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SUMMIT SUMMARY: BEN LEDI

Low routes

7	Finglas Woods
10	Kilmahog: Lowland to Highland

Ben Ledi routes

6	Ben Ledi and Benvane from Brig o' Turk
8	Ledi from Lubnaig
9	Ardnandave Hill to Ben Ledi

ROUTE 6

Ben Ledi and Benvane from Brig o' Turk

Start/Finish	Little Drum car park, Loch Venachar head NN 548 062
Distance	21.5km/13½ miles
Total Ascent	1350m/4500ft
Time	8¾hr
Terrain	Hill paths and some pathless hillside
Max Altitude	Ben Ledi 879m
Maps	LR 57; Expl 365; Harvey Ben Ledi
Note	Omitting Benvane saves 1km and 300m, about 1¼hrs

Between Stuc Odhar and Ben Ledi is a place of bilberry slopes and schist, a patch of wild country that few visit as it really belongs about 100 miles further north. However, a new path up through Glen Finglas woods is considerably more convenient than driving all the way to Glenfinnan or Creag Meagaidh. The woodland path will just get better over the next few years as the birches grow; the wild ground is only moderately rugged; and it's fun surprising all the people on the busy southeast ridge by suddenly arriving from somewhere else.

Although no Munro, Ben Ledi is the highest point of the Trossachs and gives an outstanding overview of most of the national park. The sharp-eyed could also spot the sea on both sides of Scotland from here.

With Brig o' Turk as your base, it becomes very natural to continue along the knolly ridge for the horseshoe to include the second of the Corbetts, Benvane. Alternatively, there's a quick track descent by Gleann Casaig. Ben Ledi's more popular route, from Loch Lubnaig, is Route 8.

Start from Little Drum car park (or Lendrick car park 500 metres west). Keep ahead out of the car park on a path beside the main road (towards Callander) for 100 metres across a bridge. Then cross onto a path up through woods. It joins a wider track, and runs up through a gate with a bench. It bends left to pass a cairn and another bench – commemorating the Royal Mail Grove. The track bends to the right, and slants up to a higher track. This contours back to the left at 230m altitude. After 400 metres a slight descent to a stream is just ahead. Here a rougher waymarked path turns up to the right.

Looking back to Stuc Odhar from slopes of Ben Ledi

The path is clear, with widely spaced waymarkers. It runs up to right of the stream then bends left across its top. After 200 metres, two waymarks show the path as it crosses the next stream. The path is now a rough, peaty trod as it rises to a ladder stile (NN 552 080). Continue uphill northeast to the ridgeline of Stuc Odhar. Old fenceposts guide along the southeast ridge to the summit cairn. Stuc Odhar, pronounced ‘oh-arr’, is ‘Pointed Hill of nondescript dun colour’.

More old fencing guides down the northeastern ridgeline, skirting left of a ridgeline hump to a col just above the ridge foot (530m). Here turn down right in a grassy hollow to cross the top of the Milton Glen Burn. Ahead now Ben Ledi is looking very big. A direct ascent leads up broken ground, so slant right, eastwards, up a grassy ramp defined by a streamline. You reach Ben Ledi's southeast ridge at the point called Meall Odhar (815m). A large path leads up left to Ben Ledi's summit.

Benvane above Loch Lubnaig

A very pleasant ridge path leads northwest then north to Ledi's north top. Here ignore the rocky path steeply down ahead. Follow old iron fence posts that slant down northwest, with a clear path, to Bealach nan Corp. Over the next rise you pass the little Lochan nan Corp. Corp is indeed ‘corpse’; this pass was the line of an old corpse road.

The path and old fencing pass just to right of the small hummock of Bioran na Circe. Over the next 1km the path undulatingly descends towards a peaty col at 604m. Just above this col there's a short-cut track down left into Gleann Casaig. The track does not quite reach the ridgeline, so it's possible to walk past it; however, it is obvious in any glance back from the col just below. There are some hags to deal with as you cross this col, before grassy slopes lead up to Point 711m above Creag Chaoruinneach. The path and fence remnants now take a wide swing to the left over Meall a' Coire Dubh (753m), but you can contour forward, west, to cross a stream and head straight up to the summit of Benvane. Elsewhere in the Highlands this might be spelt Beinn Mheadhoin: it means ‘Middle Hill’.

