Benvane
Sunday 26th September 2010
with Honey and Tess

We've been up Ben Ledi many times before but never gone on to its neighbour Benvane. From the SMC Corbett guide (previous edition) and trip reports that I found online it looks like there's 3 main ways Benvane is done.

1. from Ballimore with limited parking, possibly stiles and a boggy ridge
2. from Strathyre with fences, firebreaks and some very boggy ground
3. from Ben Ledi, or up Stank Glen with dog tossing over a fence, a long and tortuous ridge and a long way to return

On looking for alternatives I noticed that on recent OS maps there's a track from Glen Finglas reservoir which runs all the way up Glean Casaig to the main ridge only just over a mile from the summit of Benvane, so we gave that a go.

I parked at Brig o'Turk, but even better would be the parking at the Dam Road carpark at NN531074 where's there's spaces for about 8 cars. Another option could be to park at further E on the A821 and take the waymarked woodland path which joins the Glen Finglas track higher up. The tarmac track runs up the E side of the Glen Finglas reservoir and we turned off to the Gleann Casaig track by some farm buildings at NN531090. Take the right track through the gate. There's livestock here so the dogs went on the lead. Continue on the track to the bealach just N of Stuc Dubh.

There's a path which follows the line of the old fence posts and a couple of areas of peat hags to thread through, but not too bad in the bog stakes given the rain that fell last week. There was ice on some of the shaded peat pools. We had the summit to ourselves.

Excuse the quality of the pictures as I used my mobile rather than haul my DSLR.

Arran, Ben Venue and Ben Lomond


Crianlarich Hills


Ben Ledi


Tess with the Loch Tay hills


Honey with Ben Vorlich and Stuc a'Chroin


We returned the same way with the obligatory doggy dips to cool off


Maybe not the shortest way to do this hill, but pretty straightforward and no stiles or fences to negotiate. It should also be possible to combine with Ben Ledi from this side.