Over The Hill

The shortest route for those climbing Ben Ledi is an 8km direct up and back, while others extend it to make a fine, 10km circular walk taking in Stank Glen; today, we were going one step further and performing a figure-of-eight of some 17km by starting at Bochastle instead of the more popular Strathyre Forest Cabins car park.

Our route from Bochastle would take us along the old, disused railway track, now a fine cycle path following the course of the outflow of Loch Lubnaig, with fine views across the Falls of Leny, before joining the main primary hill track to Ben Ledi. We had a mixture of weather to start the day, some sunny spells, but also a steady drizzle at times. However, as we gained height, we were surprised at the extent of the visibility under the low cloud base, as we could clearly see the Wallace Monument and Dumyat hill at Stirling, and beyond that, the Pentland Hill.

A great deal of work has been done on the path up Ben Ledi, and, although still steep in places, the good path makes for a good footfall on solid ground, and is a big improvement on the once boggy hillside path of days of old.

As we climbed above the 600m level we entered the dull grey mist associated with the persistent drizzle we were now surrounded by, bringing with it, the inevitable poor visibility, and complete lack of any views from the summit, where it was cold enough for the need of gloves and warm headgear as we huddled in a sheltered spot for some lunch.

Departing the summit, we headed north and then northeast to make a fairly easy descent into Stank Glen and gain the fine woodland paths and forest tracks on the lower eastern slopes of Ben Ledi. Picking one of the higher level forest tracks, we contoured the hillside, crossing our uphill path, and staying high in the forest before making the final descent back to Bochastle and completing our figure-of-eight route around Ben Ledi.

An interesting and very scenic route - Thank Idris.