KYQ4: Beinn Ime and Beinn Narnain

The Cobbler from Narnain Boulders

Tuesday 23 April 2024

Ascent: 1365 metres
Distance: 18 kilometres
Time: 5 hours 29 minutes

Beinn Ime 1011m 2hrs 25mins
Beinn Narnain 926m. 3hrs 36mins

One of the very few clear and sunny days of the year was forecast and I needed some hills to climb. The perpetual rain over recent months has made it easy to find excuses to avoid outdoor exercise and I have never been a gym user. I needed something to test me but not too strenuous. I decided to climb the two Arrochar Munros - Beinn Ime and Beinn Narnain. My first visit to these hills was on my way to work on 5 May 1989, It was near the start of my first Munro round when I was running marathons so speed and stamina were not a problem. It took three and a half hours and I made a midday meeting in Glasgow with a Financial Times journalist writing a piece on Strathclyde Regional Council. He lived in the Lake District and was disappointed that he could not have joined me in the Arrochar Alps.

I checked my other outings on these hills but they all involved the Cobbler, Beinn Luibhean and/or Ben Vane so they provided no guide to the time taken. Walk Highlands said it was a 6 -7 hour walk but even in recent years I have managed to save an hour or so on these times. I figured that I should aim for 5 hours and pay for 5 hours of parking at the Succoth car park that charges £1 an hour. I thought it would stop any dawdling. I had decided to climb Beinn Narnain first but the path to Narnain was barely evident and seemed to climb erratically up the bed of a watercourse with heavy tree coverage. (more later) The good path from the car park was heading for the Bealach a' Mhaim between the Cobbler and Beinn Ime. It was well made with a steady gradient with a long series of switchbacks, so I decided to take this more used path.

The skies were a cobalt blue and there was not a whiff of wind although it was still nippy as I started out. A dozen cars were already parked, these are the nearest Munros to Glasgow other than Ben Lomond so others were taking advantage of the day. Eventually, the path emerges from the plantations by the side of the Allt a'Bhalachan just below a mini hydro scheme. The path is perfect, crossing small burns and leading to the Narnain Boulders. They were a shelter for climbers during the great depression and probably witnessed some raucous nights. After a brief pause to examine the boulders, I continued to the bealach where another older walker was sitting comfortably on a large rock admiring the views. He had gone as far as he could and intended to relive his days on the hills by taking photos and chatting with the passing traffic.

The path from here undercuts Beinn Narnain and the young woman whom I had been slowly catching stopped to decide which hill to climb, she chose Beinn Narnain. I continued on the path to Beinn Ime which had been massively upgraded since my last visit. Although it was a 400-metre climb it was at a walkable gradient and apart from briefly stopping to talk to a young woman and then a couple of men, all walking on their own, I emerged to the impressive summit with excellent views in all directions although it was slightly hazier than it would have been an hour earlier. I had walked in a T-shirt and thin pullover and that was enough to sit and take a drink and some food in the late morning sunshine. Photos were taken before I set off on the descent passing another 5 people climbing Beinn Ime.

I had read that the better path up Beinn Narnain was from near the bealach, an extra 500 metres along the path than the old and boggy path that took a more direct line. I took this and found a well-constructed staircase that eventually joined the old path about 150 metres below the summit. I then took a path to the west that was less direct and had some scrambling but gave excellent views down Loch Long. I was pleased to see a well-built trig point of local stone but aping the shape of the large concrete O.S.bollards.

I had to decide which way to descend, down the direct route over the Spearhead, which is the recommended ascent route, or back to the bealach and down my ascent path. I chose the former thinking it would be quicker and aware that I had only paid for 5 hours parking. Never have I been so wrong. It is an exciting exit down the gulley below the Spearhead with some snow patches making it even more so. There is then a scrambling section before a flattish ridge to Cruach nam Miseag.

Thereafter there are a couple of kilometres of a never-ending twisting and turning descent down rocky gulleys and slopes with occasional sections of steps. It never allows you to settle into a rhythm but the views of Ben Lomond and Loch Long are impressive. At the end of this section, I met a walker beginning his ascent, I felt sorry for him but wanting to be encouraging I told him it was a better route to ascend than come down and the views at the summit were perfect. He was the 7th man I had passed today, there had been 8 women, and all but three couples were walking alone, it typifies the balance of people you meet on the hills nowadays.

I was looking forward to the last kilometre which looked like a straight path on the map but it was a fight down a watercourse alongside boggy ground covered in intrusive tree cover, it proved the slowest kilometre of the day and the descent had taken almost 2 hours. I emerged near the main road absolutely wiped out. A grandmother was accompanying a young child on a bike and when she asked how the walk had been I said great apart from the descent which was amongst the worst I can remember.