An Caisteal

Monday 23rd May 2022

I have had a problem with Scottish mountains for many years. While I love being at the top of a mountain, I am highly dependent on the weather for my enjoyment and the weather in Scotland is notoriously poor. I tried to exorcize this demon at Easter and I was quite successful, though this was mainly because the weather was good. Now, I was back in Scotland and the weather was poor again, so my demons were back. I was staying in the Youth Hostel at Crianlarich and hoped to go up some of the Munros that are to the south of the village, but it was drizzly with low cloud and I didn’t want to go up a mountain in those conditions. I walk purely for fun and not to challenge myself or complete a list, so at the start of this day I was really unsure what I was going to do as even though there are short walks in the area, there is nothing that would occupy me for the day. Eventually I decided I would climb the path through Bogle Glen to the junction on the West Highland Way for Crianlarich. The usual path into the village descends east from the junction and this is the path that I have taken previously while the Bogle Glen path descends north, is steeper and is not recommended. Since I’d not taken it before I thought I’d climb it, however this path is notoriously boggy and the rain was not helping with that, plus all the trees to the left of the path have recently been felled and have left an ugly scar on the hillside with the new tree guards not helping.

Once I reached the junction on the West Highland Way I had a problem of what to do next, but first I had to get past the large number of people who were blocking the path and only after I had negotiated my way past them could I set off south down the West Highland Way. When I was in Crianlarich in 2015 I had also planned to go up some of the nearby mountains until rain again stopped my plans, so on that occasion I walked along the West Highland Way to Benglas Farm Campsite, visited a nearby waterfall and walked back again. The one thing I didn’t want to do now was a repeat of that walk and yet that is what I found myself doing. Even though it hadn’t been windy in Crianlarich, it was quite windy on this exposed path, which made me even less keen on going up a mountain, however it had stopped raining and there was even a small patch of blue in the sky. I didn’t want to be walking on the West Highland Way as I wanted to be going up mountains, but the weather was not right for that, though as I looked across the valley towards the mountains at the head of Glen Falloch part of me was desperate to be going up those mountains.

An important point is that even though I enjoy being at the top of a mountain, I don’t enjoy climbing mountains so I prefer to have a good footpath that will ease the gradient as much as possible, but there isn’t a good footpath up these mountains and that was putting me off. For now, I was on the West Highland Way and I was impressed with the quality of the path, which was certainly better than had been the case when I first did the trail in 2004 on my first ever walking holiday in Scotland. However, the footpath soon degenerated into the more familiar track that I remembered from previously and was totally waterlogged and required me to wade through the water as I passed dozens of people coming up the West Highland Way, which is now more popular than ever. Eventually I descended to the valley bottom and walked beside the River Falloch until after crossing the river I finally turned off the West Highland Way to take a track that slowly climbs the hillside. An idea had come to my mind of attempting to climb An Caisteal, which is one of the mountains around the head of Glen Falloch, even though there is no path. The track I was on crosses the slopes of Stob Glas to the Allt Andoran stream where a small dam collects water for a hydroelectric scheme, but from there on I had to make my own way up the hill.

Slowly, I struggled up the pathless, boggy hillside until eventually I had to stop for a rest during which I had my lunch and it started raining. While wearily sitting on the side of the hill looking across the valley I wondered what I was doing there as I was not enjoying this. I was supposed to be on holiday, so what was doing here? By the time I had finished my lunch the rain had stopped and the sun had come out, which refreshed my spirits so I decided to keep going and soon the gradient eased with the view behind me opening out and the sun shining in the valley. Despite the mountain resolutely clinging to cloud, things were beginning to look good and spurred me on to keep climbing the hill bypassing the top of Stob Glas to reach Bealach na Bàn Leacainn where the terrain began to steepen and become more craggy while a faint path inconsistently led the way. As I plunged into the clouds and the weather worsened, I kept climbing and eventually reached the summit ridge where I found a clear footpath. With strong winds assailing me, I turned left onto the path up to a cairn, though not the summit, as the clear path took me across a saddle and up to another cairn that must surely be the summit of An Caisteal.

