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Sunday 18th March 2012, Mothers Day! An emergency visit to Asda for flowers and a card for the wife( she's not MY mother!) and the leach was undone and I'm off to the hills again! This time Dek took his estate car complete with 3 bile roof rack, so Beinn Bhuidhe with it's long cycle in was the target for today.
We arrived at Arrochar at 8:30am and what about this for a view!
![cobblerReflection.jpg]()
- The Cobbler
After taking a load of photos it was back to car and a lovely drive up through the Rest n Be Thankful to Loch Fyne. We arrived at the car park and removed the bikes before parking the car due to the height barrier and the substantial puddle you need to traverse to exit said car park!
![peterChecksBikes.jpg]()
- Peter Checks the Bikes and Dek navigates to car park
We chose the right road (both roads meet back to the same point) as it is tarmacced and we get to meet the Highland cows eye-to-(hair covered)eye! The beasts stand their ground but we just cycle round them. The tarmac disspears a wee bit after the "Stalker's Cottage" and forks, keep left for 500 yards and then the barrier to chain the bikes to comes into view. It's probably a 20 minute cycle.
After abandoning the bikes, the walk is uphill and down again, past the Inverchorchan cottages and swing a tight left up this side of the narrowish gulley, just after the gate.
Views open up to Ben Lui and Ben Oss and then Ben Dubchraig beyond.
The gulley has a well defined path with some well defined drops if you lose your footing. This is no Anoach Eagach ridge, but a wrong move here could easily lead to serious injury. There are a couple of occurrences of hand-on scrambling, most notably at the end ( see video!)
Eventually the gully opens up to a natural amphitheatre with picturesque waterfall in the middle. The path continues up the left hand side and then follows some boggier terrain until the plateau.
From here you see the ridge in front, and can see the steep path right up the centre. It looks steeper than it is, and the final ridge path is soon reached - to the left! At this point the path is very close to the STEEP edge but soon veers away and the summit is reached in no time.
Great views down Loch Fyne to Arran and Goatfell, out to the paps of Jura, over to Loch Awe and Ben Cruachan. Looking the other way, we have Ben More and Stobinnean and then The Arrochar Alps from Beinn An Lochain, The Cobbler, Beinn Ime, Ben Vane (Ben Lomond in the distance) and over to Ben Vorlich.
At this stage we got real bad hail and descended into real bad rain! The descent route is pathless and takes the opposite site of the gulley, which can be seen from the high vantage point.
The descent is steep an slippy! After regaining the landrover track it's a 1km walk back to the bikes and a fair cycle back to the car park.
All in all a long but very rewarding day!
Youtube Video of the day:
Peter chains the bikes to the bar:
The Inverchorachen cottages ahead at the foot of Beinn Bhuide:
View opens up to show Ben Lui on the left:
And Ben Oss on the right:
The Gulley is steep with a well defined path:
Any stumble could be nasty due to that ravine:
The path drops off dramatically to the gulley:
Eventually we reach the amphitheatre with the waterfall:
And we get a glimpse of the high ridge:
Looking back to the gulley:
You arrive at the plateua and have to decide how to get up the high ridge:
The path up to the high ridge is steep and eroded:
Ben Vorlich, Ben Lomond and Ben Vane (right):
Ben Vane and it's high ridge to ben Ime:
Ben Ime and The Cobbler:
Dek going up steep path to ridge:
We encounter some stubborn Winter snow:
At last, we reach the ridge and the views to the other side of Loch Awe and the Pass of Brander:
Fellow walker Emma reaches the top of the steep ascent:
Now the well defined track to the summit of Beinn Bhuidhe:
Loch Fyne below:
Beinn Ime and The Cobbler in the distance:
The Arrochar Alps (Left Ben Vorlich, distant Ben Lomond, Ben Vane, Beinn Ime (snow capped)):
Loch Fyne with the Paps of Jura far right in the distance:
Hailstones on the descent:
Veer to the other side of the gulley:
View over to the waterfall from the other side of the gulley:
The path up the gulley as seen from the high grassy other side of the gulley:
Did I say the descent was steep (and slippy)? Peter goes abutt it his own way:
After the rain stopped the sun came back out and the walk back looks nice:
Spooky, is someone trying to point out something to us? Rainbow finishes at edge of woods in Argyle!:
