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This was the one time this summer that I was lucky with the weather
. After a couple of mildly epic trips (by my standards
) earlier in July - first the South Shiel Ridge in the p***ing rain; then a round of the Monadhliadh Munros on a blustery day - I was more in the mood for something closer to home this time. Beinn Bhuidhe was the only Munro in Area 1 of the SMC Munros book that I hadn't done yet, so I reckoned today was the day.
I got an early start and parked in the fine big walkers' car park just off the start of the Glen Fyne road. The sun was shining, and there was a good view up the glen as I re-crossed the bridge over the River Fyne.
It's a fairly long walk in and many people cycle the first bit, but I'd decided to walk - a lucky decision I was glad of in retrospect, since walking rather than cycling makes it possible to use a handy new Hydro track on descent. This is something I could have learned from other recent WRs if I'd done my homework properly
... Fortuitously however, a friendly local chap chatted to me out of his car window a wee bit up the road, told me about the new track, and suggested that I used it on descent. This turned out to be excellent advice
.
Although it's a long walk, Glen Fyne is very scenic and I made quicker progress than I'd expected. That's the new Hydro track that's visible off to the left in this photo:
A bit further up the road I met this wee chappy:
...And shortly thereafter his Mummy Coo, who was a bit more intimidating! I stayed well clear of the pointy end
.
A bit up the road again and I crossed the bridge over the River Fyne. On the west side, the new Hydro Track joins the road on the left. There is a sign here with some info about it: apparently it's a charity-funded community initiative; presumably they sell the electricity it produces. Sounds like a good idea
.
After passing the settlement at Glenfyne Lodge (chickens in the road!), the tarmacked road re-crosses the River Fyne at a second bridge to head to a much larger hydroelectric scheme, but the route to Beinn Bhuidhe carries straight on along an untarmacked but still very good track.
A bit further again and I came to the gate with the sign asking cyclists to leave their bikes here.
It wasn't much further to the old cottage at Inverchorachan, where the proper hillwalking begins.
This ascent path up this first steep section is a wee beauty, consistently very scenic with some entertainingly scrambly sections, but nothing too drastic. There are a couple of wee waterfalls at the bottom and then one big one at the very top. Here are the falls at the bottom:
And one of the mildly scrambly sections of path:
Near the top end, there is what Ralph Storer, in his 'Ultimate Munros Guide', infamously describes as 'a Granny-Stopper of a rock outcrop'. Actually, it isn't nearly as hard as it initially looks: I very much doubt that it would have stopped my granny
...
In fact, the trickiest bit is probably 20 metres or so AFTER the 'Granny-Stopper', where the path drops down over a big smooth slippery boulder with considerable exposure above the stream gully to the right. However, I bum-slid down this without incident, to find myself in a tiny but very scenic 'Lost Valley', a brief levelling covered in wildflowers that was vaguely reminiscent of the famous one in Glencoe (although much, much smaller):
Shortly after this came the bigger waterfall. It wasn't so impressive today - the downside of the unseasonally fine weather I suppose (anyone would think it was summer or something
).
The path ascends to the left hand side of the waterfall, where it tops out at the end of the first steep section, shortly below the new Hydro track.
I crossed the track, initially missing the continuation of the hill path - it was just a bit further down the track to the right. Fortunately I spotted it again soon enough.
The path continues across an odd level 'shelf', to finally reach the intimidatingly steep south side of Beinn Bhuidhe proper. This mountain is basically a long craggy ridge running SW to NE. Its actual summit is notoriously elusive, and difficult to get a good view of until you're almost at it.
From a distance it's difficult to believe that there's going to be any straightforward way up, but actually the path continues to make a cunning and only mildly scrambly way up a gully, and it turned out to be a lot less tricky than I had expected.
At the top of the gully, the path tops out at a cairn, to join a better established path that runs westwards towards the summit.
Although it's a good well-built path, this final section was no stroll in the park: there were some wee scrambly sections, and considerable exposure above big crags on the left. It was a fine scenic stoat on a good summer's day like today, but it wouldn't have been so much fun in wind or snow
!
It wasn't far to the summit cairn though, which incorporates the very dilapidated stump of a Trig point, now lying on its side. The views were very Fyne indeed! East to the rest of the Arrochar Alps:
Back south to Loch Fyne:
...And north to the Cruachan range:
I stopped for a quick bite to eat, then headed back along the ridge path. There were some more wee exposed sections on the way back along! However, the new Hydro track was clearly visible below, and it was indeed looking very promising as an easy descent route.
I passed the cairn where the gully path tops out, but this time I continued eastwards a bit further along the ridgetop path - that gully would be a tad steep on descent, I reckon
. From here, I finally got a good look back the way to see what Beinn Bhuidhe's summit actually looks like: a shapely wee cone from this angle, actually.
Towards the end of the east ridge, just before it starts to rise again towards a minor east top, it is possible to make a mainly pathless but straightforward descent down steep grassy slopes to gain the new Hydro track. As promised, this gave a very easy and continuously scenic descent down to the Glen Fyne road:
As others have commented, this track is fairly hardcore: I definitely wouldn't fancy attempting it in any four-wheeled vehicle
. It was a straightforward walk, and it would doubtless give a grand free-wheely down on a bike - although I for one certainly couldn't have cycled UP this!
The Hydro track definitely saves some time on descent compared to using the Inverchorachan route , and to my surprise I was back at the car inside of seven hours. A very Fyne day out indeed!
