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I tried to count the number of times I’d driven past Ben Chonzie on my way from Fife to the Highlands. It had to be close to a hundred. And that’s the thing about Ben Chonzie – it’s one of those hills you keep on driving past because there are much better ones further along the road. Further along any road. However, I was due to drive back to Devon this very evening so I fancied a nicer short leg stretch after six pretty gruelling days in the hills. I would drive past Ben Chonzie no more.
I chose to do it from Loch Turret as I couldn’t see the point of driving from Crief over to Comrie to tackle a much duller ascent route. Pleased I did as the Highland Cattle roaming around on the road and everywhere else on the approach to the car park was the undoubted highlight of the day. I got out of the car and walked about amongst them snapping at will. The missus (a Devon lass) loves ‘Curly Coos’ as she calls them (coincidentally, there’s a bar in Crief called The Curly Coo) and I got enough good photos for a decent 2112 calendar.
Ben Chonzie is boring, there’s no getting away from it. A big uninteresting lump of a hill with barely any redeeming features at all, save for one – it’s nowhere near as boring as Carn a’ Choire Bhoidheach. In saying that, it’s a scenic walk in over the full length of Loch Turret and I really enjoyed this part of it. The gravel path continues on past the loch but gets a bit boggy in places before winding its way up the rocks (following an old fence line if you can find it) to the col between Chonzie and Biorach a’ Mheannain. I took a right turn up onto the latter hill first which is smaller but significantly more interesting. I was quite surprised at just how close the Lawers range is from here. It takes an age to drive there through Comrie, past Loch Earn and up through Glen Ogle and Killin, but it looks only a couple of miles away as the crow flies. Sh*t, I’ve got the camera on zoom!
It was blowing a gale on Chonzie. It’s a never ending plod up and over the huge plateau, following a fence line until you eventually reach the summit shelter and a small cairn. With my lightweight frame I could barely stand against the wind and the shelter was useless as the opening faced the wind direction. I stayed for ten seconds, enough to take a couple of photos, and headed down. I was doing the full horseshoe route over the hills on the opposite side of the loch. It’s a good route with a fine path, providing you don’t try taking a shortcut from Chonzie’s summit. It’s not recommended as there is a lot of boggy peat hag waiting to catch you out. Simply carry on over the top following the fence line until you come to another fence line heading south following the apex of the ridge which is your route down. The path sticks to the fence all the way over Meall na Seide (a pointed hill with a cairn) and then to the summit of Carn Chois. This hill has an excellent rock summit and a trig point and would have made a better Munro than Chonzie had it been a couple of hundred metres higher. At Bein Liath the path drops down to join the Landrover track back to the dam.
I enjoyed both walks in and out, if not Chonzie itself, and an even better route would have been to take to the hills on the right at the start instead of walking along the lochside and going over Auchnafree Hill (a Corbett) and then round to Chonzie, returning by my descent route, making an excellent high level walk. One thing though – Ben Chonzie is a hill and makes no pretensions whatsoever towards being a mountain. It does have a small rock face which is seen from the descent route, but it is a hill nevertheless and walking here was a bit like walking in the Ochils or the Pentlands, although marginally less exciting. Loved the Highland Cattle though. They manage to be hilarious without actually trying. Ugly yet cute ate the same time. Another Munro ticked off. I’ll make a Munro bagger yet.
- The Gruesome Twosome
- Should have went to Specsavers
- As Arnie would say – you’re one ugly mutha*****
- Boring Ben Chonzie from Loch Turret
- From the path beyond the Loch
- Heading up to Bealach Chonzie (not on OS maps as I made this name up)
- Looking back from the bealach
- The Lawers Range on zoom
- Loch Turret from Biorach a’ Mheannain
- Ben Chonzie from Biorach a’ Mheannain summit cairn
- Ben Chonzie summit shelter
- Lawers Range from Chonzie summit
- Ben Chonzie’s only rock face – at least it’s got one!
- Descent path follows the fence line
- Looking back to Ben Chonzie
- Carn Chois trig point
- Loch Turret from Ben Liath
- Loch Turret & Ben Chonzie from on top of the dam
- Brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘dogging’!