In midsummer you either keep moving or wear a midge net. Marshalls on the West Highland Way Race at Beinglas campsite
What's in this book
This book suggests the most straightforward routes to each of the area's 21 Munro summits of 3000ft (910m) and over, but seeks out also the wilder and less walked-on ways around the back. It covers the slightly smaller but equally worthwhile hills in which this area is especially rich, from the Cobbler to the Luss Hills and Ben Ledi. For days of storm and wind, for snowy ones when you didn't bring your ice axe, for when you just don't feel like dragging your legs up another 600m ascent, here too are the walks of the woods and watersides.
A walker reaches her final Munro summit on Stuc a' Chroin above Loch Earn (Route 21)
Each of the Munros has its well-worn ‘standard route'. That will be the quickest and most convenient – and fairly straightforward – way up, but usually not the most interesting. I have pointed out those routes in the preambles, and they are listed in several guidebooks, including Steve Kew's Walking the Munros Vol 1 (Cicerone – see Appendix D). However, I've concentrated on what I consider the most rewarding routes for each hill. These may also be a little more demanding, as they seek out the steeper scenery and avoid the flat Landrover track.
Among less-high hills, here are routes up all but three of the area's 20 Corbetts (2500–2999ft/762–914m) as well as Meall an Fhudair, outside the boundary by 400 metres. Some of the Grahams (2000–2499ft/610–761m) are rough and comparatively unrewarding. Here are walks onto just 13 of the available 27, including Ben Venue, five of the Luss Hills, and Beinn Mhor of Cowal.
For the very finest hills I have left the choice to you. Ben Lui, the Arrochar Alps, the Cobbler: these are hills you will want to ascend lots of times, by many different routes, or ranges where only you can decide how much, once you're up, to do. For these I have given a ‘summit summary', with the standard route and the adventure around the back, the slightly rocky scramble and the long, long walk in from somewhere else altogether. Ben Ledi's various routes are spread between two sections of the book, but there's a Ben Ledi summary map in Part 1.
Camp in Coire an Lochain of Ben Lui. Such lightweight, traceless wild camping is now a legal right in Scotland
There are no icons for difficulty and length with those routes – they are all mountain routes requiring appropriate skill and care.
How to use this book
The headers at the start of each route should be self-explanatory. The walk-type icons are shown in the panel to the left; the difficulty ratings are explained below. The length ratings correspond with the approximate times in the main headers: one square indicates a route that could take up to 2.5 hours, two squares up to 4 hours, with the full five squares for walks of over 8 hours. The approximate times are based on 1 hour for 4 horizontal km or for 400m of height gained, with extra time where the ground is particularly steep or rough. They'll be about right, including brief snack stops, for a moderately paced party. There are no length squares in the Summit Summary routes as these are only half routes (and mostly uphill only).
Where a bus or train can be used to link the two ends of a linear route, or to facilitate going up one route and coming down another, I've noted this at the routes concerned. Other public transport information is in Appendix C.
In old numbers, 600ft was a vertical distance, while 200yds was horizontal. I've used a similar convention, so that 600m is an altitude or height gain, while 600 metres (with ‘etres’) is along the ground. When going up or downhill diagonally, ‘slant up left' means in a direction to left of straight up. So if straight up the slope is north, ‘slant up right' would be northeast. I use ‘track’ (rather than ‘path’) for a way wide enough for a tractor or Landrover.
Finally, the ‘standard route' up a hill is the convenient and well-trodden one featured in guidebooks like Steve Kew's Walking the Munros. It's usually the shortest, and because it's so well used, also the easiest. Sometimes it is also the best and most interesting. But to avoid 90 per cent of other hill-goers, simply stay off the standard route.
Ben Narnain sunset (Routes 52 & 53)
THE EAST
PART ONE TROSSACHS
Ben Venue and Trossachs woodland (Routes 1–2) seen from Ben A'an (Route 3)
The mountains of this book arrange themselves in a great three-quarter circle whose centre is blocked by Loch Lomond. The book could have started at Ben Lomond and gone clockwise, but the opposite direction makes sense, historically at least. For the Trossachs are where it all begins. The twisty oak trees and small but incomparably rugged hills around them, along with the eight lochs, meant that those who had already learned to like the Lake District were going to just love this side of Loch Lomond. Sir Walter Scott was the first landscape guide. The Wordsworths visited the Trossachs twice on their Scottish expedition of 1803. Behind them came the crowds.
And the crowds are still here, ferried up and down Loch Katrine, and treading the busy peaks of Ben A'an and Ben Ledi. They are quite right to come. The hills look out over the misted Lowlands. With spruce plantations gradually being removed, the flourishing oakwoods at the ‘true Trossachs’, the patch at the foot of Loch Katrine, are gradually recolonising the wider area between Lomond and Loch Lubnaig. And the fairies still lurk in the green darkness below the branches of Aberfoyle.
ROUTE 1
Ben Venue (shorter)
| Start/Finish | Ben Venue car park, Loch Achray NN 505 067 |
| Distance | 11.5km/7 miles |
| Total Ascent | 700m/2300ft |
| Time | 4½hr |
| Terrain | Smooth paths to forest top, then pathless hill and rough path |
| Max Altitude | Ben Venue 729m |
| Maps | LR 57; Expl 365; Harvey Ben Venue |
Ben Venue is from Gaelic A' Bheinn Mheanbh, meaning 'tiny mountain'.(Meanbh is also Gaelic for midge, as 'very tiny fly' meanbh-chuileag.) The name fits. Venue