A short weekend away in the Tyndrum & Mamlorn hills in the Southern Highlands of Scotland. Crisp, blustery & at times very cold (Munros Completed : Ben Lui (7), Ben Challum (8)).
Ben Lui
2006/Mar/04 : I had to work up in Dumfries for a couple of days so took the opportunity to travel up a couple of days early and bag a couple of munros. Not having a lot of time, I needed to choose some munros fairly close, with little driving in between and not too long distance wise. Ben Lui & Ben Challum seemed appealing so having caught the train up to Carlisle the night & drove to Crianlarich where I stayed, I was up early next morning to tackle the slopes of Ben Lui.
I had a short drive to Tyndrum (take left along A85, park at Eas Daimh, parking is on left in a small parking area, not layby). It was then a 5min walk to a railway bridge from car park. You can then either walk for 1km to right to footbridge to cross stream and then back to railway bridge or cross stream on foot (Care: The stream was deep enough at this time of year that only permitted me to cross with crampons on !).
Bearing 112 degrees, follow left of burn all way along up to where river narrows to approx 6 ft and there is obvious gap in trees through forest. Walk up to obvious NNW ridge to summit. (However, possible better path would be to follow other track through forest skirting below Benn a Chleibh). Additionally, it is possible from the summit to skirt round the ridge to Stob Garbh. The day was not too long, starting at 10:15, summitting at 13:45 and returning to the car at 16:15.
Ben Challum
2006/Mar/05 : The following day I tackled Ben Challum (took the A82 right into Auchtertyre. There is parking for about 20 cars just before farm shop). The start of the hike is well defined and follows a scenic minor road track on left side of river. After 1/2 hr turn right down path over bridge. Follow track for further 1/4 hr to weir. Path then becomes less marked.
Can take L or R along river at this point, until an old piece of railway track is reached (placed across burn to act as a makeshift footbridge). Head East up slope to ridge that leads to summit (a fence follows this ridge for most of the way). The walk from the end of the track along the burn up to the ridge was dull, steep and heavy going. A better route would be to take the right side of the burn and come in from Kirkton. Another decent day with the weather although cloudy and windy, at least dry. As with yesterday the day was fairly short starting and returning almost the same times.