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I say shabeer, you say chavar, however it`s pronounced this munro provided a great day out for myself, my mate Jim and,for his first munro, my 14 year old son Tom. Jim just decided to come at the last minute after an agonisingly sleepless night trying to decide whether to come with us or spend this beautiful day waiting in all day for an electrician to fit his new shower. Tom`s been asking to come out with me for a while now and whilst I usually leave him snoring in bed he wasn`t getting his lie in today. I`d planned the walk on friday night, choosing it because it was the closest one to home that i hadn`t tried yet, with the price of petrol these days thats the tactic i`m sticking to when planning my walks.
We parked and left the Drovers at 10.30 and walked around Beinglas campsite and instead of following the path directly behind the site we crossed over the bridge and follwed the path up south of the waterfalls hoping for a better view of them. It was the right way to go as we climbed up through the forest to see the huge drop to the bottom of the falls.
- bottom of ben glas falls
We followed the waterfall about 3/4 of the way up and found a safe place to cross to the main path.
- ben glas waterfall
- across the waterfall
Not to be forgotten here is that`s a steep climb up and it was getting really hot (hopefully there`s many more of these days to come) and i was wondering how Tom would handle it, as there was still a long way to go. The path then follows the burn up a less steep side of the slope until it eventually evens out with Ben Glas standing over to your left for the rest of the walk to Lochan Beinn Chabhair.
- Ben Glas
About 12 oclock we stopped by the burn for some grub and splashed about a bit in the welcome cold water before heading off again. Tom was doing fine and was really enjoying the walk.
- Tom & Jim in ben glas burn
- anyone know what this is ?
As we neared the lochan we caught up with another couple of walkers, Jude & Julie, and walked to the water together. They were pretty glad we met up with them as although they`d done a few munros they were relatively inexperienced(listen to bear grylls here !) and just wanted reassurance they were on the right track, we were kinda hoping they would do the same for us
As it turned out we had a good laugh with them as we shared various parts of the walk, and meeting like minded people on days like this only adds to the outdoor experience. After checking the map, yes i used a map and compass this day, we left the girls at the bottom of Meall nan Tarmachan and found the path up looking over the lochan and back over to parlan hill.
- lochan beinn chabhair and parlan hill (the devil`s hill?)
Parts of the path towards here are only a bit boggy but once up onto the ridge its mostly fine if a bit rocky, but hey it`s a mountain, it`s scotland, it rains. The path rises up and down and twist and turns and is a really enjoyable walk, especially on a day like this where we have a clear blue sky, even if it is a bit hazy blocking any great views of far off mountains but there was still stunning scenery around us.
- An Caisteal
The path is reasonably safe with only a couple of short scrambles as you near the top. We reached the top at about 2.15 and spent half an hour up there having lunch and sharing the views with Jude & Julie (2 new recruits to walkhighlands i hope
) and a hungry crow who joined us for some chargrilled chicken pasta.
- Jim and Tom reach the summit
- crow
- looking back over lochan
- an caisteal, ben more, stob binien, cruach adrain ?
Now as i was pouring over the various reports of this walk, mountainstar i think it was, kept popping up and recommending a visit to Lochan a` Chaisteil high up on BenGlass if you were up here, so this is where we headed for next.
- walking back
After our close encounter with the crow i then bumped into another bird as i lagged behind "tough of the track" Jim and the sprightly 14 year old legs of Tom. A ptarmigan was just sitting in the grass and he let me get close enough to get a good couple of pics before i left him alone again.
- ptarmigan
It looked a simple enough walk to the other lochan, much the same as chabair in the way you were up and down over the hills,, but a lot more boggy as there was no defined path. It was certainly worth going to though, as we approached the huge rock face at the end of the lochan we heard the calls of some kind of hawk sitting on the top of it. We kept our eye on it and watched as it took off and dived down the side of the hill, probably toward some unexpecing prey.
- there`s a hawk perched up there
- lochain a` chaisteil 1
We stopped in wonder as Lochain a` Chaisteil appeared in front of our eyes. It really is beautiful mountainstar and i wish we could have stayed there for longer, but with water supplies running out and having a 14 year old with us we baid farewell to this hidden little beauty spot and topped Meall mor nan Eag before heading down the rather steep gully back to the burn. It was a fine walk back in the sun and we ended our day with a quick visit to the Drovers Inn for a well deserved pint and a coke. Really pleased my son enjoyed the day out and would recommend this hill of the hawk,(or crow, or ptarmigan or even jay birds) to anyone especially on a sunny day.
- Bear
links to everytrail
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1040395http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1040160thanks for reading
