Loch an Eilein is a lovely place to go for a long dog walk if you are visiting the Aviemore area. The Loch itself is situated a short 15 minute drive from Aviemore town itself. The drive is lovely and scenic with lots of mountain views and it looked really beautiful and they were all snow capped.
There is a cost to park in the car park. It’s charged per person rather than per car and it’s £1.50 per person. There was no charge for me. A short 5 minute walk from the car park is the visitors centre with a small shop and toilets which is right on the edge of the lake.
We started the walk clockwise around the lake but you could go either way. It was pretty muddy as it had been raining a lot in the few days before we got there. But it was still easy enough to walk around in proper walking boots. I’m not sure it would have been so pleasant in trainers though. I was very happy to plod along in my furry boots, look how muddy I got!
I was very brave and even managed to go into the lake a little bit. It was super cold! But I had a taste of the water and it was super refreshing. We walked around the edge of the lake and then meandered through the forest. Even though it was very cold and there was snow on the mountains it was a beautiful sunny day. It made everything look so pretty.
Man Down
Unfortunately after about 1.5 hours of walking I started to pull on my lead and would not walk any further. Mammy thought I was throwing a tantrum like my good friend @westiearnold. However, it was more sinister than that. I had an injury to my paw 🙁 When mammy saw the blood she was super scared. It turned out I had ripped my claw in half! I must have caught it on something on the floor and ripped it.
It meant I wasn’t able to walk any further but there was still quite far to go. By mistake mammy had forgotten to bring my K9 Sports Sack so they had to carry me the rest of the way back to the car. I am about 8.5kg which isn’t too heavy, but for 45 minutes it was hard work! We didn’t really get to appreciate the final leg of the walk as the aim was just to get back to the car and get me to the vet.
Vet Visit
We got to the vet in Aviemore quickly but they didn’t have any availability to see me. So we had to drive to the next town, Grantown, to the next closest vet. We used Strathspey Vet who were very nice. They gave me an injection for the pain and managed to cut back the nail as much as possible and cleaned it out. I was given some more pain medication to take away as well as the cone of shame.
I was told to try to keep my paw clean for a few days to make sure it didn’t get infected. This was a shame as we still had a few nice walks left to do. Thankfully I have my K9 Sports Sack!
Despite the injury I still enjoyed my walk around Loch an Eilein. The scenery is really beautiful and it was a lovely walk. Check out my list of pet friendly places in Scotland to visit too to refresh after your long walks here.
Next time I’ll be reporting on my walks from my backpack! Woof woof, Wylie x