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This is my first report so bear with me!
First of all, the access to Ben Donich was really easy to find, only a short distance along the B828 from the Rest and Be Thankful. There is a Forestry Commission sign for Open Hill Access, take that turning and then park before the gate. From there, its a straight track until a sign on the left hand side for Ben Donich Access.
We set off along the really well defined path through a felled area until a gate.
The path is pretty clear for the duration of the walk with a few wee grassy/boggy areas on the way up.
It can be quite rocky in places along the path but it just made for a more interesting walk. There are also some ridges and holes along the way so I can imagine if you were to stray from the path in snow, you'd easily miss these and some of them are pretty deep!
After about 40 minutes we thought we almost reached the top, I thought this was strange given the report said around 3.5-4.5 hours all in. Sure enough, we were right...once you reach the first peak you realise there are more to go. It can be a wee bit disheartening when you reach the top of a peak to realise there is another one to go. Turns out there were 4.
After a wee scramble down into what looked like Lord of the Rings territory and after a short climb back up, eventually, we reached the trig point! You just take the same path back down,
The walk up took around 2 hours and about 1.5 down and it was well worth it!
- View from the top!
The views were incredible! We were really lucky to have a clear day. I thought these views far surpassed those from Ben Lomond! I'd definitely recommend the walk! It's a short one, but a good one!