Over The Hill

A close look at the names of the Scottish hills will soon confirm that there are many instances where two or more hills have the same name, which can of course be somewhat confusing, as is the case with Ben Vane, which we climbed two weeks ago, and Benvane, which we climbed today. The only difference in these two mountains name's is that one is two words and the other a single word, but when spoken they off course sound the same. So, just turning up at the correct staring point at Brig O' Turk must be a a bonus in itself.

Our starting point was the small car parking area a kilometre up the reservoir track from the Brig O' Turk tearooms from where we crossed the road and headed up through the forest on the tarmac road which winds, twists and dips as it takes you above the dam and reservoir before it eventually leaves the forest and heads down to a bridge which crosses the Allt Ghleann Casaig. Once over the bridge we left the track and made our way through a herd of big brown beasts who stood their ground quite defiantly as we crossed a muddy, boggy area that they seemed perfectly at home in, towards a gate in the fenceline which took us onto the tussock covered hillside.

Our first objective was the high point of Sron Achaidh na h-Airde, and with no discernable path ahead, it was just a matter of picking the best way forward over what became a very steep hillside, with a number of small hillocks, dips and crags to be negotiated before the ground leveled onto the broad ridge that would be our route from Sron Achaidh na h-Airde, via Meal a'Choire Dhuibh to the summit of Benvane.

As we climbed, we could clearly see the snow lying on the upper slopes of Ben Ledi and the surrounding hills, and so it was no surprise to us as we gained the ridge to see that we would soon reach the snow line, which started as a covering of heavy wet snow about the 600m height and soon became a blanket of about 5 to 10 cm's deep, with a few pockets of deeper drifts in the dips and hollows. As we gained height, the drizzle rain we had encountered from the start turned to an intermittent wet sleet through which we had reasonable visibility, at least enough to see our way along the ridge, which seemed to go on endlessly, with each crest bringing another into view through the murky sleet.

As we approached the summit cairn we could hear voices through the gloom and met four other walkers who were just about to leave the summit and were a little surprised at the number in our group believing they had the hillside to themselves. They had made the ascent from the Balquhidder side, and were just about to retrace their tracks for their return, and so we said goodbye to them as we found ourselves a sheltered spot for our first, and very welcome, break of the day.

We departed the summit, heading northwest for a short distance before swinging southwest to the minor top and cairn at the edge of the summit plateau, from where we descended the steep, snow covered slopes, heading for the Gleann nam Meann and the track which transits the glen and forms the Mell Circuit around Glen Finlas. The initial stages of the descent were a little tricky on the snow slopes, and about half way down we had to make a slight loop to skirt around some crags (see Route Map), but we made the descent without any great problems, although it had taken a little longer than we anticipated, and by the time we reached the track, we knew that we were going to run out of daylight and would be completing the final stages in ever decreasing light.

But, as they say "Every cloud has a silver lining", and as we made our way along, what is a very up and down, twisting turning track and the light faded we had some wonderful views, one in particular as the almost full moon positioned itself to the east of Ben Ledi and lit up the whole snow capped mountain with a clear deep blue sky behind, simply wonderful, well worth the dark, moonlight walk back through the forest to our cars. (Why! I hear you say "moonlight walk", did we not have head torches - yes we did, but why spoil the atmosphere, we just plodded on along with the moonlight as our lamp.)

A great walk, great company, great day - and all topped off with a nice beer in The Byre at Brig O' Turk - Thanks Ian