I had previously climbed An Caisteal in 2005 along with two other Munros in the area, but on that occasion I did not do the northern ridge of An Caisteal down Twistin Hill, so I was keen to do that ridge now, however it was very windy and this ruined the experience. Although there was an excellent footpath with some simple scrambling, the wind was strong enough to be distracting, which is a shame as I have wanted to walk along this ridge for a long time, ever since 2005. Once I was below the clouds, I saw that it was now more overcast than earlier with no sign of the sunshine as I slowly made my way along the ridge to reach Sròn Gharbh at the end where the path disappeared and the terrain steepens with the ground underfoot becoming very boggy. Veering to my right I headed down to the track that runs beside the River Falloch and down that to eventually reach the A82 trunk road, which I walked beside all the way back to Crianlarich. This was not a good walk although there were some good moments on good paths, but the weather was not good enough for me even though it wasn’t as bad as feared or forecast. A lack of good footpaths up the mountain and strong winds while on the mountain unfortunately ruined the walk for me.

Kippenrait Glen and Sauchie Crags

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd May 2022

One month after I had previously been in Scotland I was back for a two week holiday, though this was a difficult holiday for me to plan. I had a vague idea of wanting to go up mountains, but nothing specific and even when I did come up with a plan, inspired by my earliest walking holidays in Scotland, I still had difficulty with the availability of Youth Hostels on the first night. It wasn’t until just before Easter, which is relatively last minute for me, that I started looking elsewhere and discovered that the Stirling Youth Hostel had a bed available so that is where I caught a train to arriving mid-afternoon. I previously spent long weekends in Stirling in 2013 and 2017 and enjoyed my time there exploring the historic city and the surrounding scenery. Even though I was only spending a day in Stirling this time, I was still looking forward to returning, though the weather wasn’t great when I got there and climbed the craggy hill on which the old town sits to dump my rucksack in the Youth Hostel. Lightened of my load, I set off around the old walls through the woodland below the medieval castle and was soon happily reminded of my previous visits to Stirling. Leaving the walls of the castle, I made my way across Stirling Bridge where William Wallace defeated the English in 1297 and to Allen Craig upon whose top is the National Wallace Monument.

More of interest to me was the woodland behind the crags which were filled with wildflowers that in 2013 had included bluebells, but not in 2017 due to hot weather earlier in the month. Fortunately this time I was once again able to enjoy the bluebells that decorated the hillside along with many other wildflowers before I eventually reached the Wallace Monument at the top of the hill. Descending back down the hill, I made my way past Stirling University and along the main road to Bridge of Allan reversing my steps of my first day in Stirling in 2017. On that occasion I took the Darn Road from Dunblane that follows the Allan Water and initially I copied that enjoying the views up and down the river until I reached the deep gully of Cock’s Burn whose banks were covered with the sweet smelling white flowers of ramson, wild garlic. There I abandoned the Darn Road to follow Cock’s Burn through the ramsons up to Glen Road. After a while walking along the road I passed a barrier that closes the road to traffic as the terrain becomes more spectacular and I passed around the heavily wooded valley of Kippenrait Glen. Eventually the path crosses the Wharry Burn and as I started to make my descent into Dunblane the rain began to fall.

The following day the weather was no better so I decided not to copy my previous visits to Stirling when I had enjoyed the delights of the fabulously wooded and wildflower-rich glens that come off the Ochil Hills. Instead I made my way to the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre, which I had never been to before and felt obliged to take the battle experience tour. Afterwards and with the weather seemingly improving, I set off on a walk that I had found via the University of Stirling Blog. The walk took me on a meandering route near the Bannock Burn before climbing through woodland on a steep, narrow path up to Sauchie Craig where the ridge undulated above steep cliffs to my right. This was an enjoyable walk which was helped by the open views south over Middlethird Wood and north towards the valley of the River Forth. Rain failed to dampen my enthusiasm as I made my way along the ridge turning south towards Lewis Hill and traversed several gaps including one that was negotiated by a well-engineered path zigzagging across the craggy terrain. At one point a clear sign indicated I should turn right, but the better, drier path went left and that was the way I went just as it started to rain heavily.

This path took me away from the edge of Sauchie Craig, but still led me all the way up to the top of Lewis Hill, which I arrived at just at the moment when the rain stopped and the sun came out. This afforded me with good views across North Third Reservoir below Sauchie Craig and along the length of the crags. A good path took me gradually down from the top of Lewis Hill to a road where I was soon able to walk up to the reservoir and follow the shore while the weather continued to improve and give me with good views across the water to the crags where I had just walked. After crossing the dam I headed back up the crags on a wide path crossing them through one of the gaps and plunging into the conifer plantation beyond I descended down to the Bannock Burn eventually returning to the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre. This was a short walk as I had a long journey ahead of me to get to where my holiday really starts, though with most of the trains cancelled this was not going to be easy. I enjoyed the walk along the ridge above Sauchie Crags while the sunshine later in the day was a welcome surprise after the earlier rain.