Beinn Dearg (Menteith Hills)

19 October 2010. The forecast was good but the sky was a bit cloudy- typical late autumn day really. I was only looking for a short walk and the Menteith hills fitted the bill exactly. I parked the car in an unofficial lay by on the A81 Callander to Aberfoyle road immediately opposite the start of a track that led to the radio masts on Ben Gullipen. The first part of the walk was through a forest and the track then entered land belonging to Gartchonzie estate. A large sign gave notice that "Pedigree Highlanders" were grazing; although there was lots of evidence that they had been on the track there was no sign of the beasts today. This is on the approach track looking towards Ben Gullipen.....

Ben Gullipen was an excellent viewpoint in its own right. Ben Ledi was prominent to the north across Loch Vennachar (the loch to its right is Loch Lubnaig).....

If I wasn't collecting and photo-recording Marilyn's then I doubt that I would have continued beyond the masts. The highest point of this small group of hills- Beinn Dearg, 427m/1,400'- was less than 1/2 mile away and would probably have only taken about 15 minutes if the underfoot conditions were good. However, they were far from it; the heather was some of the roughest that I have encountered in this area and there was also tussocky grass and some boggy areas. I decided to drop down a bit to the north and traverse across the hillside close to Lochan Bailoch and thus avoid the worst of the heather; this is Beinn Dearg from Ben Gullipen with Lochan Bailoch in the foreground.....

On the way back, I spotted a rough track on the south side of the ridge and followed it as far as a point directly below the masts and climbed back up from there to join the outward track. It was a marginally better route. Needless to say, this does not seem to be a well visited summit and there was no cairn. The highest point was at the junction of some fences. I took this picture looking west to Ben Venue and Ben Lomond.....

The view down Loch Vennachar into the Trossachs was also good from here......

and how about this for some highland scenery only about 20 odd miles from Glasgow? It is Ben Ledi across Lochan Bailoch.....

The walk was about 4 miles altogether with about 300m of ascent and it took me 2 hours and 20 minutes.