Ben Lawers and Beinn Ghlas




There's nothing like an Easter Sunday walk to bring the crowds out. With that in mind I was determined to start early from the National Trust visitor centre. Having arrived there before 9 am, I found the car park practically empty bar a couple of other enthusiastic people. Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers are the highest Munros in the Lawers range sitting at 1103m and 1214m respectively. They are also one of the easier Munros to complete for a couple of reasons. First off the National Trust car park that is the starting point of the climb is situated at over 400m above sea level. Secondly there is a well defined track from the centre all the way up the two Munros makes progress steady going even in bad conditions. The weather during this walk was on the bright side, dare I say it could have almost been mistaken for summer if it hadn’t been for the smattering of snow at the top of Ben Lawers. I managed to ascend Beinn Ghlas in 1 hour 28mins and was at the top of Ben Lawers in just over 2 hours. My original intention was to carry on Meall Garbh, however that changed when I saw how far the path descended before rising again to An Stuc. The laziness in me had decided that 2 Munros was enough for 1 day. The picture on the left is from the top of Ben Lawers looking towards An Stuc and Lochan nan Cat while the right hand picture is looking towards Ben Lawers from Beinn Ghlas

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dechmont Hill

Image
Walking With Kids At last, after a weekend where it barely stopped raining there was a break in the weather, and a chance to get out. Dechmont hill is our closest climb and measures just under 200m, which gives the kids a chance to get to the top. We parked on the road that runs parallel behind Gilbertfield road. The walk started on the track that leads to Dechmont farm and the shooting range. They are now turning this area into housing, so be careful of builders lorries etc. We took a left turn at the road which leads to the farm, and then a right at the Dechmont Range House, now abandoned. The track ends at a small compound, but takes you past the ruins of Gilbertfield Castle. Gilbertfield Castle The compound contains a couple of old houses which acts as a control station for the shooting range. There is no access through it, instead take a left turn before the end of the track and make your way through the grass. There is a path through here but can be obscured by the tall grass sur
Read more

Cort-ma Law

Image
  Cort-ma Law Less than an hours drive from Glasgow, just north of Lennoxtown are the Campsie hills, which allows for a quick days hike.  Starting Point The best place to start is at the Campsie Glen waterfall car park. This can get busy, so it is best to try and get a parking space early. The walk itself starts directly opposite the car park.  Car park location Location of hill Route The track ascends immediately from the carpark travelling east, go past the old shelter covered in graffiti. Shelter Hike up from the car park The track continues upward and the track could be tricky at this point for younger walkers. The first part of the walk ends at a small cairn marker.  First marker cairn From there the hike undulates for 2km as it snakes it's way slightly south of the actual top. Here you will reach a bigger cairn marker.  Second marker cairn From this marker turn north east to the trig point 4.5 km distance. The height of the summit is 526m. We reached the top with 4 kids in 1
Read more

Bike and Hike

Image
"It was a shame that for all the beauty of the scenery that the top of the mountain was covered in mist." Ben Alder and Ben Bheoil  These two Munros stand south of Dalwhinnie in a remote part of Scotland. The best way of getting to them is to cycle out to Culra bothy, some 17km, which, I suppose is one way of warming up before a lengthy hike. These hills were not even on my radar for possible hills to visit but something happened that changed all that. I have had a mountain bike for over 20 years now, for over 15 years it has been covered up, sitting, rusting out the back. A few years ago I did replace the main gear cassette and chain however frustrated at not getting the gears working properly I gave up and left it. That was until the start of the summer. I had decided on not worrying about gears, all I wanted to do is to cycle and to have a bike that would be a low maintenance as possible. With that in mind I took the gear shifters off, pushed the rear mech back and fixed t
Read more