Over The Hill

With this winters atrocious weather continuing our planned day on Beinn an Dothaidh was a non-starter and so Ian decided on an alternative circular walk taking in Ardgartan, Coilessan Glen and Bealach Dubh-lic. That was not to say it would be an easier walk, just that with a maximum altitude of 500m and staying off the tops we hoped that we would at least escape the strong winds and "whiteout" conditions forecast for the higher tops.

Heading south from the Ardgartan Centre on the excellent forest track we followed the Cowal Way LDP, albeit in the reverse direction, along the coastal path until turning northwest to climb up through Coilessan Glen and into a wonderful wintery scene as everything around us was covered in a thick coating of pure white snow. Quite delightful, and great walking conditions!

A heavy fall of fresh snow greeted our arrival at the head of the glen as we exited the forest and struck out across the open hillside. Once we had reached the flatter ground to the south of the 578m top on the southern ridge of The Brack we left the track of The Cowal Way and contoured generally northeast along the western slopes of The Brack towards the distant Bealach Dubh-lic.

In general the snow was about 15 to 25 cms deep, but, given the nature of the hillside and it's peat hags, we were often in much deeper troughs as we crossed some of the rougher ground, and I think quite a few of us had to extract one or both legs from an unforeseen hole at one point or another. We stopped in the shelter of some snow covered rocks for a welcome lunch, taken above the picturesque snow covered forest at the head of Coire Odhar; just beautiful.

Ahead of us now we could see low, dark looking clouds covering the lower slopes of The Cobbler and the wind had increased somewhat as we approached Bealach Dubh-lic and made the final steep descent down towards, and then through the forest to gain the main forest track on the south side of Glen Croe which would take us back above Croe Water to our start point at Ardgartan Centre.

This was a wonderful winter walk, an excellent alternative - Thanks Ian

And off course, a big advantage of any walk in the Arrochar area is - The Village Inn, which once again came up trumps for a warm log fire and some welcome refreshments at the end of a great day.