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.

The Brack

Monday 18th April 2022

Once the overnight rain had cleared, sunshine promised better weather for this walk as I set off from Arrochar on the route of the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way passing through the woodland below the Cobbler and Ben Narnain. You would have thought it would be tempting for me to abandon my plans for this walk and head up these popular hills, but curiously I had no such inclination. I went up both of these mountains in 2007 in good weather and I have no desire to go up them again. After climbing the zigzagging path up to the track that I had been on the day before, I ignored the turning up to the Cobbler and kept to the trail as it narrowed and descended into Glen Croe. By this point the early sunshine had gone leaving overcast skies, though it wouldn’t be too long before the sun would break through again. When I started my descent I realised that I had forgotten to bring on this walk either my poles or my knee support, which could have been a problem when descending the mountain, but fortunately was not. The path down to Ardgartan at the foot of Glen Croe was very well made and eased the pressure on my knees until I finally reached the busy A83 road at the bottom. Passing the car park and after crossing the river I turned right to head up a wide forestry track and soon came to a barrier with a sign that proclaimed the road was closed due to fallen trees following the winter storms and no unauthorised persons were allowed beyond this point.

I was unsure whether I should go around the barrier, but eventually I decided to obey the sign and turned around following a narrow tarmac road past Ardgartan Hotel beside the shore of Loch Long. This change in my plans was rather frustrating and left me wondering where I was going as I had planned on climbing the Brack and was now circling the mountain, but I didn’t know if I would find another way up. I was thinking I may not even get up a mountain on this walk and the best that I would be able to say was that I had done a walk through Argyll Forest Park. Although I thought I was following the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way (as indicated on O.S. maps), I couldn’t see any signs of it because the trail actually takes an off-road route that I had missed and doesn’t join the narrow road until much later. After I had walked a long way I emerged from the trees into an area that had recently been cleared and afforded me with tremendous views across Loch Long just as the sun started to break back through the clouds. With the weather now looking good the narrow road slowly climbed to a small car park and after crossing Coilessan Burn became a rough track, while I soon turned right heading up Coilessan Glen past some signs that warned me of forestry operations that may even close the route of the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way.

When I reached another sign that barred unauthorised persons beyond this point I ignored it and proceeded cautiously to a car that I could see ahead. Just around the corner from it was a forestry vehicle with someone head down repairing it, despite this being a Bank Holiday Monday. Fortunately I didn’t need to walk past the forestry vehicle as the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way goes straight ahead at this point over a bridge, so I crept past over the burn and continued my climb up Coilessan Glen. As the weather continued to improve, I was entranced by the scenery around me of encircling craggy hills while the climb steepened as the path narrowed. Eventually I dragged myself out of the conifer plantation and onto the boggy hillside beyond soon branching off the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way to head north towards the developing ridge of the Brack. With far-reaching views and a strong, cold wind, I negotiated an undulating ridge while attempting to minimise needless ascents as much as possible until the gradient steepened and I had to tackle the long agonising climb up to the summit of the Brack. My effort was rewarded with stunning views of mountains in every direction including across the valley to the Cobbler, up Glen Croe towards Beinn an Lochain, over Loch Lomond towards Ben Lomond and down Loch Long towards the Firth of Clyde.

I was mesmerised by the view, but unfortunately I didn’t stay very long at the summit. As soon as the sun went in I walked away even though the sun soon came back out. It would have been ideal if I’d had my lunch at the summit then I would have been able to linger over the view, but instead I had my lunch an hour earlier not long after emerging from the forest park. From that vantage point I was able to appreciate the views down Coilessan Glen down to Loch Long, but they weren’t as grand as those I saw from the top of the Brack. Leaving the summit behind, I made my way down the vast, grassy north-western slopes, which had been my planned route of ascent, before the barrier turned me back, and I couldn’t help thinking this was better done in descent. I usually prefer to descend slowly because of my knees, but even without poles or a knee support I was able to make this steep descent painlessly gradually minimising the gradient as much as possible and my knees astonishingly never complained. Instead, if I’d tried to climb those never-ending grassy slopes, I would have been complaining all the way up. When I reached the col, I found the faint path that passes through and is marked by white posts which I followed down the hillside into the conifer plantations of Glen Croe.

There were a couple of fallen trees that I had to avoid, but nothing too bad before I reached a wide forestry track that gradually took me back to Ardgartan and the barrier that had barred my progress earlier in the day, so with hindsight it had probably not been necessary for me to have been deterred by the forestry barrier. The walkhighlands.co.uk website describes a route up the Brack from Ardgartan that is described as very steep, almost a scramble at first, and I did find the turning off the forestry track onto this path, which looks formidable. It wouldn’t have been suitable for descent, so my route was the better option, but I wonder if I would have been tempted if I had come this way. From the Ardgartan car park I retraced my steps back along the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way back to Arrochar happy that I had climbed a mountain in great weather and found stunning views that further restored my love of mountains that had begun the day before.