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I was staying in Lochgoilhead for a couple of nights while walking the Cowal Way (north to south). I got my nearest & dearest to drop me off at the car park at the top of the B828.
Great views of the 1-way convoy system operating on the old military road (due to the recent land-slip) and the Cobbler and Beinn an Lochain drifting in and out of the mist.
- A83 Landslip
- Cobbler in the mist
- Beinn an Lochain in the mist
Good clear path all the way to the summit, with one small/straightforward down-climb at one point and some interesting cracks/fissures and a cave under a big boulder.
- Good clear path all the way up
- One of the big cracks in the rocks
- Trig point on the summit
Reached the large white trig point on the summit after 1hr 50 of very enjoyable ascent, followed by a descent due south down fairly-steep but straightforward grassy slopes to reach the edge of the forest.
The path showing running east-west along the north edge of the forest no longer exists, though there are still some white poles showing where it might have once been. Instead I tramped west through some very wet long grass & rushes for about 300m to reach a fence and gate (beside a massive erratic boulder) and another 200m westwards to reach a stile (also marked with a white pole).
I carried on west for a while searching in vain for the path through the forest which is shown on the 1:25,000 OS map (NN 215 024) before giving up and returning to the stile and floundering across the 350 metres of ankle-jarring clear-felled area of tree stumps, slippy branches, hidden holes, moss-covered rocks etc to reach the forest road at NN 216 021 where a good stony path continued on downhill towards the river, joining up with a delightful way-marked path and steps down to two footbridges beside a partially-hidden waterfall to join the Cowal Way (16:10, so 3hrs 20mins plus 15mins looking for the missing path).
I then followed the Cowal Way all the way down to Lochgoilhead and round the beach to the footbridge and on to the Drimsynie House Hotel by 16:54, for a well-earned pint in the bar
(4hr 20 in total).
I’d recommend this route if, like me, you are staying in Lochgoilhead without a car but can arrange/ hitch a lift to the top of the road and fancy a route that gets you back to your base without needing to organise a 2nd rendezvous with your lift-provider.
In my case this was a most-excellent way to spend a ‘rest day’ while walking the Cowal Way.