Walkhighlands

This walk is one of a series of walks with the team of guys I'm doing the Caledonian Challenge with in June. The team is myself, Colin, Martin, Sandy, Hamish and Billy (Billy was missing from this walk). The guys wanted something a bit longer than our last walk over the Pentlands Ridge so I decided Ben Chonzie fitted the bill perfectly. By starting the walk all the way back at the Famous Grouse Visitor Centre, just off the A85, we were able to lengthen the walk to 29km ( 18.1 miles). The walk up the track towards the car park at Loch Turret is a bit of a slog but the 3 miles went quickly enough; once we hit the dam we headed for the West bank of the Loch followed the track until it disappeared and then headed up to the ridge above following a faint track until we hit the fence posts. From the ridge we continued to follow the fence posts to the summit of Carn Chois and on to the rocky summit of Meall na Seide which at 757m gives a good view all around. From the summit the path takes you down about 60 metres before starting to climb again to the summit of Ben Chonzie. We only stopped long enough on the summit to take a team photo as this was Colin and Martin's first Munro so congrats to them both Again following the fence posts the return route takes you down to the Bealach above the Lochen at the head of Glen Turret where we stopped for a sandwich before following the path down into the Glen. It's an easy path to follow and as soon as you start to descend you can see the land rover track which leads you all the way along the Loch back to the dam. The final part of the walk back to the Famous Grouse visitor centre was thankfully all down hill and we celebrated our return with a good cup of coffee and a big wedge of cake before driving home.
For those wanting to climb Ben Chonzie without the trek up from the distillery the route from the car park at the dam is the best way to climb this Munro; You can do it in either a clockwise or anti clockwise direction, which ever you fancy, either way you get great views of the Loch and down to Crieff and the surrounding hills.