2.6 miles 2h 53m ascent 340m
The hill’s original name is thought to have been Am Binnean, or small pointed peak: a good descriptive name. But Sir Walter Scott called it Ben-An in his poem The Lady of the Lake and that name seems to have been taken up by Ordnance Survey and become the accepted monika.
And now, to issue from the glen,
No pathway meets the wanderer’s ken,
Unless he climb, with footing nice
A far projecting precipice.
The broom’s tough roots his ladder made,
The hazel saplings lent their aid;
And thus an airy point he won,
Where, gleaming with the setting sun,
One burnished sheet of living gold,
Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled,
In all her length far winding lay,
With promontory, creek, and bay,
And islands that, empurpled bright,
Floated amid the livelier light,
And mountains, that like giants stand,
To sentinel enchanted land.High on the south, huge Benvenue
The Lady of the Lake, Sir Walter Scott
Down to the lake in masses threw
Crags, knolls, and mountains, confusedly hurled,
The fragments of an earlier world;
A wildering forest feathered o’er
His ruined sides and summit hoar,
While on the north, through middle air,
Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare.
The route was pretty straightforward and all on a good path. A ‘warm up’ climb up the slope above Tigh Mor then a flatter section with the pinnacle of Ben A’an ahead.
A wee climb through the trees.
And some more climbing, with views back to Loch Achray (and Achray Forest where we would walk the next day).
The climb did seem to go on for a good while (though it wasn’t actually very far). We stopped for a breather and checked how far we were from the summit – and found it was only 5 minutes away! That was a morale boost.
There were great views of Loch Katrine from the top with Ben Venue close by and Ben Lomond in the distance.
