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 The River Falloch, arguably, has the highest waterfall mainstream paddlers will kayak, in Scotland, not without its risk!
The stretch of river from the Falls of Falloch at grid NN 337 207 to about Glen Falloch Farm at grid NN 320 197 has a set of rapids that are demanding and great stretch of grade IV boating, the Seven Dwarfs!
Situated at the North end of Loch Lomond the River Falloch feeds into the Loch. The river follows the road, with the road being not that far on the river right, most of the time.
Coming off the main road, A82 at grid NN 332 207 you’ll see large brown signs directing you to the car park for the Falls of Falloch. Once in the car park follow the obvious foot path to the falls.
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service.
Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and
Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
Description:
 When you see the falls for the first time they are intimidating and big at about 10 meters high. They are run on a regular basis and the plunge pool is deep enough. However, like the River Etive, it has caught a number of paddlers out, that land the drop wrong. Spinal injuries do and will continue to happen here! If this is your first time hucking off a waterfall, pick on something smaller to get some experience first! You have been warned!!!
On a lighter note, they are fun, fun, fun for the seasoned waterfall kayaker! However, the tricky little run in can back loop the unsuspected boater. Watch the run in!
If you walk it or get in here you are likely to eat into a substantial amount of time inspecting and seeing who will run it first. Allow about 3 – 4 hours for the whole river, depending how big the group is.
From the Falls of Falloch to the first rapid is very short, you’ll want to inspect this whilst your looking at the Falls. River left to right is the normal run, bumping over some rocks on the way there.
From here to the Seven Dwarfs its grade IV-V depending on the water level!
Once at the Seven Dwarfs, get out river left and look!
You’ll probably spend anything between ten minutes to one hour inspecting and providing protection on this. This is continuous classic grade IV territory. Seven Dwarfs ‘could’ be broken down into two sections. The first set of run in rapids run easy enough, then the river will change direction and you be met with the crux of the rapid. Some three rapids closely linked all with different lines and will be very pushy in bigger  water. The last obvious drop in this section is grippy! There are a few obvious places you might want a rope!
Run this or portage to the pool below the obvious last main rapid, before the bridge.
Once you are here there are a couple of wee drops and rapids to finish. Inspect these, they are grippy and one has a main line going into a large boulder!
After your through this section you’ll be grinning from ear to ear or wanting to get off the river toot sweet. The fun does not stop here. Two more main rapids are next.
Twist and shout is next with two lines down. River left or river right, the chicken shoot. Runing river left you’ll want to carry as much speed into the first wee hole and either eddy out, for bonus points on the left, or more likely continue your run over the last drop. It’s higher than you think and the last drop will hold you if you go over it sideways. Trust me I’ve been in it. Don’t worry, once it’s finished playing with you it’ll spit you out!
The last rapid is a rock bumpy run normally run on the left!
You'll soon come to the get out on the river right.
it might be better to watch the amount of car you have at the get out, also park on the opposite of the farm entrance!
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