From the beginning it was clear that when I'm in Scotland that I would meet my longtime friend Thomas for a weekend hike. As he's living in Scotland now, it's obviously more difficult to meet for a hike than it was before in Switzerland. So we didn't want to miss this chance. :) In advance we agreed to meet in Crianlarich, which was close enough to Edinburgh, where he's living and to Fort William where I was coming from. It also was a good starting point for our hike, as there were plenty of options in the surrounding area. So when we met on Friday morning in Crianlarich, we first sat down and discussed where exactly we wanted to hike along this weekend. The forecast for today was good, for tomorrow not so good anymore and for Sunday really bad. Looking around us the weather was quite fine already, but most of the mountains in sight were still in the clouds. Soon we agreed to head into the Cononish valley, from where we would have many possibilities to hike up on some higher or smaller mountains, depending on the weather in the afternoon. The best way to get there was along the West Highland Way, a long distance hike of about 7 days that I hiked not even two years ago. Heading out of Crianlarich at about 11 am, we first had to make our way to the official trail, as it didn't go through the town itself. The West Highland Way is a pretty popular walk and we expected a lot of people on it. Once we reached the trail, our expectations were met. As we still had fresh legs though, we hiked for quite a while without any breaks, overtaking many other walkers along the way. The trail itself was well maintained and led through a nice forest with a couple ascents and descents in between. Leaving the trees behind us, we followed a river and walked among farming fields, noticing that the weather was getting better and better. At a nice spot on the river bank we took a break and when our energy level was up again we continued our walk along the West Highland Way.
Another 10 minutes later, we finally reached the turnoff to the Cononish valley. Saying goodbye to the West Highland Way, we now walked on a nice gravel road towards some impressive mountains. The road itself was pretty winding and rounding a bend, the highest mountain of the area appeared ahead of us: Ben Lui. Following the river Cononish now, it was a pleasure to walk, also because the weather had cleared up and all the summits around us were visible.
We made good way and soon came closer to the Cononish farm. Above the farm, up at the foot of a nearby mountain, we also could see some sort of a quarry. Reaching the farm, we noticed that the area towards the quarry was fenced off and a sign told us that it actually was a gold mine. :) What an unexpected surprise, as we didn't know that there were gold mines in operation in Scotland. Passing the farm, we kept on walking straight ahead and rounding another bend we finally had a full view of the mountains around us. The time had come to sit down and discuss which one we should do. Checking our maps and possibilities, we decided to give Ben Lui a try. With a height of 1130 meters, he was looming in front of us and we knew that a little challenge was ahead of us. 10 minutes later we brought the final stretch of the gravel road behind us, crossed a river and were at the foot of the mountain. The ascent started right there and of course was really steep. Luckily the views during this first ascending slope were simply superb: below us the stunning valley we walked along before, above us the summit with it's ridges and to the left and right the neighboring mountains, everything enlightened by the shining sun.
For more than half an hour we walked steadily upwards until we reached a huge plateau. There we decided to leave our backpacks behind and only take some food, water and warm clothes up to the summit. Hiding our bags behind some stones, we soon were back on the trail leading towards the top of Ben Lui. On our maps we saw that we should come upon a fork on the path, where we should turn right to ascend to the ridge towards our right. As we hadn't seen any sign of it so far, we just kept to the perfect path we were walking on now. This one led us straight ahead towards the summit and we thought it impossible that there was a way to get up there. Well, we told us that the fork would come at some point and kept on walking. The higher we got though, the more loose stones and scree we met. Still believing that we were on the right trail, we soon were scrambling upwards, avoiding the scree as best as possible. After a while we turned around and only now we noticed that we had walked quite far already and that the slope we were in was super steep.
Looking upwards, it also didn't look like a proper way anymore. Did we miss the fork? Below us we could see a trail runner coming upwards, he saw us in the slope and hesitated. Then he started to search for something and soon enough he found what he was looking for, a faint trail leading to the ridge on our left. In the meantime I had turned on my GPS, which showed that we were totally off the path and Thomas finally saw far away the trail up to the ridge on our right that we originally intended to take. Well, too late now. :) Right then we could see the runner vanishing on the ridge to our left and knew that there would be a path to the summit. But how do we get there? A descent in the scree seemed rather dangerous and we both didn't want to go through there again. Fortunately for us, there was a lot of grass and moss just next to the debris and it was way better to go down that way. In the middle of the descent we spontaneously changed the plan and decided to head straight across towards the ridge. We took our time and planted our feet carefully and when we finally reached the ridge we were happy to have found a proper trail again. Deciding that we had enough adrenalin for now, we ignored another faint and steep path to our right and walked straight ahead, taking a little detour to avoid this steep section. Passing a wreck of a propeller-driven airplane, as well as some patches of snow and bog, we ascended a gentle slope and were finally on the ridge that would bring us to the peak. This last part was easy enough and soon we were standing on the summit.
It was really windy up there and the wind constantly pushed clouds over the top, so first we had no view at all. The longer we were up there though, the more gaps were between the clouds and more and more we were able to see the stunning scenery in all directions. As there was no higher mountain around us, the view to all sides were incredible and we could even see Ben Nevis standing out at the horizon. Celebrating our achievement with a tiny sip of whiskey, we carried on to a second smaller peak just next to the main summit.
Right there the clouds vanished completely for a minute and we enjoyed the view of the highlands to the fullest. A bit later we started our descent and as the way was obvious now, we walked along the ridge we actually wanted to come up to. It was a nice descent as the weather and the views stayed great throughout.
