Beinn Chabhair - Crianlarich Hills - Aug 2004

Beinn Chabhair Information

Before climbing Beinn Chabhair I read many online reviews and it was getting bad press all over the place... after climbing the hill I am wondering why? it was a fantastic climb with all the lochans, rivers and waterfalls giving the hill fantastic character which some hills are missing, well in my opinion anyway ( besides a walk that starts and ends at the door of the Drovers cant be bad! ).  The walk follows the Beinn Glas Burn passing the fantastic Beinn Glas Waterfalls before leading to the rivers source Lochan Beinn Chabhair 400m below the summit of the hill itself.  I have never seen a source of a river before it is quite a site.  The views from the summit are quite possibly the best I have ever seen, although I did have amazing weather.  You are completely en-circled by hills with an excellent view of the great wall of Rannoch... Beinn Dorain and of course fantastic views of Ben More and Stob Binnein.  Another fantastic feature of this walk is Chabhair's huge NW ridge stretching out over very rocky knobbly terrain passing Lochan a' Chaisteil a small lochan perched high up on the rocks it is a very picturesque site.  Beinn Chabhair is well hidden and can only really be seen from Derrydarroch where you park for An Caisteal.  Although Chabhair only stands at 933m the walk is a memorable one.      

Beinn Chabhair Route

For this route I parked in the car park at the Stagger Inn I don't know if your allowed to or not but I don't think they care.  Walk up the A82 ( don't worry there is a path) for a few hundred meters and turn right into Beinn Glas Farm.  Go over the bridge and turn right onto the West Highland Way link to avoid going into the farm.  Go behind the Wigwams ( that's right wigwams! ) and go onto the small path that begins to zig zag up the hill.  This is a steep little puppy of a path but gets you there fast I suppose.  After 45 mins or so you come to the Beinn Glas falls.  After another 10 Mins or so you pass two dear fences and all of a sudden you reach flat ground.  A path follows the Beinn Glas Burn and you now have a pleasant 45 minute walk by the river ( although the path is a bit boggy) Looking around there are many summits it is hard to figure out which is yours so just follow the path right up until you reach the river's source Lochan Beinn Chabhair.  Its now obvious which summit it is.., right in front of you with the long NW ridge an obvious feature.  There are two possible ways  to get to the summit some like to go up the side of Lochan Beinn Chabhair and take to the NE ridge where there is an obvious bealach and slightly easier climbing.  You can also just head straight up and join the NW ridge with some 1km of walking on the ridge to reach the summit I liked the look of this route more.  So to get onto the NW ridge there is a path some where that leads to it I couldn't find it ( found it on the  descent) I made my own way up which was better as there are a few areas for some basic scrambling.  It does not matter if you don't find the path as you will eventually join up with the main ridge path.  Once you are on the ridge as I said before its a 1km walk along to the summit, over rocky outcrops ( quite fun ).  You pass a small cairn with the real cairn about 100 m further on perched on top of a crag.  You will now see what I mean about the views ( as long as you get the weather) they are fantastic with views right down Loch Lomond, the other Crianlarich Hills, Tyndrum hills, Bridge of Orchy Hills, right up to the Lochaber 4000footers it was in this case... The weather was so good ( bit cloudy but visibility was fantastic).  For the descent you can go back the way you came but for some variety and a chance to see Lochan a' Chaisteil I recommend following the NW ridge over Meall nan Tarmachan which is where it sits.  After seeing the lochan you can drop back down to the Beinn Glas Burn any time you feel safe to do so and re join your original path.  Just retrace your steps right back to the car.  

The weather on this day was excellent the cloud was there but stayed well above Munro height and the visibility was fantastic.  

Beinn Chabhair Photos / Images / Pictures

        Final 400m climb to the summit of Beinn Chabhair                     Lochan a Chasiteal on the Tarmachans a nice spot!

Ben Vorlich standing tall at the head of Loch Lomond taken from Beinn Chabhair