Ben Lomond - Arrochar Alps - Feb 2004

About Ben Lomond

Ben Lomond is a very popular hill being the furthest south of all the Munros.  it can be reached from Glasgow in well under an hour thus making it very crowded especially on Sundays and bank holidays.  The hill itself has two routes up one which is soooooooooooooo boring.  The normal tourist path is just a constant slog to the top of the hill with pretty boring views up a over eroded path.  The other route follows up the Ptarmigan which is Ben Lomond's Shoulder It is much more appealing since you can see right down loch Lomond the whole way up and you don't have a forest walk like you do on the normal path.  As you will see when reading the rest of my routes on this site I'm not too fond of forest walks.  The Hill stands at 974m/3195ft and dominates the the eastern side of Loch Lomond.  It can be seen from most hills throughout the central highlands.

Ben Lomond Route

I took the Ptarmigan way up Ben Lomond and to do this the best place to park is the car park at Rowardennan.  From here walk along the West Highland Way for about 15 Minutes this takes you to the foot of the Ptarmigan.  It is a steep climb but the ridge is obvious to see and this is what you want to head for.  Once you reach this there is an obvious path right to the summit.  Be warned there are many false peaks along the way so don't get your hopes up too soon as you will probably have more to do.  Nearer the summit there are many rocky outcrops but the path guides you through these.  From the summit you can see north west right across the loch to the other Arrochar alps and brilliant views straight down Loch Lomond.  Since on the way up you have seen all the views I recommend taking the normal path down  This path can be seen zig-zagging down the hill towards a forest you want to head there.  The path is obvious the whole way down.  At the entrance to the forest you climb the stile and follow the path through the forest.  This takes you out at the car park.  

The day I climbed Ben Lomond the weather was terrible it was a very good example of the infamous Scottish weather with the rain constantly soaking you no matter how much waterproofs you wear.  As you can see from my photos below the cloud was thick and grey and pretty much all round nasty.  There was little wind though thankfully but all round a miserable day until I reached the summit and the cloud seemed to miraculously clear over Loch Lomond making a brilliant photo opportunity, that was a stroke of luck.

Ben Lomond Photos / Images

                   The Ptarmigan ridge of Ben Lomond                          Cloud clearing (at last!) over Loch Lomond from summit

OS Map: Landranger 56 Loch Lomond & Inveraray Area

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