walkhighlands

Share your personal walking route experiences in Scotland, and comment on other peoples' reports.
Warning Please note that hillwalking when there is snow lying requires an ice-axe, crampons and the knowledge, experience and skill to use them correctly. Summer routes may not be viable or appropriate in winter. See winter information on our skills and safety pages for more information.

Ben Lawers ridge - five Munros from NTS car park

Ben Lawers ridge - five Munros from NTS car park


Postby joenorris » Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:59 pm

Route description: Ben Lawers and Beinn Ghlas

Munros included on this walk: An Stùc, Beinn Ghlas, Ben Lawers, Meall Garbh (Ben Lawers), Meall Greigh

Date walked: 19/04/2011

Time taken: 6.5 hours

Distance: 21.5 km

Ascent: 1700m

Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).

Having only these five Munros left to complete in the Tay-Rannoch area and fancying something of a challenge for my first solo walk, I went ahead with the plan of doing all five Munros (Beinn Ghlas, Ben Lawers, An Stuc, Meall Garbh and Meall Greigh) in the one go. I have to admit I was hesitant in going for the entire ridge, because of the reportedly difficult descent of the NE face of An Stuc and because of the length of the walk. The length was, in fact much shorter than my originally planned route, as I will explain later, much to the relief of my feet and general morale.

The obvious path (or perhaps 'road' would be a more appropriate term) from the NTS visitor carpark prevents any navigation problems over Beinn Ghlas (1h15m) and Ben Lawers (1h45m) until, at least, the summit of An Stuc (2h30m), and it is obviously easy walking.

Image
Ben Lawers from Beinn Ghlas

Image
Looking SE from Beinn Ghlas

Image
Meall Garbh and Meall Greigh from Ben Lawers

Image
Looking SE from Ben Lawers

Image
Beinn Ghlas and Meall Corranaich from Ben Lawers

Image
Ben Lawers from Creag an Fhithich

Image
Meall Corranaich from Creag an Fhithich

Image
Lochan nan Cat and a concealed Meall Greigh from Creag an Fhithich

Image
Meall Garbh from An Stuc

The first difficulty comes on the descent of the NE face of An Stuc. Although there is a relatively clear path negotiating its way through the rocks, there is a very steep gradient at points and the path, at times, is not particularly stable (occassionally it consists of gravel underfoot). The face is manageable with care, but only in good conditions.

Image
Looking back at An Stuc NE face with Ben Lawers in background

Image
An Stuc NW ridge

From the col, the path leads easily up to the summit of Meall Garbh (3h15m).

Image
Flowers on Meall Garbh

Image
Lochan nan Cat from Meall Garbh

Image
An Stuc and Ben Lawers from Meall Garbh

Following this, the path then leads fairly clearly down the ridge towards Meall Greigh. There is a small bog to negotiate at the low point of the ridge, but nothing difficult. The path is less clear on the ascent of Meall Greigh (3h50m).

Image
Ben Lawers, An Stuc and Meall Garbh from Meall Greigh

Image
Ben Lawers, An Stuc and Meall Garbh from Meall Greigh

From here, my plan was to descend the S ridge of Meall Greigh and then walk along the A827 alongside Loch Tay and up the road back to the car park. However, with good visibility, I saw a track (not marked on my old OS map) leading South West from a small dam below Lochan nan Cat around the side of Ben Lawers at approx. 550-600m altitude. The descent to the dam was fairly easy, over grassy and, at times, boggy terrain, but took only 15 minutes.

Image
SW towards Ben More + Stob Binnein

From the dam, the track leads a long way around the side of the Lawers Massif, maintaining and even gaining altitude. Eventually it veers sharply off to the left, towards the A827, but a smaller track continues straight ahead for a short distance. From the end of this smaller track, there is no path and there is a steep descent into, and ascent out of, a gorge containing another small dam.

Image
Looking up Allt an Tuim Bhric towards Ben Lawers

A moderately steep grassy bank leads up to a flatter area at approx. 625m altitude. From here, the contour leads back to the Beinn Ghlas S ridge. Grassy slopes lead back down to the Nature Reserve and the car park.

Overall, a great walk with some fantastic views (SW to Ben More and Stob Binnien, W to Meall nan Tarmachan, as well as a N to the Glen Lyon hills and Schiehallion). An easy route, in good conditions, and a decent length of walk. Great for anyone looking to bag a fair few Munros within reach of the Central Belt.
Attachments

our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Last edited by joenorris on Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:34 pm, edited 4 times in total.
User avatar
joenorris
 
Posts: 92
Munros:232   Corbetts:79
Fionas:10   Donalds:5
Sub 2000:12   Hewitts:50
Wainwrights:40   
Joined: Apr 20, 2011

Re: Ben Lawers ridge - five Munros from NTS car park

Postby monty » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:12 pm

Thats a good walk Jo,
Certainly a fair distance to walk the return. I used a bike and car :D Well done.
monty
 

Re: Ben Lawers ridge - five Munros from NTS car park

Postby Klaasloopt » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:28 pm

joenorris wrote:However, with good visibility, I saw a track (not marked on my old OS map) leading South West from a small dam below Lochan nan Cat ...From here, the contour leads back to the Beinn Ghlas S ridge. Grassy slopes lead back down to the Nature Reserve and the car park.


Very useful, tips like these. You might know, I prefer the northern approach :D
From the header I suspect you have ticked the wrong Munro: Meall Garbh (Cairn Mairg) is situated north of Glen Lyon.

By the way: solo walking is a good idea. Intense!
User avatar
Klaasloopt
Hill Bagger
 
Posts: 326
Munros:168   Corbetts:71
Fionas:13   
Sub 2000:22   Hewitts:49
Islands:11
Joined: Jan 13, 2011
Location: Santpoort-Zuid, The Netherlands

Re: Ben Lawers ridge - five Munros from NTS car park

Postby joenorris » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:05 pm

You're absolutely right, if I'd included the Glen Lyon Meall Garbh it certainly would have been a decent sized walk! Thanks.
User avatar
joenorris
 
Posts: 92
Munros:232   Corbetts:79
Fionas:10   Donalds:5
Sub 2000:12   Hewitts:50
Wainwrights:40   
Joined: Apr 20, 2011

Re: Ben Lawers ridge - five Munros from NTS car park

Postby baggervance » Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:18 pm

Nice report Joe.

Me and David F done these 5 in a row about 3 weeks ago (still not posted my report and pics) An Stuc descent was fun, sometimes on all fours and the all important 5th point of contact ~ ma erse :lol:

We parked a car at the Hotel and started from the NTS car park which reduced the need for the long walk back

cheers
User avatar
baggervance
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 266
Munros:282   Corbetts:59
Fionas:5   Donalds:7
Joined: Jul 29, 2010
Location: New Stevenston (Motherwell)

Re: Ben Lawers ridge - five Munros from NTS car park

Postby blueyed » Fri Apr 22, 2011 8:18 am

well done! i was actually thinking of the same route.. still waiting for days to be longer as i assume it would take me ages to walk that.
:?
User avatar
blueyed
Hill Bagger
 
Posts: 482
Munros:50   Corbetts:13
Fionas:5   Donalds:4
Sub 2000:7   Hewitts:4
Wainwrights:5   
Joined: May 20, 2010
Location: edinburgh

Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).




Can you help support Walkhighlands?


Our forum is free from adverts - your generosity keeps it running.
Can you help support Walkhighlands and this community by donating by direct debit?



Return to Walk reports - Scotland

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: axelmathot, Collaciotach, emmajay1403, jmcgrath34, Mouse1903, s1holland, x5lejo2 and 84 guests