Scotland

Beinn A Chroin and An Caisteal, nr Crianlarich

Character: Knobbly knolly hills with several access points from the A82 to the north

Ascent: ~3500 feet

Time: 3.5 hours

Map: Unfortunately most of the Crianlarich hills are on the corners of OS sheets! I used the 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) and OS Landranger Sheet 56, 1:50,000 (Loch Lomond and Inveraray)

Transport: Trains from Fort William or from Glasgow Queen Street via Crianlarich. Some times for 26/09/99 to 27/05/00 are given here

Sources: Irvine Butterfield"The High Mountains"

Accomodation: Crianlarich Scottish Youth Hostel (Tel: 01838 300 260)

Leave the A 82 some 2 km SW of Crianlarich ( GR 369 239) and make your way across the small boggy field to the Sheep Creep marked on the map under the railway line to the south. A nice little wooden bridge takes you over the River Falloch and now you keep to the western bank of the river that runs up into Coire Earb. This is a four wheel drive track for 2 km or so, when a path continues to the SSE. Some 1.5 km further on the saddle between An Caisteal and Beinn a Chroin appears to the forward right. This was my intended route, but an obvious track continued over the main river still roughly SSE (not SSW for the saddle), onto the lower slopes of Beinn a Chroin's north ridge. The pull onto the ridge is fairly steep, and this December day there was a fair amount of snow and ice around. The ridge seems to last an eternity, and is so knolly and splintered (although grassy) that you are always deviating off your southerly compass bearing. Away to your left the views of the grander heights of Cruach Ardrain are clear. With the resurveying of Beinn a Chroin, its true summit is now given as close to the middle of its bumpy summit ridge, rather than the previously thought eastern end (given the spot height on my old Sheet 56), and sad to say, in a rather sad physical condition I decided to by pass the old summit and head down to the west to the first of several little cols on the ridge. I can only have been 100 horizontal metres from the eastern top! Pathetic!

From near Beinn a Chroin's eastern top, looking west towards the rest of the summit

ridge (left) and An Caisteal (right background)

So on across the 1.5 km craggy top. I assume by doing this I went over the true new summit, but to tell the truth, I don't know which cairn or which bump it was!

I peeled off the ridge on a path just slightly before the end of the summit ridge, which was possibly a mistake as the descent to the col under An Caisteal was steep and icy. Probably wiser to go to the very end of the ridge, which from the col I could see had an easier path down it. To the SW, Beinn Chabhair looked inviting, but I was a physical wreck (after 7 days walking my knees were packing up, and my crampon wearing boots that I was wearing hadn't been worn for two years and since my big toe nail has fallen off from the trauma of them!), and the winter day was short. In total in the week I climbed and descended around 24,000 feet. Impressed?! Probably not.

Looking NE from the saddle between An Caisteal and Beinn a Chroin

So on up An Caisteal. A straight forward arete, with a tiny bit of exposure for a couple of metres on its eastern side. From memory, the ground was typical shaly rock with rocky outcrops with some grass - easy going.

From the summit of An Caisteal looking north towards Twistin Hill

The summit of An Caisteal is a nice peak, and the views to Ben More and Stob Binnein were great. The view on down to the north across Twistin Hill looks very pleasant, and so it is, although no great height is lost for the first two kilometres or so.

Twistin Hill great panorama of Rannoch Moor area mountains and more

This means that when you get to Sron Gharbh, your knees are in for more punishment! I headed for the corner of forestry to the NNE, at around GR 378 229, and it really seemed to be each man to himself as I could discern no real track from Sron Gharbh onwards.

Once on the river, its back on the 4WD track to the A82. Certainly not my favourite day ever out on the hills, due mainly to my weakness, but these hills are a bit too convoluted and generally "messy" for my liking. What a whinger!