Scotland

Ben Lui, Beinn a' Chleibh, Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhcraig

Character: A fantastic day out! A big walk if you do all four peaks. Ben Lui is the highlight, both visually and in terms of a walking / climbing challenge

Ascent: ~5300 feet

Time: 10 hours

Map: Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure Sheet 38, 1:25,000 (newer version of Ben Nevis and Glen Coe sheet has Rannoch down to Crianlarich on reverse, required for this walk)

Transport: Trains from Fort William or from Glasgow Queen Street via Crianlarich. Train splits heading North, but both branches stop at Tyndrum (either Upper or Lower station). Both convenient for the walk. Some times for 26/09/99 to 27/05/00 are given here

Sources: Irvine Butterfield"The High Mountains"

Accomodation: Crianlarich SYHA (Tel: 01838 300 260)

This is a great walk. Perhaps the one drawback on this route is the long walk in, and arguably that the highlight is the first peak, the others being inferior in most respects.

I started at Tyndrum Upper station, which is slightly further from the start of the track. As I was carrying gear for a week, I dumped my main pack under the bracken at a little copse you need to head around immediately after leaving the station. I was pleased it was still there when I returned! You drop down into the little village, then head right, up the main road (the A82) towards the centre. After only 100 m or so a left hand turn at a big hotel is the way to the Lower station. You cross the rail tracks here and the wide forestry road continues through the plantation, winding first gently uphill, then gently down over 2 miles or so. Then you break clear of the forest at the river Cononish, and here you join the track up from Dailrigh on the A82, as described by Butterfield. Here the views start to get good. You see the high ridge that joins Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhcraig in front of you, and as you turn right towards Cononish farm, you get your first real views of Ben Lui. Another very picturesque site is Cononish farm, sitting under Beinn Chuirn. Directly behind the farm an impressive waterfall appears to drop from the very summit of the mountain. Beinn Chuirn looks a nice peak, but is just that bit below Munro height, so its crap really!

Quicktime (.mov) movie, 2MB

The track continues past the farm. Make a mental note of the good bridge that crosses the river just before the farm. The slopes to the South are the way this walk ends coming off Beinn Dubhcraig to this bridge. The OS map does not mark it, and the river would be a difficult (or at least annoying) one to ford except in the driest times.

The path climbs slightly more steeply as you leave the farm , then contours around Beinn Chuirn. By now the views into Coire Gaothaich, Ben Lui's hanging corrie, are excellent. The mountain really looks imposing at this stage. You descend now to a sheep pen on the Allt an Rund. I got wet fording this! Now you can follow the steep boggy path South West up the side of the stream that cascades out of the corrie. The corrie, when it is reached is a mess of strewn boulders. Apparently you can choose the Northern arm from the summit to ascend, but the Southern one is the closer and looks more inviting. I just headed for the skyline to the South and forced my way up on to the ridge. I remember feeling confident that I was basically nearly there. This was a mistake. You are really only a third of the way up at this stage, even though the summit appears visible to your West. There's a long way still to go!

This grassy arete soon steepens, and gets more rocky and craggy. In a couple of points it really is a bit daunting, especially as I had high winds. The good news is that for most of the way you have the option of taking a turn to the left and heading instead across to Ben Lui's South ridge, and indeed, I did head slightly this way before re-joining the East ridge and heading straight for the summit. After the worst crags and outcrops have been turned or scrambled over, a last few metres of steep scree / dirt reveal a cairn - a big cairn! And yes, thankfully it is the summit cairn.

The winds up here were horrible, blowing mainly on this day from the South. The view the short distance to the slightly lower North West top is fantastic, as you see the arete that descends from this top, as well as looking across the void of Coire Gaothaich.

Beinn a' Chleibh from Ben Lui

 

As the picture above shows, from Ben Lui Beinn a' Chleibh really appears insignificant. However from the saddle between the two there is quite a decent climb up to its flat top. And the steep descent from Ben Lui is hard on the ankles. But then you have the rush of adrenaline from having just climbed one of Scotland's classiest hills!. The summit of Beinn a' Chleibh thankfully lies on the close end of its plateau, and you now look back at the much plainer face of Ben Lui (it almost looks boring when you can't see the crags or corrie!), and retrace your steps to the saddle between the two.

From here I attempted to contour around to the saddle between Ben Lui and Ben Oss, the next objective for the day. The two saddles are at a similar height. This proved successful, although many a wet and dry watercourse had to be crossed like corrugations on the way round, heading at the start mostly East North East, then progressively more East then South East. From the saddle, the views ahead to Ben Oss are good, and from this angle its castellated summit looks impressive, and you can tell this is a big push to its top.

The climb from the saddle between Ben Lui and Ben Oss is never difficult, although it is quite rocky and bouldery in places. The saddle itself is at the head of Coire Lui, and the views down this way are lovely. The views to the other (Southern side) are ones of isolation and desolation. The ridge drops on this side to a vast high moor, with green peaks rising up in the distance from this boggy, featureless landscape. You feel you could wander around these wastes for days in fog and not find your way out before some huge beast, like the Hound of the Baskervilles, makes you into a tasty morning tea. Sorry, must be time for my medication!

The summit of Ben Oss is something of a dome, with its summit cairn on its Southern end. From here the peak of Ben Lui is impressive across Coire Lui, and almost diabolical with its twin summits like small horns on a dark beast (back to the Hound of the Baskervilles again!).

Ben Oss and Ben Lui behind it from the summit of Beinn Dubhcraig

Beinn Dubhcraig

The continuation to Beinn Dubhcraig, the fourth and last Munro of the day is a nice walk. There is some height lost and gained, but not a huge amount. To the South you may be able to see Ben and Loch Lomond, South East are Ben More and Stob Binnein, and to the North East Beinn Dorain beyond Tyndrum.

The ridge from Ben Oss's summit stays level for a while, then drops down a few metres and rises to a small top. From here the ridge turns more to the East to the saddle between the two summits, and there is a gradual pull up onto Beinn Dubhcraig's top. A few lochains, some hardly more than puddles, are smattered across its top and the ridge up. The views from this summit are good (see the two photos above), and as mentioned before you might get a glimpse down the length of Loch Lommond to the South.

The photo above shows roughly the direction I headed in descent, returning first to the West, then descending off Beinn Dubhcraig's North ridge towards Cononish farm. To start with you follow the broad though knolly ridge, but then progressively the ridge heads more North East into the quagmire I suspected existed near the river Cononish. So instead I took the near vertical quagmire (OK its not that bad, but its bad) that would lead me down to the bridge at the farm - a more Northerly direction. Ankle wrenching, but thankfully over in an hour or so. Over the bridge, and you're back on the track that brought you in to the farm. And if like me you had to wait several hours for a train to take you North, there is a great pub a few metres up the A82 to rest your tired limbs in.