What a Day!

[cbuchanan3]

After a beautiful drive up along the glen alongside Loch Voil we reached the car park - although as the driver navigating single track roads there wasn't much time for admiring the view! Anyway, with a later start than planned it was boots on and off we went along the farm track until we reached the sign directing us to Beinn Tulichean. Walking onto the hill, you head for the big cairn and once there, you just need to head straight up! There's no path although you can pick up footprints if your looking to follow a trodden route rather than your own. A bit boggy in places but managed to pick our way past the worst of it without any trouble. With fine weather it was actually enjoyable, although there wasn't much respite in the climb and we picked our way up to the fence line/gate higher up on the hill. Once over this the path becomes a bit more defined and you just follow, reaching a bit of a flat spot before the final climb to the top.

It had taken 2 hours, albeit we weren't in any hurry and just enjoying the views all the way up. After a quick stop, we headed off towards Cruach Ardrain following the well worn path down to the bealach between the two and spotting the small cairn indicating the path down into the glen we'd need to pick up on the way back. Climb was no problem and stepping over some of the last snow drifts we soon arrived at the top. With the good weather we had spectacular views and could pick out hills in all directions and finding a sheltered spot on the south side of the top we enjoyed lunch in the sunshine Nearby peaks of Ben More,/Stob Binnein and An Caisteal/Beinn a Chroin got a quick reccy for future weekends. After a bite of lunch, we headed back down from the top to pick up the wet, soggy drop back down into Inverlochlarig Glen both landing on our backsides once and almost coming a cropper on a number of other occasions........be careful! Again, the route down is fairly well trodden and you essentially just follow the stream down. Once in the glen it's easy walking on farm track for a couple of miles back to the car park.

Cracking day and although fairly short in terms of distance you're either going up or down most of the way! It had taken us just shy of 5 hours but if you were in a hurry could be done a lot quicker......but with lovely fine views, why would you!