Ben Venue hill trail closed - advice please

[coachmacca]

Folks you may have seen in my walk report I discoverd too late that the Ben Venue hill trail is closed at the last forest stretch for felling.

Whats the rule of thumb here?

Do you respect and not proceed? Make a saftey judgement call and go in at your own peril etc?

As a newbie i dont want to "break the rules" if its not the done thing - it was annoying though


Ben Venue loop by coachmacca, on Flickr

[foggieclimber]

I come across these signs regularly and usually choose to ignore them.
During the week there may well be felling taking place however more often than not there does not tend to be felling taking place at the weekend (esp Sunday). Also unlikely to be felling taking place if there is snow.

When there is felling taking place, I have found that it is often taking place well away from the tracks anyway.

The signs are there for Health & Safety purposes. If you do choose to ignore them, you are obviously doing so at your own risk.

I have also come across these in an area with a circa one-foot depth of peat.

[kmsharp]

At the weekend, and especially on a Sunday, I'd just ignore them. On a week day I would probably ignore them as well, though I'd be more vigilant while walking.

Keith.

[coachmacca]

Great cheers folks - tbh thought however by companions likes to get a second opinion. On everything .

[Gavin99]

I'm still waiting to find out what this sign was about .......................

Whatever it was I'm sure it was really really dangerous

[Morecambe Monkey]

Gavin,is it not near the entrance to this cave?

[coachmacca]

you mean this cave http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/blogs/Caberfeidh

[Seamus]

Think you pretty much summed it up Coachmacca 'Make a saftey judgement call and go in at your own peril etc?'.. That would be my chosen option..

[coachmacca]

Think you pretty much summed it up Coachmacca 'Make a saftey judgement call and go in at your own peril etc?'.. That would be my chosen option..

Cheers Seamus - exactly the response I was hoping to hear from people with experience

peril... I laugh in your face . As long as I have map, compass, whistle, torch, layers, food, water, ice axe/crampons (where required) etc etc but you know what I mean

[ConnieW]

In this case you are better off going up the other route, from Ledard farm, Kinlochard.
We went up the alternative path the forestry comission had initially designed on the approach you tried, it was a total mudbath, so we went down on where the old path would have been. I would not recommend it. The next time we were in the area they had removed the detour signs. It had obviously become impassable.

[jester]

Folks you may have seen in my walk report I discoverd too late that the Ben Venue hill trail is closed at the last forest stretch for felling.

Whats the rule of thumb here?

Do you respect and not proceed? Make a saftey judgement call and go in at your own peril etc?

As a newbie i dont want to "break the rules" if its not the done thing - it was annoying though


Ben Venue loop by coachmacca, on Flickr

Sorry, I can't see photos on this PC. Paths can be shut for forestry operations, however if an alternative is available it's good practice to signpost it. If you think the signage was poor, or perhaps in place when it shouldn't be, you should contact the local Access Officer. pictures/grid references are always useful.

[coachmacca]

Hi Jester , no actually I thought the signage was fine - easy to spot and the wee chap is very cheefrful looking lol , just might have better to also have one at the Ben Venue car park as opposed half way up the hill

Its mostly me being a relative newbie thats the issue as I wasn't sure of alternate routes (beyond plotting myself via map..) or whether the community did as other suggested and proceeded with caution...

For reference the grid ref is NN492059 ... can someone check that as its also testing my OS reference skills!

Its where the trail splits on three - its Defo NN4905 and its the top right quadrant - the reason im asking is Im using a Silva 4 and the romar markings run Left to right/top to bottom 10-0 so I assume you have to reverse the numbers...

I'd like to add at this point Im heading to Glenmore on Friday for training on stuff like this!


I have just realised at this point you probably mean giving the Access officer a grid ref is useful.. not this forum

[Angus Loon]

I did this route last August and came up against this same sign. They have marked out an alternative route through the forest on the south side of Gleann Riabhach but this was very muddy, slippy and unpleasant. There is also a burn to cross at the top of the glen which may be difficult in spate.

[coachmacca]

I did this route last August and came up against this same sign. They have marked out an alternative route through the forest on the south side of Gleann Riabhach but this was very muddy, slippy and unpleasant. There is also a burn to cross at the top of the glen which may be difficult in spate.

Hi Angus , sadly there wasn't an alternative route mapped at this point that I could see (unless it was at the car park - I did realise I hadn't looked at the info board before setting off....)