Ben Cruachan - 16th June 2018

Saturday 16th June 2018

Walking Diary (All Walks) Scotland

The aim today was to climb Ben Cruachan and then continue past its famous slabs and then on to Stob Diamh before descending back to the Cruachan reservoir completing the horseshoe - Unfortunately the weather conditions were terrible and I had to limit the walk to just Ben Cruachan and back.

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Distance: 8.8 miles

Duration: 5:15 hours

Ascent: 3871 ft

Difficulty: Hard

Accompanied By: On my Own

Weather: Heavy Rain

3D outline of route

Parking

Parked up next to the Falls of Cruachan railway station

Nice walk up through the woods to start with with the sound of waterfalls around

Out of the trees and Loch Awe appears

This was tricky to get over- wobbly and unstable and that's just me

First sight of the dam wall at Cruachan reservoir

Not the view I was hoping for ! The rain was getting heavier and I could tell I would be losing a lot of visibility soon

I crossed the top of the dam and took the track to the left of the reservior

Even though the weather was awful - it was still lovely here

The rest of the climb to Ben Cruachan was done in heavy rain and high winds. I wasn't able to get any decent photos although I got a slight respite at the top. It was here that I decided it was not a good idea to press on with the full horseshoe and that descending back to the reservoir was sensible. I'd already passed a group of lads who had thrown the towel in. It was unfamiliar terrain for me and I was unsure about what lay ahead and the conditions were pretty awful, so I headed back - at least I would be in good shape for the night in the Clachhaig