Over The Hill

I should have been writing this report for An Caisteal and Beinn A'Chroin, which was the scheduled walk for today. However, due to the very heavy rains overnight Saturday/Sunday, the A82 was closed beyond Tarbet due to flooding, and so after a few frantic calls on the mobile to contact everyone, we quickly decided to turn left at Tarbet and head for Arrochar and make The Cobbler our target for today; An Caisteal would have to wait until another day.

Once everyone had eventually made it to the Succoth car park, we set off up the steep zigzag track which gains height very quickly, and we were soon looking down on a very peaceful Loch Long in an unusually dry and clear morning, the overnight and early morning rain and clouds having dispersed as we were arriving at Arrochar.

By the time we left the zigzags and forest behind and arrived at the dam on the Allt a'Bhalachain The Cobbler was looking resplendent against a clear blue sky, and unusually for this very popular walk, we had the whole of the hillside to ourselves, with not another walker in sight.

We continued northwest paralleling the burn and heading towards the very prominent landmark that is the Narnain Boulders at which point we came across our first walkers, two lads who had climbed up the largest of the boulders, and were now in a bit of a pickle as to how to get themselves back down! So we hung around for a few moments giving them some verbal encouragement until they eventually did a bum slide on the wet steep boulder, jumping the last few metres to the ground. They thanked us, and must have been impressed with out advice, as they proceeded to ask us the best route to take to get them up Beinn Narnain, so we pointed them north towards the bealach just under the Spearhead, the route we ourselves had taken on a previous ascent of Beinn Narnain, and the last we saw of them was as they started to beetle their way up the slopes towards the bealach.

We continued on our way, crossing the Allt a'Bhalachain and heading towards the rocky and craggy southeast corrie of The Cobbler. Approaching the crags, the path soon begins to splinter, and there are a number of options for you to choose from, all of which require a degree of minor scrambling as you make your way up and over each of the grassy platforms as you head towards the ridge below the North Peak. As we climbed, the wind was picking up a little, and the clouds rolled over bringing squally, drizzly showers, a forewarning of what was to come once we reached the ridge proper.

Cresting the ridge we had quite a fight against the wind, which was much stronger than we had anticipated, as we realised we had been very sheltered while in the corrie. From the ridge, we turned north east for the short final climb to the summit of the North Peak, choosing to ascend via the rock slabs rather than the contouring path, Alan's idea of course! Reaching the summit of the North Peak, which is in fact the secondary summit of The Cobbler, the south peak being the higher, we remained only long enough to take a couple of photos before retreating via the contour path back to the ridge path.

The fickle weather turned again, and by the time we were back on the ridge, we had clear skies and the wind had dropped considerably, so much so that we were able to take a pop through the "eye" of the needle on the south peak, although we did not venture to the exposed top rock. After a welcome lunch break, we dropped off the summit and headed down the steep and rocky path towards Arthur's Seat and on, down through the large rocks and boulders around it's base, heading towards the grassy broad ridge towards An t'Sron.

We had a leisurely walk down the ridge to the nose before we dropped south east down a rather boggy area to bring us back to the dam on the Allt a'Bhalachain and the beginning for the return route via the zigzag path to the car park at Succoth, and a very welcome watering stop at the Village Inn in Arrochar.

Considering the quick last minute change of plan and walk choice, this was a very relaxing day and a very interesting walk - great company, thanks all.