Ben Vorlich from Ardlui

Oliver O'Brien

You need to log in as a member of Walkingworld to access the details for this walk and have an active subscription. Please join, or log in above if you are already a member.

Ben Vorlich is a large, complicated mountain, with ridges running to the SSE, east, ENE, NE and north of the mountain. This route follows the two most attractive ridges – it ascends by the east 'Little Hills' ridge and descends by the NE 'Stob nan Coinnich Bhacain' ridge. The walk starts at Ardlui. After a short roadside section south, it passes through Stuckendroin Farm and heads up south-west through rough pastureland to the obvious ridge of Stuc na Nughinn. After passing several small knolls the route reaches the first of the Little Hills, upon which is possibly the best view of the walk, with the whole of Loch Lomond visible. The walk continues west over the second Little Hill and drops very steeply to the col before Ben Vorlich proper. This drop requires great care to avoid several crags. The final pull to the top of the mountain first ascends surprisingly to the right of a set of crags, with a final section over easier terrain to the trig point at 941m and the true summit, perched on crags, at 943m. The view to the south-west is particularly impressive here; Ben Vane is prominent (this is another Walkingworld walk). It is a short walk to the North Summit (931m) and then the descent is made, first by going NNW to avoid the cliffs at the top of Coire Creagach and then NE down an obvious ridge, to the col of Stob nan Coinnich Bhacain, before dropping into the valley (with impressive views of the ascent route) and finishing through pleasant deciduous woodland and then rough pastureland, back to the shores of Loch Lomond.

Scotland - Central Scotland - Argyll and Bute - Loch Lomond

Features

Food Shop, Great Views, Hills or Fells, Lake/Loch, Mountains, Munro, Pub, Toilets
6/4/2015 - Michael Price

This is a lovely walk with spectacular views and I completed it. However I agree that the instructions are poor and there are an inadequate number of way points to enable anyone to follow a defined route. The administrator is of course right that no one should attempt Mountain Challenge without the right skills or equipment. The excellent walks of Mike Taylor are an example of routes that are more easily followed in this area. I recorded this walk using View Ranger from way point 5 and recorded 15km to return to Ardlui Station and 1450m of height gain from that point. I took 6 hours 45 min from that point with 2 stops. If you are doing this for the first time allow time for finding your routes between way points guided by the notes and NB there is a significant amount of scrambling which is slippery in places when wet, which is not mentioned in the description. You might also want to take high vis clothing if walking from Ardlui Station. The road is perhaps where I felt most in danger.

8/22/2007 - Walkingworld Administrator

Walkingworld most strongly recommends a map be taken on ALL walks. On a Mountain Challenge walk like this one, a map and compass or GPS, and the skills to use them, are vital navigational aids. Please see the walk grades by clicking on the icon.

8/20/2007 - Karen Proctor

We tried to follow this walk but found the directions impossible to follow and had to turn around after a couple of hours