Ben Vorlich (Loch Lomond) – our First Munro!

Mary on the summit of Ben Vorlich

Our First Munro! – A Munro is a Scottish mountain over 3000 feet. I know that sounds small to folks from British Columbia, Alberta, and the Western States – but what these hills might lack in stature they more than make up in ruggedness and beauty.

Ben Vorlich (Hill of the Bay) is 943m/3094ft. On Sat, May 14 we got up, made lunch, went out our door and walked about 100 metres down to Great Western Road where we caught a bus to Ardlui. Ardlui sits along the north western banks of bonnie Loch Lomond, right at the foot of the mountain. We were on the route within 15 minutes of getting down from the bus.

There are several ways to approach this mountain, we chose to come at it via the corrie on the east side of the hill – Coire Creagach. A corrie (coire in Gaelic) is a rounded hollow in a hillside. It is a result of glaciation, and often has an open slope at the front, with steep walls at the back and sides. Our corrie was steep and a bit boggy in places, but wide open. There was not really a trail to follow, just some general map headings – but navigation was not too difficult.

The day had some wonderful light as clouds moved in and out over the surrounding mountains. We had some showers, and it even snowed on us on the summit ridge (weather in Scotland is VERY changeable!), but the day was mostly dry and bright.

Ben Vane in the foreground

We ascended up through the corrie with some stunning views back to Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond (big mountain on the other side of the Loch), but the scene really opened out when we reached the col (a low notch in the ridge) at about 600 m. The blue and gold mountains, especially to the north and west, marched away into the mist – we saw a summer of hill walking stretch out before us.

The wind on the col and along the summit ridges was fierce – my eyes teared constantly and as soon as a drop formed the wind slapped it across my face. We got some relief on the eastern side of the ridges and at the summit in the lee of the big cairn.

Mike and Mary in the Coire Creagach

Mist started to roll over us as the summit came into sight – we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves on getting to the top of our first Munro. Just then we spied two other walkers who came up the southern slopes of Vorlich. While chatting at the summit cairn we discovered they first went up and over Ben Vane, another Munro in the area. Clearly we are NOT quite the stud-muffins we thought we were! The only thing for it is more hill walking.

On the way down we ventured towards another height of land to the north-east of the col. Then we traced a path back to join up with our route through Coire Creagach. We were down at Ardlui and enjoying an ale in the pub by 6:00. We took the train back to town and were home by about 9:30 – another day seized in Scotland!


Map of the route

View Ben Vorlich in a larger map
More pictures from Ben Vorlich