A Munro is a Scottish mountain over 3000 ft. They are named after the man who compiled the original list – Hugh Munro of which there are 283.  Some nutters make it a challenged to climbing them all, maybe we will get there someday but for now we just pick one or two to do starting with Ben Vane.

We drove from Glasgow, along Loch Lomond, past Tarbert and up towards Crianlarich. Eventually we passed a big hydropower station and  pulled in on the right to a car park to begin the hike. If you fancy finding Ben Vane or any Munro, you can find all the information you need here.

Due to some miracle we began our trek with some uncharacteristic sunshine, following the banks of Loch Lomond back towards Tarbert before turning right and heading up a valley. Ben Vane is part of the Arachor Alps so the surrounding area is beautiful low land Scottish terrain.

We walked past highland coos, past a huge water reservoir and then grabbed some lunch at the foot of the Ben Vane. We all  consulted our maps, come up with different routes and argued which was the best. After a while, we gave up arguing over finding a sensible route and went for a direct assent. The gradient was steep, really steep but we did get some amazing views of Beinn Imm and Ben Vorlich.

The route we picked was pretty tough going cause of the steepness (the picture doesn’t do it justice) so we took plenty of stops to enjoy the view.  Fortunately the springy grass made for a comfy seat and the weather held out, at least for a while.

While we were hauling ourselves up the hill and posing for knee raising pictures, the sheep were just there chillin’. They were just looking at us like “What’s up with you guys? We do this all the time, man up!”. And then the raggedy show offs bounded off into the distance and the rain descended. We donned the water proofs and powered on up the last 1000 ft to the summit. On the very top the wind was blowing a hooley, Vivian nearly flew away! We got some glimpses of the view in between the showers,it was stunning. Once we took our summit photo for evidence, we started down the path (which should have taken on the way up).

We followed the ridge of Ben Vane back down into the valley and then made our way back down to Loch Lomond. It was a great day despite the rain and I know that this won’t be the Munro that we bag. We’ve already done a few so I think I will need to make a list so we don’t loose track! Have you got a favourite Munro? If so, let us know! Hey, that rhymed!

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