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The further northwest the better the forecast today, so we stretched our usual 1.5 hour drive limit a bit and headed to the banks of Loch Awe - not an area we'd walked in before. Although we had, unusually been
inside the mountain before, on a "Hollow Mountain" tour of Cruachan Power Station - passing time on a rainy short break in Oban. This time Ben Cruachan summit and its accompanying horseshoe was the target.
We're not fans of early starts, so we didn't arrive at the smallish parking area until nearly half past ten. Luckily we slotted neatly into the last parking spot and headed up the steps under the railway line. Past the station and then an electricity substation, and the concrete walkway becomes a regular, narrow hill path. A frog greeted us as we reached the first steeper section.
As forest gives way to fern, the views opened out to Loch Awe, with the weather looking promising.
The path divides for a little while, and you can choose between a wider, higher path and a pleasantly shady lower one. They joined together at an angled ladder stile which felt like it was about to fall into the Allt Cruachan below! Soon after, the reservoir dam was visible ahead, flanked by power lines. I'm certainly no fan of big man-made structures in the hills, but the power station here doesn't seem to detract. Instead, it's still dwarfed by the scale of the surrounding hills, somehow making them seem even grander.
Across underneath the dam and up a steep ladder to gain the top of the dam wall - this required more use of hands than the rest of walk put together. Along the reservoir on its west side, on a flat track which is a nice break from the ascent.
Walkhighlands suggests that the second of two paths up into Coire Dearg is the drier one - even this was wet enough at first, and the first path soon crosses the burn to join up. A little shower passed over, but never amounted to more than a few spots of rain - waterproofs never left the bag. Beyond, the going improves on a rocky, clear path:
After a little rest at the bealach between Meall Cuanail and Ben Cruachan, we headed right, still ascending steeply. This was a more tiring ascent than expected - our other recent hill walks have been quite gentle (Schiehallion the most recent Munro), so it was a bit of a wake-up call to the feet. In addition, a lot of loose dirt and stones on the path means it's a case of three steps forward, one step back. The views more than made up for it, however:
Soon, Cruachan's summit was directly in view - and plenty of blue sky...
...or was there? Just at the wrong moment, a layer of low cloud came in, exactly positioned at summit level. It mostly dissipated as it reached us, but effectively obscured most of the views to the west... grrr!
Just before the cloud came in:
Nevertheless, it was a good viewpoint, and ideal for lunch, which we had gazing out along the ridge towards Stob Diamh:
Lots of other people were also having a break here, but there's plenty of space here and it didn't feel too crowded. Once it emerged from the cloud, Stob Dearg to the west looked magnificent - perhaps even more impressive than Cruachan (it's only a few metres lower):
Whilst the low cloud had moved away here, the weather to the north at the head of Loch Etive had deteriorated sharply, with heavy rain and low cloud. Given the forecast, any walkers over there today must have felt they were getting a bit of a bum deal:
The bad weather to the north didn't clear for the rest of the day, but the skies above Cruachan and its horseshoe stayed lovely and blue for the rest of the day - or at least, the part we were on did. On the way to Drochaid Ghlas we passed a potentially tricky section of ridge, where sloping rock slabs above a steep drop could be problematic in wet weather. In the dry, no issues at all.
The short detour to Drochaid Ghlas is definitely worth it for the best views of Ben Cruachan:
Easy walking along to Stob Diamh - Munro number two, but it doesn't look very impressive from the west side. Still lovely and sunny here, but beyond Sron an Isean to the north it just continued to rain, and rain...
Showers had set in further down Loch Awe too:
While over Dalmally to the east:
From here it's generally downhill, although there a few small re-ascents over minor summits en route. Showers continued to pile into the hills in all directions except for directly overhead:
In the end we continued back towards the dam feeling a bit smug, a faint path slowly re-emerging after a pathless section from Lairig Torran. A short but annoying section of bog on the traverse above the dam didn't dampen spirits, but a developing headache on the way home coupled with slight sunburn did!
Can't complain really