Good weather forecast for the West Highlands, but we couldn't leave Glasgow til lunchtime so that limited our options a bit (plus still lots of snow on high ground). Cruach Tairbeirt above Arrochar seemed ideal: 400 metres high, a short drive and with a path to the top.
The start of the walk is at the car park next to Arrochar & Tarbet station. I'd read a few reports on WH's and elsewhere mentioning people having problems with a local resident who took exception to walkers using the car park. We checked the signs carefully - nothing at all to suggest that the car park is for the railway station only.
As we were booting up, another car arrived and a woman came out of a nearby cottage and informed them, rather rudely, to go elsewhere and that walkers weren't allowed. They (sadly) drove off, before the resident turned her attention to me, raising her voice, telling me I was ignorant, hadn't read the "no parking" signs, and that I was stopping people from using the "park and ride". At this point the car park was completely empty except for our own car, despite the (only) train to Glasgow being due imminently. Upon asking her to show me the signs, they turned out to be imaginary, except for the one she'd put up on the wall of her own house.
At this point I politely decided to ignore her and we set off to climb the hill. The first short section uses a Forestry Commission trail which is currently closed for fallen trees / tree felling. Being Easter Sunday, there wasn't any tree felling going on, so we proceeded with care. The path was clear of trunks: after walking through the railway underpass, turn right at the signpost:
The path traverses the wooded hillside for a short distance then briefly climbs alongside a burn before fording it:
Immediately after the ford, turn left, directly uphill between rows of trees:
Further up, the path turns right to slope diagonally up the hill instead of straight up it - easily missed. Stay on the correct route (with a couple of fallen trees to climb over) and it leads you to the open hillside, with a fairly clear path leading all the way to the summit.
Excellent views of Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond from the ascent:
Caterpillar:
Cobbler poking out from behind Beinn Narnain:
The path would probably be quite boggy after a normal winter, but the ground's pretty dry at the moment. Lots of frogspawn around, sadly mostly on top of dried-up puddles. Under an hour (and less than a mile) to the trig pillar. Good views of the higher hills and nearby lochs. North to Ben Vorlich and upper Loch Lomond:
On the way down we detoured slightly for this view of Loch Long:
Surprise, surprise: back at the start, the car park was still empty except for our own car.
An excellent, straightforward hillwalk this one, and despite the unfriendly greeting at the start (or perhaps because of it), I'd like to invite you all to try it out as soon as possible... multiple times
Definitely the correct attitude to residents such as that. Quite a nice day you had for it as well; may end up doing this marilyn at some point as it's really not too far from Glasgow. I'm still waiting for the snow to melt below the highland boundary... 
