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ROUTE 6

Ben Chonzie and Auchnafree Hill

Start/finish	Loch Turret dam NN822264
Distance	19km/12 miles
Ascent	1200m/4000ft
Approx time	7hr
Max altitude	Ben Chonzie 931m
Terrain	Tracks and paths, with 4km of rougher ground including a steep ascent from Moine Bheag

Getting to the start From the north edge of Crieff, take the lane past Glenturret Distillery and over Turret Burn; at once turn left in a very small lane with 10mph markers (speed limit obedience is assured by the very rugged surface).

Ben Chonzie is possibly the easiest Munro. It is, with more confidence, the easiest enjoyable Munro. Where other ‘easy’ Munros are a short but steepish up-and-down from a car park (Glas Maol, for example), Chonzie offers a stroll along a reservoir track, and a little path up authentic cliffy country. And the descent is a long, high ramble along a grassy plateau with a decayed fence to do your navigation.

The warm-up over Auchnafree Hill makes things only slightly more serious. After a rough slope to start, there’s a grassy Landrover track that peeps into the hollow of the Blue Crags and pauses at King Kenneth’s Cairn. Back in the ninth century Kenneth MacAlpin, had he been so inclined, could have lain in the long grass here and surveyed a large chunk of his newly united Scotland.

‘Dowchty man he wes and stout,’ King Kenneth, according to the 11th-century Chronicle of the Kings of Alba. So he’d have revelled in the tough little ascent onto Biorach a’ Mheannain, the steep grass and the deer path weaving among the chunks of crag. It’s a moment of adventure that makes all the more enjoyable the gentle ramble along Ben Chonzie plateau.

Start at Loch Turret dam car park, and take a tarmac path to the east end of the dam. A stile and gate lead out to a Landrover track. Turn right, down-valley, for about 50 metres, then turn left off the track.

The southwest cairn on Auchnafree Hill

The steepish slope above the track has heather and bracken, but you start up firm grass. As the slope steepens, useful sheep paths wind up through the heather. Gain 200m of height to meet a grassy track. Turn left up this, soon ignoring a side-track down right. The main track runs above the rocky hollow Corrie Barvick, then bends left below King Kenneth’s Cairn on Choinneachain Hill. It deserves to be the main hill hereabouts but is 2m lower than Auchnafree. A path leads up to the cairn on its stony base.

Rejoin the track, and follow it west for 500 metres to an even more imposing cairn above Loch Turret. The track now runs north across the top of the slope above the loch. It slants down to cross a stream, rises around a spur, then dips into a second stream hollow. After a first small stream, a peaty short-cut path lets you contour forward to rejoin the track. It now fords Gilbert’s Burn (alongside remains of a bridge).

Turn up the stream’s grassy banks, slightly west of north. In the peaty bog at the stream top, don’t go as far as a decaying fence ahead, but turn up left (northwest) over short heather to the summit cairn of Auchnafree Hill. Those who say Corbetts are just as good as Munros should compare flat, featureless Auchnafree with craggy Chonzie ahead. A more imposing cairn with views is 100 metres southwest.

The route from Moine Beag up the steep end of Biorach a’ Mheannain

From the main summit head northwest over short heather, joining the decayed posts of the former fence. The fenceline has a very small path, down just to the left (west) of a peaty col, then up the slope of the grassy transverse hillock A’ Chairidh. From its top descend grassy slopes northwest to confront the peaty col Moine Bheag and the steep nose of Biorach a’ Mheannain. As an alternative to Biorach’s steep nose, or in descent, less steep slopes are to the right, north.

This steep nose can be taken direct, zigzagging up grassy slopes between the small crags. Slant up left below the first crag, head up steep bilberry to left of it, then take a deer path across its top, across steep and slightly exposed ground. Head directly uphill (the top end of a shallow, rocky open gully is on your right). On reaching more open grass slopes, slant up right, on another deer path, to gentler slopes above another of the crags. Turn up left to the summit.

A cairn is poised on the edge of the southern drop towards Loch Turret. A path leads down from it, southwest. At the low point of the col, a worn path arrives from down left, the standard baggers’ route from Loch Turret. This well-used path, and the track beyond, give a short cut back to Loch Turret dam.

Follow the path up the broad northeast flank, or keep up left of the path following old fence posts for views down Loch Turret. Ben Chonzie summit has a large shelter cairn.

Continue southwest, following the old fence to its corner, then turn southeast for some gentle ridgewalking. The path accompanies the old fence posts. About 2km from the fence corner the descent gets slightly steeper and peaty, before the small heathery knoll Meall na Seide. The path here is stony through heather, while the fence alters to less conspicuous metal posts.

The path and fence remnants cross a damp col, before rising to the mildly rocky top of Carn Chois. This has a trig point. Continue 300 metres to a cairn. Now descend south, close to the drops on the left, on a small grass path. A fence is crossing the ridge ahead. Before you get to it, the small path turns down left, to descend rather steeply into a grassy corrie.

The path goes through a gate in a lower fence (NN799271). Then it slants down to the right, crossing a small stream, to the start of a rough track above the reservoir. This track leads to the end of the dam, which you cross to regain the car park.