Ben Donich

I had to get out somewhere.

Strangely after a week of crap weather - thunder and torrential downpours which seemed to have lasted 2 weeks since the Gulvain walk - the forecast for Saturday was good.

Typically I was not going to be able to get far. There was a birthday party I was supposed to go to at night so any really big trips - and all the remaining Munros are big trips - were put on hold.

That left me wondering what to do and I started to consult the Corbett book. I had more or less settled on Ben Vane next to Ben Ledi when I realised that I'd driven up that road past Callendar for each of the last 4 weeks and it was getting boring. So I decided to go over to Arrochar instead to do one of the Corbetts over there. Ben Donich (Brown Hill) it was. A new Corbett for me. 847 metres (2778 feet)



I left Edinburgh at about 8.10 and headed over the M8, across the Erskine Bridge ( I had a friend who told me she had to call it the Bumkin bridge when she was wee because erse was a bad word) then up the A 83 along the side of Loch Lomond.

On the way over I got a text to say that the party was cancelled so I could probably have gone further, but I was not bothered. By then I was absorbed in the views and was happy to be where I was.

I do not do that drive very often - usually it is M90 Stirling, Callendar etc or else A9 - and it was nice to see Ben Lomond and then to turn at Tarbet dropping down to Arrochar with the Tolkienesque shape of the Cobbler leering over the village.

I got to the car park at the top of the "Rest and Be Thankful" Pass at about 10:15, faffed about with my stuff for a bit and then drove round to the car park for Ben Donich and started up at about 10:25. The Forestry Commission had cut a path up this hill and sigend it.

The book gave it 1:40 to the top but I was there in am hour and I sat at the trig point soaking up the views: The Cobbler, Ben Lomond, The Brack, Beinn Lochain, Ben Ime, Goat Fell on Arran - lots and lots of hills.

Looking down to the village of Lochgoilhead I remembered being there last August and watching the raft race.

But it was beautiful place. Quiet too. While there was a clear path up the hill I passed only one pair of walkers who I chatted to on the way up and then again at the summit. The nearby Munros would have been busier and the car park at the head of Loch Long was heaving.

It was a good hill for views. That of course is a cliche about Corbetts.

It was my 12th Corbett. I am not sure that I want to get into ticking these things off but it does give a certain satisfaction. There are 220 in total spread all across Scotland. Borders, Highlands and Islands.

Still it is just so good to be out among the mountains. I am so lucky to live within easy distance of hills and to have the freedom to just get up and go to these places.

To sit alone on a summit drinking in the views, free from company, criticism and judgement with no pressure to do anything is a great privilege. (Not to say that walking in company is bad. I enjoy the hills with friends and often I'll put off a trip so that I can go with someone else. It is more that solitude is of value too.)

It was not a Munro but it was a great pleasure to be up here today.

A trot down hill, taking in more views. Nothing to report.

I thought about knocking off another of the nearby Corbetts but couldn't be bothered to be honest. I was tired and wasn't sure I had the motivation to climb again. I'd had a good day and there will be more such DV.

I'd made some memories which is sometimes the most important thing. They sustain when I'm stuck indoors or when I'm in the midst of some struggle or stress. I remember once in a really bad period at work thinking of a day in the Fannichs. Whatever was happening at work in many ways did not matter. Those hills were still there, quiet, undisturbed. Immune to all the weird things that normally dominate my days.