Ben Donich

Tuesday 19th April 2022

After a cold night, I awoke to the welcome sight of sunshine and eagerly headed back along the path that runs below the Cobbler, but this time I branched right away from the route of the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way onto a forestry track that climbs past dreary conifers before descending into Glen Croe. I had hoped to find the old military road that heads up the valley, but the start must be too far away and I was beside a busy main road with cars rushing closely past me that didn’t make me feel safe. Eventually I retraced my steps to the point where I had come onto the A83 road and tried to force my way through heather and young conifers on the far side of the valley, which this was not easy, but eventually I managed to get through and once I was amongst more mature conifers an easier passage brought me to the forestry road that I had passed down the day before. Rather than turn right, I decided to turn left and walk a mile down to the Ardgartan car park where I was able to use their facilities and reflected that with hindsight I should have copied my route of the day before to the car park. The sunshine that I had woken to proven to be short-lived as clouds now covered most of the sky, and would stay for much of the day. Heading back up Glen Croe I was on tedious forestry roads that have no appeal as they are too wide and flat while the trees prevented me from having a view.

Slowly I climbed the valley with no respite in the tedium, until at one point there was a break in the screen of trees that revealed views across and down the valley. I felt I had to take advantage of this opportunity to take in the view so I stopped to have my lunch. Setting off once again I continued to climb up to the infamous pass known as Rest and be Thankful, but more properly Bealach an Easain Duibh. My track didn’t go to the pass but veers west into the start of Gleann Mòr and soon after a path appeared on the left that climbs through conifers and is signposted for Ben Donich. I had planned on climbing this mountain in 2017 until bad weather forced me to stay in Inveraray, so I was glad to have this opportunity. I was also inspired by Abbie Barnes of Spend More Time In The Wild who live-streamed from the summit last year, so I was also following in her footsteps. The path zigzags past the conifers to a fence where the trees are left behind and a boggy path took me up the broad, northern ridge of the mountain. At first this was an exhausting climb, but slowly I dragged myself up undeterred by the grey clouds above the mountain that sprinkled light rain on me.

When the terrain eased I was better able to appreciate my surroundings while the sun also came out to highlight the mountains around me. Beyond this brief pause in the climb was a craggy section which is always a delight as it’s nice to have rock underfoot and at one point a bit of down-scrambling was required, which though very easy, was very satisfying. This now felt like a proper mountain and I felt energised to keep going until I reached the broad summit plateau, which I traversed to the trig point. At the moment when I reached the top the rain that had never really stopped throughout the ascent finally cleared finally affording me with sunshine and tremendous views all around. To the south I could see Loch Goil through the departing rain leading all the way to the Firth of Clyde while surrounding the mountain were the conifers of the Argyle Forest Park. Eventually I left the summit of Ben Donich and made my way down the eastern slopes negotiating complex terrain to avoid precipitous cliffs while ahead of me were fabulous views that stretched all the way to Ben Lomond. I love making my own way down pathless slopes, off a mountain, as there is such delightful freedom about it, though the route-finding became very tricky on the lower slopes until eventually I reached the white painted post that marks the path over Bealach Dubh-lic, which was the route I’d taken down the day before from the Brack.

Copying my previous descent I took a sketchy path down into the conifer plantation and after avoiding some fallen trees reached the forestry road that I had climbed up some hours earlier. Now, I returned to the Ardgartan car park and following the route of the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way I headed back to Arrochar. This was a varied walk with a good four hours spent walking along tedious forestry tracks to reach the foot of Ben Donich, but the walk over the mountain was fantastic and made for a satisfying walk over a proper mountain with a glorious descent. It is a pity I was leaving the Arrochar Alps the next day as there are more Corbetts in the area, though they are further away from Arrochar and would be difficult to do from there. This is a shame as these are fabulous mountains with Beinn an Lochain particularly looking appealing as it looks like it has a good ridge ascent route.