at IV+ to V at the level we did it. It is in a steep gorge which makes bank protection fairly difficult. There are 3 parts to it: a steepish rock/ boulder slide of about 8 foot, a fairly flat middle section with some well
concealed rocks, and finally a steepish river wide weir (5 foot). The middle section provides eddies for a rescue. The weir could become sticky at VERY high water. When I ran it one guy swam on the first bit, but we fished him out in the middle without major incident. Inspection is easy from the left bank and definitely worthwhile. Once you are in you are fairly committed, so an inspection of the bottom weir is a good idea. We ran the Knaike Water the same day, which is worthwhile also.'

Andy Evans adds (Easter 2000)... 'I'd forgotten about this little gem. We ran this when on a ditch discovery weekend (winter '96/97). The River Leny was honking and took about 20 minutes to run, with only minor forward paddling effort, which gives you some idea of how much rain is needed. The difficult rapid is marked on the OS maps as a "blue water interest", possibly says waterfall? Above this are some nice rapids that get you warmed up, the difficult section is fairly obvious from upstream and we were able to get out on river left in plenty of time before the drops. I wouldn't like to grade the difficult section from memory, we ran it, probably a IV, the river was at bank-full. I can also remember battling through small woods on the approach to Comrie.

The following day we checked out the Keltney Burn, which isn't exactly next door, but looked as if it could offer some entertainment, but would need some summer gardening first. This little beauty is near Loch Tay(?)'

OTHER NOTES: An amusing addition is to run Knaike Water afterwards.

CONTRIBUTED BY: Anon and Andy Evans.

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