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As usual, I’d been checking the weather forecast all week for the weekend to get out climbing and it was looking like a no go. However, I woke up early on the Saturday morning and it was looking good, so I quickly had a look around to see what Munro I could do. I don’t drive, so I had the usual nightmare of seeing what route could fit into the limited West Highland line train times. I had in mind Ben Vorlich, but I read that going from Ardlui train station was a difficult way, but I was in a hurry and wanted to get out. I could have cycled to Inveruglas and went the usual way from there, but upon checking from home, there was no room on my train for my bike. So I went for the difficult way from Inveruglas, getting the 10:30ish train.
The start of the walk is a short way along the road from the train station. It involved walking at the side of the road, which could be dangerous if you’re careless but there’s enough room. I reached the underpass and went under that. As tradition, I never do a walk myself without going the wrong way at least once, and this time I managed to do the circuit completely backwards. Instead of heading left like the instructions said, I went ahead/to the right – so if you plan on using this report for guidance, bear in mind that it’s backwards
The underpassThe going was easy enough up through the grass. There aren’t amazing views at this point but it’s not long until it is.
As I got higher I began to see all around. This was a lovely walk along the top towards the peak – lovely views, good tunes on and nice weather.
It didn’t feel like long at all until I reached the peak, which bring great views up Loch Lomond, similar to those from Ben Vane. There were lots of people around who had come up the usual route from Inveruglas – I didn’t see a soul on my way up.
Evidence I was up there I was then tempted to head back in the same direction as it didn’t seem to take long at all, and it would have meant I could definitely get the early train home. But I thought it would be better to explore more, so I headed past the peak and towards the other side. I ended up heading down the clear path to Inveruglas but managed to see where I was going wrong and set about going the right way – towards Little Hills. There didn’t seem to be a path at all so there was lots of almost falling over and scaring sheep.
It soon became clear that the ‘Little’ Hills are not so little – they were a struggle!! Going up and over them seemed like much more trouble than skirting round them but I wanted to stick to the route. The views would have been impressive had I came up this way but I had seen it all on the peak! I was also looking at the time – I had the choice of hurry down and get the early train or stop and relax and have my lunch and have a bit of a wait at the end. I decided to chill out and was feeling better after something to eat.
It was a long way down after the Little Hills and I was getting a bit fed up so I thought, lets just get down as quick as possible without really following the route. This led to me falling off a kind of cliff at one point but I landed in some fern – all good fun
Eventually I reached the bottom and there was a little pass through some fields of sheep – I hoped I wasn’t trespassing.
I now had an hour left until my train so I went to the Ardlui Hotel for a can of Coke in their wonderful beer garden – which was deserted
Such a good spot for a drinkAll in all I was pretty happy with my reverse route – I would have struggled mentally to keep it going if I had to start with those Little Hills! A very easy route if done up and down the same way I did – it’s the hills that make it tough. I would like to try the standard route from Inveruglas. Good day!
View of the Arrochar Alps from the train