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Date. 17th October 2009
Completed by. Dave and Wilson
Weather. sun and good visibility.
Time. 5 hrs 35 mins
An caisteal and Beinn a Chroin
Starting from Falloch lay-by
Well here goes, my first report in quite a while. I set the alarm for 5.05 am and was up, packed, dog walked and ready to go by 5.40am, and by 8.15 I was parked up at the lay-by 2kl N/W Crianlarich and had crossed the stile and was on my way.
According to the met office this was to be a good day for walking in the hills and thankfully it did not disappoint, clear sky’s and sunshine what more could I want.
As normal, I downloaded the route from walkhighlands and followed it to a “T”.
The hardest part of the route was finding the underpass that was hiding in the trees, once through the underpass it was plain sailing.
Straight in front was Sron Gharbh, I head along the track for a short distance and cut of to my left on to a faint path, and soon I’ve reached Sron Gharbh and am making my way along twistin hill with the rocky Knoll / Tor before the summit of An Caisteal clearly visible in the distance.
On the print out from walkhighlands, it says there is a deep cleft needing a few steep steps to negotiate, well this is true, but is not much of a problem at all, I managed this ok but Wilson the beardie (dog) had to be lifted down one part. Soon we are past the rocky knoll and are heading for our 1st munro of the day An Caisteal.
The weather is still great with fantastic views all over for as far as the eye’s can see, we savour the views for several minutes and then we are ready to go.
Soon we reach the bottom of the steep buttress on the west flank of Beinn A Chroin, the sun is now really hot in this sheltered area so Wilson and I decide to take 30mins out to relax at this tranquil spot, all fed and watered we are on our way and making steady progress up the buttress, and at the steep scramble area I had to physically throw and push Wilson over the steep part. Once again we are on our way and making good progress and soon we reach a cairn ( my false summit ) but soon I realise this is not the summit. That is about another 1km farther on with a short decent and steep ascent before reaching the summit.
Again we spend some time on the summit 15 / 20 mins enjoying the views before making our way down through the glen via StobGlas Bheag and follow the Falloch river out on its west bank before reaching the 4 x 4 track that we took on our outward journey.
This was a really good day out for the dog and I and as the wife could not manage due to her having a knee injury from 2 weeks previous I tried to keep up a good pace.
Lay-by to lay-by took 6hrs 5 mins minus 30 min break 5hrs 35 mins
Total time 5 hrs 35 mins
