Ben Lawers + 2 either side

I decided it was time to be a bit more ambitious, and branch out from following the Walk Highlands routes which are the most trodden paths up the hills. The weather was looking good for Ben Lawers, the highest peak in Perthshire, and one of my other munro books had a route that caught my eye. The full route is 9 munros in one walk which, even if I had the legs for (I don’t), I certainly wouldn’t have the daylight for. But the route has an obvious division so I planned to tackle the easterly half, with Lawers in the middle.

The night before had been pretty wild and windy, but I woke to a bright Autumn morning. I headed out, excited. The route headed out along the grassy slope of Beinn Ghlas. From reading the book, this section of the walk sounded like a delight. In practice, it was dense thick spongey grass which hid knee-high crevasses where the water ran off the hill. The book nonchalantly said “make a gradually rising traverse on sheep tracks” but I can assure you there hadn’t been sheep making tracks or trimming the grass on this slope for a long while. This was an extremely grassy, extremely slopey slope. I waded my way along, cursing the author’s surely longer legs than mine, and checking my progress so often I was continually disappointed. The plus side of toiling along this route was the view of Loch Tay in the morning sun.

I eventually got round to the Lawers burn and negotiated my way across. This had taken a fair bit longer than I had budgeted for so I forced my tired legs to get a hustle on. There was a red deer scarpering up the hill ahead of me, though this was too fast for a photo. A bit further up two funny little Ptarmigans were pretty flustered by my appearance. They upped and trotted along, but instead of hopping out the road, they bounced along the path ahead of me for a while.

It was a straight walk up to the summit of Meall Garbh, then a quick scramble up to the saddle summit of An Stuc. I didn’t stop for long at either of these tops because I was feeling behind time and there was a chilly wind. But here are the quick cairn snaps.

The route from An Stuc on to Ben Lawers lost a depressing amount of elevation. I passed Lochan nan Cat – so called because it supposedly looks like a cat. My book had ‘wittily’ remarked that it might be better named Lochan nan Splodge and I had a good chuckle at this (I spend a lot of time on my own these days…). Anyway Ben Lawers was looking good with a white top so I was keen to get up there, and it didn’t disappoint. Standby for lots of pics, I liked this one.

I wanted to stick around at the summit of Ben Lawers longer but the day was getting on and I hoped to squeeze in two more munros before it got dark. Onwards to Beinn Ghlas up an easy path, this one was a gentler munro.

Now, at the top of Beinn Ghlas it was later than I had planned, but I didn’t want to be defeated soooo I decided to shoot up the last munro on my hit list for the day. I knew this would be tight on time but just about do-able. And when I got to the top… sunset!! Delicious!!

Sooo after about 5 minutes frolicking in the sunset, I then started to wonder if I was going to break my legs in the dark on the way down…. The most direct route down would be to take the shoulder of the hill, though this would only have bits of broken path on it. Surely plenty of people have walked this way through the summer? The alternative of retracing my steps would be a bit scrambley and on the shady side of the hill so probably quite dark.

Again I told my tired legs to get a hustle on. The path was intermittent at best. Was this a sheep trail or a bonafide path? Was that a bootprint of a previous walker or did I imagine it? The path disappeared at the top of a steeper grassy slope and it became every hiker for themselves. I was back in thick grass, distinctly off-path, and slipping and sliding on spongey marsh and into calf-deep crevasses hidden by the grass. Hmmmmm.

As the gloaming deepened, my pace quickened. I knew I was heading in the right-ish direction, but it was further than I had expected. Shouldn’t I be near a path by now?? I doubted myself, and checked the gps a few times. I put off getting the head torch out, keen to keep my dusk-adjusted eyes as long as possible.

Eventually I saw a style over a deer fence which would take me back into the conservation area and back to the path. Perfect! One downside of the conservation area was… even longer, thicker, spongier grasses (though I’d say the upsides still have the edge). This would have been much more fun to walk in by daylight, less fun when you’re trying to move fast in the dark. After a few mis-steps in the marsh… I was back-on-path!! Phew. Aaaand breathe. I had said aloud the night before “it got dark at 6.30” so I’d remember it. I checked the time when I got back to the van… it was 6.32pm! About 5 minutes later it was pitch black.