Date: 20/07/2020 Time: 11:14
Walk Stats – 3.5 miles, 2,028ft elevation gain, time: 2 hrs
Myself, Robin (my brother-in-law) and Cal (my nephew), go for a quick jaunt up Beinn an Lochain. They picked me up from the outlaws house in Gourock about 9am and with Cal driving we arrived at the car park at the foot of the hill around 11. We set off on our ascent about quarter past. The first part of the walk was extremely boggy, and this was supposedly the less marshy route. There is a bigger more noticeable car park just around the corner from where we stopped and I imagine a few people have parked there to set off on their journey to the top. Reading the reviews afterwards (probably not the best sequence to do things), we discovered if you head off from the more obvious car park you come up against the impassable swamp. Part of me thought this sounded like a challenge but I’m glad we chose the car park we did to start our climb. It was clear skies when we left but as with any hill walk in Scotland you have to be ready for any weather no matter what season (this was the height of summer). There was no clear path to follow from the road but as we started to ascend it soon became apparent. The path was pretty steep and there are a few bits where the arms came into play to help haul us up.
The cloud and rain started to drift in as we moved up the hill. As we ascended the second steep part of the climb the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and the views disappeared. By the time we made it to the top we were pretty drookit; just a usual Highland summer 🙂
After our climb we jumped in the car and headed back down the road. We did stop at the ‘Rest and be Thankful’ Catering Van for a bacon and black pudding roll and a large cup of coffee. This combo was recommended by Rob’s friend Andy who had climbed the hill a few weeks earlier and stopped there for a post climb bite to eat. Andy was spot on, it was well worth the stop 🙂
https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/lochlomond/beinn-an-lochain.shtml