The Glen Falloch Group

Here follows the report on my third walk in Scotland during my holiday of 2005. 

Thursday 21st July 2005 

I had a much better walk on this day than on Ben More the day before. I had clearer weather, a weaker wind and a rising cloud level, but it was still a very long and challenging day. I walked south of Crianlarich down the A82 for just over a mile to a car park on the edge of the Crianlarich forest and headed up a track beside the River Falloch. I was supposed to be following Ralph Storer's route number five (from his book, "100 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains") up Srón Gharbh but the good track at the bottom of the valley seemed far more appealing to me than the steep, pathless climb up the hill, so I decided to stay beside the river. But, of course, the track soon came to an end and was replaced by a boggy and indistinct path that ran up into Coire Earb, at the head of the valley. Soldiering on I made my way to the end of the valley and began to climb a ridge up to the eastern peak of Beinn a' Chroin. At one point I had a bit of difficulty, not with the terrain, but with me: I was exhausted and totally worn out. I don't know if I'd not been eating enough but I felt a pain in my stomach and an inability to go any further. I rested for a while and had something to eat before trying to continue climbing up the hill. 

Gradually the pain and weariness left me and I reached the summit of Beinn a' Chroin, which has many tops and the eastern one that I had first reached was, according to Ralph Storer's book, the true summit. He would have had me walk all the way up to Beinn a' Chroin from Bealach Buidhe and then all the way back along the whole ridge and down to the bealach. My route, although very muddy, removed this necessity and let me do the whole ridge in one go. A point should be made about the various tops on Beinn a' Chroin: although most sources that I had looked at before doing this walk gave the eastern peak as being the highest, the Harvey Map that I was using marked the middle peak of five as being the highest. When I looked this up after the walk I discovered that Harvey was right, the eastern peak has been demoted and the new summit is indeed the one on the western ridge (at 388 186). There has been a re-survey of the tops which moved the actual summit away from its previous location, but as far as I could tell the actual Munro on Beinn a' Chroin does not have a cairn, despite the fact that all the others do! (However reports suggest that it does have a cairn, so maybe I was mistaken there.)

I walked over each of the peaks just to make sure that I'd bagged the lot then began my descent to Bealach Buidhe weaving around the crags and crisscrossing down the steep rocky slope. After crossing the grassy col I made my ascent of An Caisteal up a fun and interesting path up the steep rocky ridge. Unfortunately I was now well into the clouds that still lingered at the top of this almost one thousand metre mountain. I walked past the summit cairn(s) along the rocky ridge, to beyond the cairn at the northern top at the actual castle-like part of the ridge that gives the Munro its name, before returning back along the ridge. After passing the summit, and before descending very far back down to Bealach Buidhe, I veered off to the right down steep grassy slopes to the bealach with Beinn Chabhair. The ascent of this third Munro of the day required a little thought as there is no path and I had to pick my own way through the complex terrain of the eastern slopes. Eventually, and with more than a little relief, I reached the top and bagged my third Munro of the day, my seventh in three days.

[The Glen Falloch Group seen from the neighbouring mountain of Cruach Ardrain]

From the summit I headed north veering west along a clear path on the narrow summit ridge that was a joy to travel along. Call me lazy but I do like a good path to walk along; if there is no path to follow I have to think about picking out a route instead of just enjoying the walk and the views. I always enjoy walking a path that weaves around complex, rocky terrain and the top of Beinn Chabhair contains just such a path, as does the southern approach to An Caisteal. The path I was following descended to reveal an astonishingly complex terrain that reminded me of the early part of my walk the day before. Thankfully this time I was descending instead of ascending so I was able to zoom over the grassy knolls, now well into my second wind. I followed a faint path around the northern slopes of Meall nan Tarmachan and crossed Garbh Bhealach veering to the south of Stob Creag an Fhithach to head for Lochain a'Caisteal. This is a picturesque mountain lake where a high cliff overlooking the lake and affords stunning views along Glen Falloch below.

After passing around the lake I began to descend the steep hillside making my own way down the hill through the long grass. Coming down off that hill was actually quite fun, as I started off in the hills and just walked straight down to the bottom of the valley; from one world to another. At the bottom of Glen Falloch is the West Highland Way, which provided me with an easy route back to Crianlarich. This proved to be rather nostalgic for me as I was reliving my walk of the year before along the West Highland Way, but now in much better weather. The year before it was wet, but by the time I was walking along the trail now it was early evening and the weather had cleared to provide me with a wonderfully sunny and warm end to the day, so it was under a hot, evening sun that I returned to the youth hostel at 7.15 pm after another long, tiring day, but after a much more enjoyable one than the day before.