Two churches stand in the same kirkyard at Balquhidder, and one of them has no roof. The older is a single-chamber ruin built in 1631, keeping only its east gable and a bellcote; the church beside it, a Gothic design of the 1850s attributed to David Bryce, still holds its services under a steep roof and an arch-braced timber ceiling. Between and around them lie early carved grave slabs and the railed plot where Rob Roy MacGregor was buried at the end of 1734. The setting is the head of Loch Voil, and the glen runs west from here for twelve miles, past that loch and its neighbour Loch Doine, to a car park where the public road gives up.
Food in Balquhidder comes from two kitchens, each a short drive from the kirkton. Mhor 84 sits at Kingshouse, where the minor road meets the A84, a motel, bar and café that takes in walkers, cyclists, dogs and locals without ceremony. The menu runs to Cullen skink, Peterhead haddock and chips, Shetland mussels in white wine, garlic and cream, a venison-haunch and stout pie, and rhubarb trifle.
Farther west, on a working farm deep in the glen, sits Monachyle Mhor. Tom Lewis owns and cooks here alongside Scott Davies and Ross Bott, and most of what reaches the plate comes from the farm, the surrounding crofts and hills, or Lisa May's kitchen garden; the kitchen forages for the rest. A sample dinner has run to Scotch lamb with pomme dauphine, turnip and chimichurri, North Sea monkfish with Parma ham and fennel, and a dark-chocolate cheesecake with raspberries and sesame brittle. Harden's called it "well worth the lengthy detour". Walkers who don't want the full sit-down can stop for soup, sandwiches, cakes and scones without booking. Back at Balquhidder Station, on the A84, the Golden Larches is a café with rooms.
The walking starts at the graves. Creag an Tuirc, the crag of the boar, is an hour's outing of a mile and a half from Rob Roy's plot, 125 metres up on good tracks to a grassy knoll that was Clan MacLaren's rallying place and still looks out over the village, Glen Buckie and Loch Voil; the return can take in a footbridge, a waterfall and an old hump-backed bridge. Kirkton Glen is longer, five and a half miles on forestry track following an old right of way toward Glen Dochart. Cyclists have the Rob Roy Loop, an easy circuit of 7.8 miles linking Strathyre, the River Balvag and the loch.
Fifteen minutes farther into the glen, a mirrored timber pavilion called the LookOut stands with benches built into it, angled at three separate views of the water. Loch Voil and Loch Doine are protected ground for salmon and lampreys, and red deer and mountain hare keep to the higher braes.
Much of the built village was one man's doing. David Carnegie of Stronvar, having bought the estate in the late 1840s, paid for the church, the school and a small library the listing describes as having "dolls-house proportions". The village hall carries the practical load now, with bookable badminton and pickleball courts, a stage, cinema-quality projection and gigabit wifi.
Getting here means the narrow road from Kingshouse; the kirkton is under two miles west of the signed turn between Strathyre and Lochearnhead. The nearest train is Crianlarich, about twenty miles off, and the bus stops at Kingshouse, leaving a couple of miles to close.
Come down off Creag an Tuirc and there are still scones to be had, boots and all.