Ben Vorlich and Stuc a'Chroin

Tuesday 11th September 2007

The weather on this walk was a little mixed. In most places the day was rather sunny and pleasant, but a dark cloud hung over the mountain that refused to budge and cast a very grim shadow over the whole day. I parked near the bridge over the Ardvorlich Burn and proceeded along a track beside the burn that passes Ardvorlich House and up Glen Vorlich. The track climbed the steep valley up to a bridge over the Allt a'Coire Buidhe and from there a footpath led me up into the corrie. As I climbed ever higher on the path I gained the north ridge of Ben Vorlich and continued up onto the cloud-covered summit. It had been quite a struggle for me to climb that steep unrelenting ridge but that was all forgotten as I walked between the summit cairn and the trig point, but which was the actual Munro? Harvey reveals that it's the trig point.

Onward from Ben Vorlich I followed a path beside a line of rusting metal posts south-west off the mountain and down to Bealach an Dubh Choirein. In the patchy cloud I could see Stuc a'Chroin ahead of me with a big cliff barring my way. I was looking forward to the scramble up, so I was rather disappointed with the path that I was following as it went off to the left around the side of the cliff. Later, when I read Ralph Storer's account of a walk up these mountains, he describes a clear path scrambling up the cliff. Where has that gone? I almost feel cheated by the path that I followed as I would have enjoyed a scramble up that cliff-face. The path I did follow went up a wide gully behind the north top climbing steeply but easing the work through zigzags whenever possible. Once on top I walked south through the mist to the summit cairn where I had my lunch.

Having got rather cold during lunch I buttoned up and headed back to the north top spurning the clear descent path. After a look at the memorial on the at the north top I climbed down the large boulders to the obvious westerly descent path. Following this path down the north-western ridge I descended steeply into the top of Coire Fuadarach. At the bottom of the steep slope I took a fainter path that skirts around the top of the corrie past the bealach and across the western slopes of Ben Vorlich. Over the north-western ridge of Ben Vorlich I crossed the northern slopes of the mountain to rejoin the ascent path. My descent path was cleverly engineered to minimize reascent as I bypassed Ben Vorlich and avoided the rocky traverse of Bealach an Dubh Choirein.

Once back on the main path and away from Ben Vorlich the sun came out. I had seen distant valleys bathed in sunshine while I was sat under a dark cloud but now that I was free of Ben Vorlich's grip I was able to enjoy the sunshine for myself, so I had a lovely, sunny walk back down to the shore of Loch Earn and my waiting car. I have to say I don't think this was a great walk, as it seemed to be lacking something, maybe it was the lack of sunshine or good views, or maybe it was the lack of a good scramble up Stuc a'Chroin. But it was still an enjoyable walk.