Beinn Dearg & Ben Gullipen circuit

[findhornloon]

Another short hike on to the Highland Boundary Fault (HBF) line.
A pleasant walk through along a forest track to Ben Gullipen with its various masts at the top. Then it gets more interesting as you climb up and down the very steep heathery rock ridges of the HBF until you reach the summit of Beinn Dearg. Fabulous views in all directions despite it being hazy, with Lake Venachar looking like a mill pond. Th eline of the HBF is very distinctive as it follows it perfectly straight trajectory past Aberfoyle and onwards to Conic Hill on Loch Lomond. Time from the Forestry Commission car park to the summit 1.5 hours taking it easy.
Expected to take 30min back to the car via the Rednock Burn as there is a track all the way from Letter Farm - wrong - it took me a full hour.

Coming down from the summit there is a faint track which then heads away from the Rednock Burn and back up to Ben Gullipen but either there is no path down the burn or I missed it. Anyway, I did the 'simple' thing of following the burn which would eventually take me to the track at Letter Farm as shown on the map. Of course the 1:25k map did not show how steep the sides of the burn was, combined with steep vertical drops (burn was fairly dry but would have some great waterfalls after any rain), 6 foot high bracken on each side and about 100m of windblown trees. A real battle ensued, walking down the burn was a no-go area as it was slimy and slippy as well as being very steep. I have never been so glad to see a forest track, just shows there are still wild and virgin areas out there to challenge us.
If you do this walk I strongly recommend that you either try to find a path down or at least keep to the high ground above and to the west of the Rednock Burn as you descent towards the track above Letter Farm.