Get Lost Mountaineering

Beinn Ghlas & Ben Lawers from Ben Lawers Car Park

Start/Finish

The Ben Lawers car park owned by the National Trust of Scotland, £4 per day in 2024 for non-members. This is reached by taking the bridge of Balgie road from the A827 about 4 miles east of Killin or about 11 miles east of Kenmore. The Bridge of Balgie road is very narrow especially soon after leaving the A827 and oncoming traffic may necessitate reversing down the road.

Distance/Time

11 km     About 5 – 6 hours

Peaks

Beinn Ghlas, 1103 m, NN 625 404.

Ben Lawers, 1214 m, 635 414.    OS Sheet 51: Loch Tay

Introduction

This is a fairly easy walk to navigate in summer conditions as there is a good path/track much of the way. However, such are the views that it would be a waste to walk this route in poor visibility and miss the very fine views. These views are to other parts of the Ben Lawers range, the Crianlarich Hills, the Glen Lyon hills, Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’Chroin but the finest view is to the Tarmachan Ridge across the Bridge of Balgie road.

Route

(1) Follow the path out of the car path which starts by the pay machine. Cross the Bridge of Balgie road and meander through scattered woodland on a well constructed path. Reach a heavy metal gate and continue on the obvious path which now starts to steepen. Note a path going off left, almost horizontally, soon after as this will be used for the return from Ben Lawers. Continue up Beinn Ghlas until the summit crest is finally reached. The highest point is just before the path descends towards Ben Lawers where a very small cairn marks the summit of Beinn Ghlas, 1103 m.

(2) The continuation to Beinn Lawers is very obvious. Follow the path which descends NE from Beinn Ghlas, along a well defined ridge to a ridge bealach, then ascend NNE then ENE up the obvious path to reach the trig point and adjacent rounded cairn which mark the summit of Ben Lawers, 1214 m. The path up Ben Lawers is eroded in places and has had much work in previous years but the volume of walkers takes its toll. There is no summit cairn in the form of a pile of stones as there is no room on what is quite a small summit. Looking E, there are some interesting rock formations not far from the summit which might be worth exploring. A well defined ridge runs E and an even more defined one runs N to the bealach below An Stuc.

(3) Retrace to the bealach below Beinn Ghlas then leave the ridge on the path which drops off to the right and passes through the gap between Beinn Ghlas and Meall Corranaich. Stay on this path which eventually rejoins the outward path and leads down to the Beinn Ghlas car park on the Bridge of Balgie road.

Notes

(a) This walk took place on 12^th July, 2024.