Ben Cruachan by Citylink
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:26 pm
My plans to go walking on Arran on Sunday came grinding to a halt when my friend phoned late on Saturday evening to say something had came up and couldn't go, the weather reports had forecast that it was to be sunny with little or no wind, so not wanting to waste this hillwalking opportunity I quickly had a look on the Walkhighlands site to see where I could go, but in the back of my mind I knew I was only interested in one particular hill, I'd seen it from Beinn Dorain a month earlier........Ben Cruachan
I hate the long drive home after a day in the hills, especially when I'm knackered so I typed 'Falls of Cruachan' into my trusty 'Traveline Scotland' app to see what my options where, train services on a Sunday are useless but the citylink service seemed reasonable, so I booked my 'text ticket' and set my alarm.
I caught the 8:30am Oban bus at Buchanan St which dropped me off at Cruachan at 11am, I had 7½ hours till the last bus back so set off straight away, access is via the railway station path, but by the look of it more people head up the hill than use the station.
I passed through the low bridge and headed up the path, the previous few weeks had been quite wet so the vegetation was quite thick, at times the path became quite hard to get through
The initial climb is pretty steep but with the advantage that you gain elevation quickly, within a short time the trees thin out and the view back to Loch Awe starts to open up
Once the treeline is passed the magnificent Cruachan Dam comes into view
The dam is a fantastic feat of engineering, especially when you consider the complex which it is part of
The route to Ben Cruachan follows the 4x4 track along the western shore of the loch, a small cairn indicates the point where you leave the track and start heading west up to Bealach an Lochan, the view to the west immediately open up as soon as you reach the bealach
including a fine view of Ben More on the Isle of Mull
From Bealach an Lochan, the route turns north to the top and becomes a semi-scramble
The summit is soon reached, from here the best views of any Scottish mountain are before you,
Arran to the south
Jura to the South West
Mull to the West
The ghostly outline of the Isle of Rum to the North West
The Ben to the North
After spending about an hour at the top chatting to fellow walkers I set of eastward along the ridge towards Stob Diamh
About halfway along the ridge I stopped of at Drochaid Ghlas, where one of the best views of Ben Cruachan can be found
At this point I had a wee break I looked at the clock on my phone to my horror I saw 5:15, as the last bus was due to pass Falls of Cruachan at 6:45pm I immediately abandoned my traverse of the ridge to Stob Diamh and descended back down to the reservoir, breaking into a run I made it back down to the railway station in just over an hour and a quarter, I retrieved my phone from my rucksack to check the time again only to find that it was 16:30..........not 6:30pm!!!
I felt a complete and utter idiot for making such a stupid mistake, robbing me of my 10th munro, thankfully the bus driver let me on the bus 2 hours earlier than I had booked and I consoled myself on the long journey home knowing that despite its premature end I had had one of the finest hill walking days of the year.
I hate the long drive home after a day in the hills, especially when I'm knackered so I typed 'Falls of Cruachan' into my trusty 'Traveline Scotland' app to see what my options where, train services on a Sunday are useless but the citylink service seemed reasonable, so I booked my 'text ticket' and set my alarm.
I caught the 8:30am Oban bus at Buchanan St which dropped me off at Cruachan at 11am, I had 7½ hours till the last bus back so set off straight away, access is via the railway station path, but by the look of it more people head up the hill than use the station.
I passed through the low bridge and headed up the path, the previous few weeks had been quite wet so the vegetation was quite thick, at times the path became quite hard to get through
The initial climb is pretty steep but with the advantage that you gain elevation quickly, within a short time the trees thin out and the view back to Loch Awe starts to open up
Once the treeline is passed the magnificent Cruachan Dam comes into view
The dam is a fantastic feat of engineering, especially when you consider the complex which it is part of
The route to Ben Cruachan follows the 4x4 track along the western shore of the loch, a small cairn indicates the point where you leave the track and start heading west up to Bealach an Lochan, the view to the west immediately open up as soon as you reach the bealach
including a fine view of Ben More on the Isle of Mull
From Bealach an Lochan, the route turns north to the top and becomes a semi-scramble
The summit is soon reached, from here the best views of any Scottish mountain are before you,
Arran to the south
Jura to the South West
Mull to the West
The ghostly outline of the Isle of Rum to the North West
The Ben to the North
After spending about an hour at the top chatting to fellow walkers I set of eastward along the ridge towards Stob Diamh
About halfway along the ridge I stopped of at Drochaid Ghlas, where one of the best views of Ben Cruachan can be found
At this point I had a wee break I looked at the clock on my phone to my horror I saw 5:15, as the last bus was due to pass Falls of Cruachan at 6:45pm I immediately abandoned my traverse of the ridge to Stob Diamh and descended back down to the reservoir, breaking into a run I made it back down to the railway station in just over an hour and a quarter, I retrieved my phone from my rucksack to check the time again only to find that it was 16:30..........not 6:30pm!!!
I felt a complete and utter idiot for making such a stupid mistake, robbing me of my 10th munro, thankfully the bus driver let me on the bus 2 hours earlier than I had booked and I consoled myself on the long journey home knowing that despite its premature end I had had one of the finest hill walking days of the year.