Ben Lomond

Ben Lomond is for many the most celebrated of Scottish mountains. It is still the rival of Ben Nevis for the foremost place in popularity. This is due to its conspicuous and easily accessible situation, to the ease with which it can be ascended, and to the magnificence of the view it commands. Owing to its somewhat isolated position at the southern extremity of the Highlands, it forms a conspicuous object from many points of view, whilst from its summit there is obtained a singularly extensive and varied survey of mountain and loch, valley and plain, with a picturesque middle distance of hill, wood, and water.

The most popular ascent of the Ben is from Rowardennan on the east side of Loch Lomond which attracts nearly 30,000 climbers per year and can resemble Sauchiehall Street at ‘chucking oot time’ over a sunny weekend. In search of solitude and in keeping with our pioneering spirit we assault the hill from the lesser trodden and least known ascent from the shores of Loch Chon which is situated 6 miles west of Aberfoyle and traverses the mountains north west ridge.

As we start our climb we recall Dr Garnett’s observations on the Ben’s early climbers. From his "Tour in Scotland" of 1798 he sagely regales "this mountain is visited by strangers from every quarter of the island." From a remark, however, in the same book we must not be surprised at the strange and marvellous sights some of those early mountaineers saw, for it is stated that "it is deemed impossible to reach the top without the aid of a bottle of whisky!”

These Dickensian trailblazers clearly embraced the idiom ‘fit to drop’ with some zeal ;-)

Our source of rehydration is taken from the little streams coming down off the Ben as we plot our way through the myriad of forests trails that will eventually take us clear of the forest cover and out on to the mountains broad open slopes chocked with bracken and broom and countless hidden boggy traps which Eric manages to fall prey too with alarming regularity. As we follow the last hissing stream to its source we climb up to the ridge of the mountain’s shoulder and look down on Loch Lomond sparkling a deep silky blue on our left, seemingly close enough to leap and dive into. As we climb the final zigzag flank towards the summit at 3195ft, small wisps of cloud appear that feel so close that one could almost pull them out of the sky with a tethered rope.

With the summit gained we take in the panorama of peaks, from Bens Cruachan, Lui, Nevis, More, Lawers and Stobinian with Ben Ledi and Ben Venue in The Trossachs, the Paps of Jura in the west and Goat Fell with its sisters on the Isle of Arran. To the south lie the islands of Incailloch, Inchmurrin, Inchmoan, Inchconnachan, Inchcruin and Inchfad.

This remote trek up Scotland’s most accessible mountain took an exhausting four and half hours to achieve as opposed to the 2hrs the swarming hordes take walking the well worn tourist route. Sadly, we can only rest our weary limbs for 30 minutes due to restrictive time parameters before quickly retracing our steps back down the lonely route to Loch Chon, stopping briefly to gaze at a soufflé of clouds in the distance which gather like a small airborne crush of icebergs dissipating as they wander south.

Our return is not without incident as Eric rescues a lamb which has become separated from its distraught mother and got itself trapped hysterically in a small ravine. With mother and lamb reunited and Eric’s status as superhero reaffirmed we press on at great haste to reach the car in the cover of a glorious sunset 8 hours after our departure.