Looking back to the super steep slope we scrambled up to during our ascent, we couldn't believe that we actually had tried to get up there. :) When we came to the fork that we missed during our ascent, it was no wonder anymore why we didn't saw it. The path was barely recognizable and there was no sign at all to point one in the right direction. So we decided to build a stone cairn and a stone arrow to help future hikers finding the way without any problems. Picking up our backpacks again, we already had agreed that we would set up camp on the plateau. It didn't took us long and we had found a nice spot. The tents were pitched fast and dinner was served not much later. To round off this brilliant day we enjoyed a nice sunset and another tiny sip of whiskey. :) Tired but happy we went to bed after the sunset for a long and quiet sleep.
Getting up in the morning, we noticed that the weather was not that good anymore. A couple summits were already in the clouds, among them Beinn Chuirn which was a potential mountain to scale today. Funnily enough, Ben Lui behind us was altogether free of clouds and we still had a good view of the peak and also the valley below to our feet. After breakfast we packed our tents together and descended back to the foot of the mountain.
There was only one way to go and we started to walk again on the nice gravel road towards Cononish farm. Along the way, we came to the turnoff up to Beinn Chuirn, but we decided to let it be. The weather was not really better and in the meantime the first raindrops had fallen as well, so we thought there would be no point in going up when there was no view anyway. Therefore we kept on walking along the road until we reached Cononish farm again. Right there was another option for a side trip: a walk up to Meall Odhar, a mountain with a height of only 656 meters and therefore with a better chance of having a view. We thought we'd give it a go and followed a well made sign that pointed us through a gate in a deer fence. The sign also said that it should be only one mile up to the top, which sounded reasonable enough. Well, that sign was nice and good, but once through the gate we could only see trees and no real path to follow. Great! :) It took us a moment until we found an old track for ATV's that we could hike along. What followed now was the most strenuous hour of the whole weekend. The track was big enough, but it also was pretty boggy and soggy and walking on it with our heavy backpacks was quite exhausting. We were also ascending steadily and because of the surrounding trees, no wind was reaching us and soon we were drenched in sweat. The track seemed to be endless and looking to our left we almost had passed Beinn Chuirn already. So much for walking one mile only. :)
Finally we came to the point where the trees opened up and the way to the peak was visible ahead of us. The going was much easier once we were out of the forest and we brought the last part of the ascent soon behind us. Standing on the peak, we couldn't see that much. :) The clouds had come down during our ascent and the rain had intensified, so the views were pretty limited.
As we were not very keen on descending the same way, we had a look on our maps and the scenery around us. We were trying to get to Tyndrum, another little village in this area and there actually was a way to get there, going cross-country along a nice ridge that we could see from the peak. So after a little break we picked up our bags and made us on our way. First we had to descend from the peak into a gap and from above we could already see many parts full of water or mud. To avoid them we kept to our left as the ground there looked way better.
The going was easy enough and soon we were ascending out of the gap again. Reaching the top of the ascending slope we were on the ridge that we saw from the peak before. Following the ridge we came upon another minor peak and we thought it would be nice to have our lunch there. Unfortunately there was no shelter and as it was still raining we carried on. On our maps, there was a path going from the next gap directly down into the village of Tyndrum. We found the trail straightaway and started our descent, first going down in serpentines across a large boulder field.
Once out of the boulder field we entered a forest and as it was not raining too heavily in there, we decided to eat our lunch below the trees. What seemed like a bright idea, turned out to be a little nightmare. :) A swarm of midges (tiny biting insects) appeared within a minute and if you already encountered them once, you know that they're a real pain in the ass. Well, we tried to let them bother us not too much and we finished our lunch first before we carried on with our descent. When we arrived in Tyndrum, we decided to take a break and discuss what we should do further. A pint and a tea/coffee later we had decided to do no more hiking today and only walk back to the Cononish valley to camp wild there. At about 6 pm we made our way out of Tyndrum again and walking through a nice forest, headed back to the valley. While there was no wind and almost no rain in the forest, it was more or less pouring down once we were out in the open valley. We found a sheltered spot at the edge of the forest, but decided not to camp there as in heavy wind younger trees tend to fall down. So we walked around quite a while, trying to find a decent spot for the night. In the end we opted for one close by the river bank. It was not the best spot as well, but as we were both pretty soaked by now, it had to do for the night. Now there was not much more to do than pitching our tents, go to sleep and pray that the wind and rain would cease during the night.
Well, the wind did us the favor and it was not that strong during the night. But the rain just kept on coming and when we woke up, the river next to us had gained about 30 centimeters of water. Luckily it was not overflowing yet.. :) So we got back into our wet clothes from yesterday, packed up our tents and started to walk back to Tyndrum. Passing the sheltered spot at the edge of the forest again, we noticed a fallen tree that was not there the day before. It was may be 10 meters from where we would have camped, which in our opinion was close enough. Glad we had chosen the other spot, we continued our walk back to Tyndrum. Once there, we caught a bus towards Loch Lomond. As the forecast for today in the whole area was heavy rain, we had agreed before that we wouldn't do any hiking today. There was just no point in getting even more wet, while all we could see was clouds and mist. So we spent the rest of the day with exploring Balloch, a village at Loch Lomond, and later made our way to Glasgow. There our ways parted and we both thought we had made the best out of this weekend. A pity that the weather was that bad on Saturday and Sunday, but nevertheless we had a good time and it was fun to share this little adventure together!
Highlight of the weekend: the hike up to Ben Lui
This hike is for you if:
- you're looking for a 360° panoramic view over the highlands
- you want the flexibility to choose along the way which mountain you want to scale
- you know how to read a map
- you always wanted to get close to a gold mine :)
This hike is not for you if:
- you mind rough paths and steep ascents and descents
- you don't have any experience of walking in the highlands
- you're not in shape
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