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The morning had seen sun and I hadn't
walked at all during my holidays, and when the opportunity to go arose,
it was fairly spontaneous. I'd been talking about doing a
hillwalk prior to this day, although the final decision to go was almost spur-of-the-moment. My
plan for today was to climb the northern Luss Hills from Glen Douglas,
and descend into Tarbet to the north. From there I'd hopefully be able
to get a train back to Glasgow.
Mum drove me up the A82, and we eventually found
the way up into Glen Douglas. Once on the road, it climbed steeply on a
single track road before flattening out high above the river below. The
road is a narrow strip of single track with a spectacular drop off to
the left to the river below. It was an
unexpected way to start the day.
Tullich Hill
I set off up Tullich Hill at 1.40pm and with stopwatch timing, set
myself the task of getting to the summit within the hour. The day was
warm and I felt good about things. I'd started out fairly late, but the
winter in the mountains was beginning to come to a close and the days
were getting longer. From Tullich Farm below, it was an easy angled slog
up Tullich Hill. Across the valley, there were numerous bunkers dotted
around the hillside.
The slopes beneath Cruach an t-Sidhean are where nuclear weapons are
stored, and strange to think that if one of them went off, Glasgow would
be vaporised. At first it seemed as if there was no security surrounding
them, though half way up Tullich Hill, incoherent voices began coming
from loudspeakers across the valley. Moments later, penetrating
the silence of the glen was the invasive sound of an siren.
I found it strange to say the least. I stood not knowing what to think
about it, but who knows what it was? The siren ceased to sound after a
few moments, but I never felt very welcome in Glen Douglas after that. That asides
though, I found Glen
Douglas a very scenic place, and if there's anything positive to say
about it, it has to be about the surrounding landscape. Shame they had to
stick the nukes in perhaps the most beautiful valley in the area - Doune
Hill and Cruach an t-Sidhean had massive stature from this side and they
looked far higher than they really are. The hills are beautiful, though there isn't much wild about Glen Douglas.
I slogged on up Tullich Hill using the horizon to gauge my altitude.
Near the top, I came out upon a lochan sitting high on the hill. The
surface was a pure blue beneath the blue skies and beyond it lay the snow
covered spires of The Cobbler. For the first and only time that day
I brought out the map to locate the true summit; a couple of humps that
surrounded me could have been the top. The southerly top was the true
summit and I headed up to the top. The Arrochar Alps were
almost in full view, and I reached the summit at 2.35pm. I paused the
stopwatch: 55 minutes and 35 seconds to the top. Fairly good going.
Beinn Bhreac
Having been on top of Tullich Hill for perhaps ten minutes, I
continued on my way towards the next goal, Beinn Bhreac, which was in sight
across the valley. Ben Reoch would have been the more logical summit to
climb next as it would create a natural horseshoe, but I needed to get to Tarbet to catch the train, hence the
odd order in which I climbed. Tullich Hill was craggy on its north-eastern
slopes and I had to negotiate some steep ground to get to "An t-Sreang"
which is the name given to the saddle. With some rain showers
passing through now, I then traversed the slopes of Ben Reoch to get
across to Beinn Bhreac. Although I was traversing slopes, I was
following distinct sheep trails and they gave me something fairly flat
and comfortable to
walk on.
And then perhaps 100 metres away, I saw the sheep themselves, and with lambs.
March/April is lambing season isn't it? Instead of traversing the slopes
towards them, I headed away from them and slogged straight up the
hillside. I didn't get close, kept my distance, I was sure you don't
want to disturb lambs. I remembered back to my cow encounter in the
Campsies on 2nd September 2007. Defensive cows with calves ... is it the
same with sheep with lambs? I kept my distance in case and continued on
my way upwards although I admit I could learn more on this subject.
When I crested the ridge of Beinn Bhreac, I found myself with new
surroundings, across to Ben Lomond and down to the loch. I gave mum a
call before continuing up to the summit of Beinn Bhreac which I reached
at 4.25pm. I had taken 1 hour 50 minutes to get to this point from Tullich Hill.
I was quite content with my progress, it seemed like I would comfortably
arrive back in Tarbet with plenty of time to spare.
Ben Reoch
I spent 20 minutes on the summit before leaving for Ben Reoch. I had
plenty of time to reach Tarbet - the train was at 8.08pm so I had a few
hours to spare. The walk
consisted of a lot of bog and peat, although I didn't mind. I'd always
hoped to get a clear day on Ben Reoch to get that pan across to the
Arrochar Alps that I'd envisaged, but the weather had different plans.
It was raining lightly, on and off, and the wind continued to blow from
the west. Cloud refused to move from the summits of the Arrochar Alps.
The weather hadn't been pleasant across the ridge, but I was in a brilliant mood.
After
the day's exertions, I was feeling pretty tired and slogged first
up to east top before continuing over to the main summit.
The last slope up to the summit cairn brought me up a steep rise, and as I came over the top,
the joy of the final summit cairn was accompanied by high winds driving
sheet of rain
forward - it was rough. Any views across to the Arrochar Alps were
gone, hidden behind the grey of rain showers. I spent five minutes at
the top, in the shade of the wind and rain, but eventually headed down
the northern slopes, bound for Tarbet.
I was pretty intent now on getting down, partly for having been walking
over grass and peat all day but also because not an inch of me was dry.
To my right rain showers were progressing up Loch Long and soon after,
the rain inevitably arrived at me. I found these slopes tedious to
descend, and dreaded the thought of ascending Ben Reoch by this route.
I'd come up in January, only gaining a couple of hundred metres altitude
to discover I had calls of nature to attend to. Around the back.
I arrived in Tarbet at 6.50pm, glad to be down, and once I got myself
dried off a bit I felt in better spirits. I headed to the train station
to double check my train was at 8.08pm, before going for a quick walk
around Cruach Tairbeirt. I reckoned I could have
borderline made the summit, but by the time I'd got up the first bit, I
realised that it was a stupid plan - I was exhausted. If I'd had two hours to spare, I'd have gone up but I wouldn't make the top
now.
Instead I spent the time in Tarbet and down by Loch Lomond's shore.
At 8.10pm I got the train, and bought myself some chocolate and a cup of
tea along the way. It felt really damn good to be done. Starting
Saturday I'll be spending the following week in the flatter regions of
Portugal, so no hills until the end of April... But I was definitely
glad to be out on some new hills on this occasion.
Panoramas
360˚ panorama from the summit of Tullich Hill
360˚ panorama from the summit of Beinn Bhreac
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