Creachan Dubh

21 May 2014

Participants: Just me
Where: Creachan Dubh, 470m/1,542', Sub-2k Marilyn, Map 55, NS 015910

Well, here's an obscure one! Creachan Dubh is east of Loch Fyne, south of Strachur. This is it's east side, the route of ascent. The actual summit is beyond what you can see here.....

 

 

Handily, a minor single track road leaves the A886 and runs along the foot of the hill. After about a mile, I came to a cattle grid where there was parking for a few cars, although I doubt if many car loads of folk will turn up at the same time to climb this hill! After parking the car, I wandered down the road for about a hundred yards until I came to a gap in the trees and a gate on to the hill. It looked steep from here.....

 

 

Although it's not particularly high, the start was almost at sea level so there was a fair bit of ascent. There was no path but the grass and bracken were short so it was a relatively easy climb. I tended to the right higher up to avoid the crags. After about 300m of ascent, the ground levelled out and I could see what I was sure must be the summit area ahead. I stopped here for a wee rest and took this photo looking back down.....

 

 

The trig was one of the nice stone variety. This photo is looking north-east to the Arrochar hills.....

 

 

and this one is east over the Cruach Mhor wind farm in the general direction of Dunoon.....

 

 

There was a reasonable view of Loch Fyne but the hills beyond were lost in the haze.

 

I wandered back down in considerably less time than it had taken me to climb up. It had been a pleasant 3 hour walk. As I usually do when I visit hills in this area, I made a round trip of it driving to the hill via Loch Lomond side and going back by Dunoon and the Clyde ferries. By the time I got to Dunoon, it was a really beautiful day and it was a nice sail across the Clyde to Gourock.....