Over The Hill

Another weather high sitting right over us and the promise of another fine day for the hills, as was obvious from the number of cars and walkers gathering in the Succoth car park no doubt bound for The Cobbler or Beinn Narnain; fortunately we were bound for the much quieter Ardgartan car park, and for the less popular, but equally challenging, mountain, The Brack.

Heading west from the car park, we followed the good forest track which gradually gains height as it traverses through the forest until we reached the point where we turned off the broad track and made the steep ascent on the very rough and narrow path which heads south until it reaches the forest boundary and the open hillside at around the 300m height.

Ahead of us lay a rocky gully, lined on both sides with a variety of crags, some small, offering good scrambling opportunities, whilst others were for the climbing fraternity only. Our route, directly up the centre was a mixture of rough, steep walking, and some minor hand assisted ascents on the steeper sections. On a day such as today, with the very fine weather, we were in no rush, and so we took things at a steady pace, enjoying everything that this fine mountain had to offer.

The gully broadens as it reaches the high point beside a small lochan to the east of, and some 140 metres below, the summit, which we reached via two snow covered slopes winding upwards from the lochan. Surprisingly, the summit itself was quite snow free, no doubt due to it's south facing aspect, whereas our route to this point had been predominantly on north facing slopes.

After a very welcome lunch on the summit, we descended via the long south southwest ridge heading towards the forest boundary and the Cowal Way which would take us along Coilessan Glen until we reached the minor road at the mouth of the glen, and thence back along the shoreline to Ardgartan.

A wonderful days walking on an exciting little mountain - Great company too - Thanks Ian