Walkhighlands

Anyone out walking Easter Weekend knows how amazing the weather was (15+ degrees, blue skies, no clouds, light winds). A group of friends and I headed to Ben Vane. For some in our group, this was their first Munro, and for me, only my second. The directions were perfectly clear, though the trail from the OS maps going up to the flat shoulder were not evident from the access road. We stopped for a little water at what looked like a four-wheeling course across the access road from the disused quarry. We climbed up to the flat shoulder-ridge finding our own way, though half-way up we noticed a line of metal posts which might have marked the trail - but even they weren't clear from the road. Once up on the flat ridge the trail became clear and we saw a few other walkers coming down from the summit. From here on up the trail was perfectly visible, easy to follow, and on a brilliantly clear, sunny day offered amazing views all around. The scrambling was perfectly manageable and it wasn't long before we were at the flat summit with cloudless views of the entire area. If you're geologically inclined, if you drop down the summit opposite where the trail comes up and turn to look back on the summit, there are some fantastic erosion features that make the foliation and folding of the schist really stand out very obviously! We didn't linger at the top but headed back down. Once we got to the flat ridge we could see where the track meant for us to go, but with the snow melt, it led right through an incredibly boggy patch, so we took a drier route instead back to the access road. Perfect walk for a beautiful day!