This is a short walk, done late afternoon as a leg-stretcher, but with more to it than expected. Not the scrabble up from the B845 Bonawe to Barcaldine road (widening a bit north of the col). Not any difficulty waling across the plateau of the hill - really quite delightful. The problem was - where to go for the summit?
I first went across to the trig point, crossing a couple of stock fences. However, inspection of the 1:25k OS map suggests that this cannot be the summit. The height of the trig point is given as 350 m, and it stands prominently on a rounded knoll. No ground in the vicinity is (significantly) higher. However, east of the Eas Mhaodain (crossed on the way to the trig point) there is a complex area of moraine. The 1:25 k map shows no less than 4 ring contours corresponding to an altitude of 350 m. Two of these are over 50 m wide, and although rounded one could be expected to be at least 351 m. Another, although only about 15 m across, is steep-sided, so again likely to be over 351 m high.
The trig point was clearly located where it is for survey purposes, commanding a grand view of the southern end of Loch Etive. But that doesn't make it the summit. Often, summit cairns are somewhat displaced from the true summit, but often within around 50 m of the true summit (as determined by a careful survey). For a rounded hill, the walker has overcome the physical challenge, and can with good conscience claim to have climbed the hill. However, in this case, the true summit is probably at least 500 m to the northeast, across a stream involving reascent of at least 20 m. If you've only visited the trig point, is it reasonable to 'claim' to have climbed the hill?
The posted route visits two of the candidate summits as well as the trig point, a delightful walk.
In retrospect, it would have been better to have taken the track from NM 985 368 round the southern flank of the hill (with an alternative parking area just round the corner at NM 985 367). From the end of the mapped path, the trig points and the candidates as the true summit are around a kilometre away, over benign terrain