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A precious mid-week Annual Leave day in the summer, and it was actually sunny – surely shome mishtake
... However, I didn’t take twice asking and decided to tackle Ben Vorlich and Stuc A’Chroin, which I’d been meaning to get ticked off for a while but had been leaving for better weather.
Lochearnhead was a quick and scenic drive from Milngavie, and South Loch Earnside was looking very scenic in the sunshine
.
It was busy though: I had had a full day’s walking in Arran the day before and a late return home on the last boat, and therefore didn’t get my usual Early Start. As a result, I was lucky to find what was just about the last parking space at the East Gates of Ardvorlich House where the route starts. I’d never been along the South Loch Earn road before, and found Ardvorlich House and its gates fairly impressive:
The route started on a series of well maintained Landrover tracks, with big signs saying “HILL WALKERS” steering me in the right direction and avoiding the House and its gardens. Eventually the main track leading up to the hills left the environs of the House at a sawmill and a big pile of logs, to go through a pedestrian gate to head straight up towards Ben Vorlich. Soon after this, there was a lovely initial view of Vorlich through the trees:
The track ends just after a bridge over a fast-flowing burn, with signs on both sides saying “DEEP WATER” (Health & Safety everywhere nowadays
!) – however, a well-maintained stony path continues on in the same direction, heading steadily uphill due south onto Ben Vorlich’s NNE ridge. It continued to be a lovely day, and I could see at least four parties on the path ahead of me – these are very popular hills, being the nearest two Munros to Edinburgh.
Although there are a few steeper sections, the path is well maintained and it gave a very easy plod up to Ben Vorlich’s summit. So far, this was all very straightforward, if enjoyable, but I was worried that the next bit would prove to be something of a challenge – the famous Prow of Stuc A’Chroin
.
However, while plodding up Vorlich’s NNE ridge, there were some bonny views north to Loch Earn and the Lawers hills to provide distraction
:
On arriving at the summit, it did indeed resemble Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday morning in the run-up to Christmas
. Ah well, at least it was sociable! Vorlich has twin summits, with the first northern one (adorned with a Trig Point) being slightly higher, although the second cairned one to the south has the better views:
Among the available vistas from the cairned South Top was a panoramic view south-west to that famous Prow, which was indeed looking a bit scary from here
:
I also got a quick shot of the main summit, although there was a fairly large group crowded round it at the time, mainly taking photos of the Prow of Stuc a’Chroin. The stuff around the Trig Point isn’t mine!
Having passed the time of day, I pressed on towards Stuc a’Chroin. Even the descent path from Ben Vorlich was fairly steep and required the occasional use of hands for balance on the rockier bits, although it remained straightforward enough. Predictably, the Bealach an Dubh Choirein (“Bealach of the Dark Corries” – ooh, scary; very Dark-side
!) was extremely squelchy despite the sunshine. It had after all been p***ing it down earlier in the week. There was however a line of old rusty metal fence posts (possibly of some unknown occult significance to the Sith) to mark the way. Also, that Prow provided distraction enough, as it loomed closer:
And closer still:
I was beginning to worry how best to tackle this. There is a Bypass Path, which is clearly visible to the right (north) side of the Prow; however, that had a number of drawbacks: firstly it would miss out on all the “fun” (?) of the Prow; secondly it would require a right squelchy descent down from the Bealach an Dubh Choirein (and never underestimate the Dark Side of the Force, Annekin
...); thirdly it looked only slightly less steep than the Prow itself, and surfaced with scrabbly scree into the bargain. I opted to stay on the main path up the Prow. But how does the path get itself up there, over thon boulderfield and then thon steep rocky nose?
Actually, I needn’t have worried too much – the Path finds an intricate and rather clever way across the easiest section of the boulders, requiring no more than minor and entertaining scrambling, and then cuts up the nose of the Prow well to the left of the rockiest sections. It was undeniably steep, and it did require the use of hands for balance from time to time, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as it had looked from the bottom. There was the added bonus that every time I stopped for breath (not infrequently), I could look back down and have a pleasant wee “did I really climb up that thing?” moment:
Soon enough, the Path topped out at a small cairn, with Stuc a’Chroin’s summit just to the south. Immediately to the northeast was the lower cairned top of the Prow itself. A pair of ravens were perched right on top of its cairn, continuing to give it a certain Dark-side ambience:
There was also a fine view back round the side of the Prow to Ben Vorlich:
Stuc a’Chroin’s fine summit is an excellent viewpoint
, with twin cairns, the first one marking the true summit by the looks of it, but the second one having the better views. I took a few photos from both, just for good measure.
Come to think of it, what is it about Vorlichs and Chroins for confusing summit environs? The Lomond-side Ben Vorlich also has a notoriously confusing summit, with the Trig Point being on a false summit shortly before the main cairned summit (understandably, it’s fooled a good few people in bad weather). Beinn a’Chroin in the Crianlarich Range has no fewer than three summits, with ongoing debate as to whether the Centre Top or the East Top is highest (it’s probably safest just to go up all three just in case). And for that matter, why four hills (two Munros and two Corbetts) all in the same general region of the Southern Highlands and called Beinn a’Chroin, Stuc a’Chroin, Beinn a’Choin and Stob a’Choin
? Once more the question presents itself as to whether those early map-makers were simply Having A Laugh
...
Anyway, having taken the air, I thought I would go back down by the Prow Bypass Path, for the sake of variety. This probably was a slightly quicker way down, but it proved to be just as steep and slippery on descent as it had looked from back at the Bealach an Dubh Choirein.
However, the Prow looked even more impressive when viewed from this angle:
The Bypass Path slowed me right down, as I had no great desire to go scree-surfing this late in the day
! However, the Prow Bypass Path does rather niftily link up with the Ben Vorlich Bypass Path (the wee path that cuts round the western flanks of Vorlich to reach the main path back to Ardvorlich House) in the vicinity of the western flanks of the Bealach an Dubh Choirein – in fact, in one of the two Dark Corries in question, come to think of it. This prevents an awful lot of re-ascent
.
Having made it safely (if slowly) down the Prow Bypass Path, it was just a matter of donning snorkel and flippers
to negotiate the extremely boggy Ben Vorlich Bypass Path. The first bit is the worst, where it cuts round from the Bealach an Dubh Choirein to the north-west ridge of Vorlich.
However, on approach to the NW ridge, things improve considerably, with the path drying up, and very nice views opening up north towards the Tarmachan Ridge and the Lawers range. Interesting contrast between the knobbliness of the Tarmachans and the smoothness of the Lawers peaks:
From the NW ridge of Vorlich, there is an alternative descent option of continuing on down the ridge over Ben Our. However, I stayed on the Ben Vorlich Bypass Path, which now cuts across the next corrie (called the Coire Buidhe - the Yellow Corrie - I believe, although it didn’t look any more saffron-tinted than any other bit of mountainside in these environs
) to reach the main path back to Ardvorlich on the NNW ridge of Ben Vorlich. Although this bit of path also got a bit boggy in the middle, it was far better than the previous section, and continued to give fine views north over Loch Earn.
All the same, it was something of a relief to reach the junction with the main thoroughfare back down to Ardvorlich House, where all difficulties ended.
Stuc a’Chroin made Munro Number Forty for me. Having been very definitely non-sporty for most of my life, and indeed having usually been the guy picked last for the football teams at school (after the chap with one leg and the chap with the Labrador
), this has given me a real sense of achievement. The great thing about the Munros is how achievable a goal most of them turn out to be for the average punter. Okay, I’m probably not ready for the Cuillin Ridge or even the Aonach Eagach just yet, but so far most of the harder ones within a day’s drive of Glasgow have proven to be surprisingly do-able when I’ve actually gotten round to them
. The plan now is to try to get to 50 by the end of the year...
