Ben Clach

10 September 2013.

Participants: Just me
Where: Ben Clach, 533m/1,748', Sub-2k Marilyn, Map 57, NN 759152

I had driven past Ben Clach many times. It is a nice looking hill but the acres of scrub land between it and the road had always put me off attempting it. That and the fact that the map has "Danger Area" written all over it around this hill. However, the area is no longer used by the military since the nearby camp at Cultybraggan closed a year or two back. And closer inspection of the map and a look at other folks reports on the web suggested that the ground might not be as bad as it looked so off I set today to add the hill to my list. It was another day of great clarity with the colours getting really deep as autumn approaches. The path marked on the map leaving the road at 780152 actually exists. There was space to park at the gate at the start.....

and the path turned out to be a track that is obviously still used occasionally. It was a really good surface with a bridge over the only burn that I had to cross on the way.....

I left the track after about a mile where it started to head downhill towards the Corriebeagh Burn. The next bit was awful- long, thick grass- but fortunately this only lasted for a few hundred yards before I was on steeper slopes and shorter grass. Early September probably wasn't the best time of year to do this but at least it was dry underfoot. I reached an area of hillside containing a number of erratics and had a rest beside one of them. The view is looking east along Strathearn and the hill to the right of the picture is Torlum.....

It got rougher again higher up when I reached the heather but there were no problems and I reached the top about 1 hour 40 after leaving the car. No massive cairn on this one- just a wooden pole stuck in between two small rocks beside a small pool. This is not a summit for a misty day (where have I said that before)! Still, there was a good view west to Stuc a'Chroin and Ben Vorlich.....

 

To the north I was looking at Ben Chonzie above the village of Comrie.....

To the south there was a good view of the Ochils.....
 

 

It was breezy on top so I didn't linger for too long. Back at the erratics, I had another stop. I find descending much more tiring than ascending and I was again pretty whacked after I had re-crossed the area of long, tangled, grass. But, all in all, Ben Clach turned out to be a well worthwhile hill.