Just down southwest from the summit are the old fence posts. Follow the path beside them to Meall a' Coire Dubh. At the corner of the former fence, with three quartz boulders seen up to the left, keep ahead down the gentle south ridge. Steep ground dropping right (west) appears transversely sliced, and is classic landslip terrain undermined by the glacier of Gleann nan Meann.

At its tip the ridge steepens, down to rough pasture. A fence crosses, with a gate at a convenient point (NN 535 102). Go through it and down the rough grass to join a track rising from back down on the left. It runs down towards Glen Finglas Reservoir, where it meets the reservoir-side track beside Allt Gleann Casaig.

Turn left over the river; the track now becomes a tarmac lane. Follow it for 1km, rising into woods above the reservoir until a smooth bike path turns up to the left (it has three boulders at its foot). It climbs briefly to pass through a deer fence, then contours through woods above the fence. It emerges onto open hillside for 1km, then dips into woods to a bridge. A short path down right leads to a waterfall – worthwhile in winter with the leaves off. In another 200 metres the main path turns downhill. Where it splits at a ruined shieling, either fork leads down to a gate into the Woodland Trust's Lendrick car park.

Turn left through the car park to a woodland path alongside the A821 to Lendrick Steading. Its driveway leads out to the Little Drum car park.

REVERSE ROUTE

This is straightforward apart from the descent from Stuc Odhar, when it is important to find the path down through the woodland. The easiest way to find the ladder stile is to descend southeast from Stuc Odhar alongside the decayed fencing to the first col and then up the short sharp rise just beyond, before turning directly downhill southwest. The ladder stile is at NN 5522 0805 (altitude 475m). Once you've found and followed the descending path and track, after the gate with bench, keep ahead on a path where the track bends away left.

Woodland Trust pathway in Glen Finglas

ROUTE 7

Finglas Woods

Start/Finish	Little Drum car park, Loch Venachar head NN 548 062 (or parking below Glen Finglas dam NN 532 073)
Distance	8km/5 miles
Total Ascent	250m/800ft
Time	2½hr
Terrain	Good paths, with a steepish climb to start
Max Altitude	Glen Finglas Woods 250m
Maps	LR 57; Expl 365; Harvey Ben Ledi

On the slopes above Brig o' Turk the Woodland Trust has planted 450,000 native trees and laid out some smooth and easily followed paths. With its wide views of Loch Venachar, ancient oaks and tearoom, this is everything you ask for in a valley walk.

Start from Little Drum car park (there is additional parking at Lendrick car park 500 metres west, and an alternative start point and parking below Glen Finglas dam, halfway around the walk). Keep ahead out of the car park on a path beside the main road (towards Callander) for 100 metres across a bridge. Then cross onto a path up through woods. It joins a wider track, and runs up through a gate with a bench. It bends left to pass a cairn and another bench – from here the waymarks alter from black to purple.

The wide path bends to the right, and slants up to a higher track. This contours back to the left at 230m altitude. After 400 metres is a slight descent to cross a stream. The path then descends slightly, and passes between two tall gateposts to join a wide, smooth bike track.

ALTERNATIVE

For a shorter walk you could turn down left here, taking either of two branches below, to the valley floor. Turn left through a car park to a path left of the main road to Lendrick Steading, and head out along its driveway to the Little Drum car park (distance 2.5km/1½ miles, ascent 200m/656ft, approx time 1¼ hours).

Main route Take the bike path contouring ahead. Soon a branch path down left leads to a waterfall just below, worth visiting in rainy weather. The main path ahead contours high above Brig o' Turk, and eventually drops left through a deer fence to join a tarred byway.

Turn down left, soon passing a viewpoint where a clearing carrying power lines gives a view along Glen Finglas Reservoir. Steep zigzags lead down to a small car park and the edge of Brig o' Turk. With houses and a school sign just ahead, a path crosses the road. There's a choice.

 For Brig o' Turk's tearoom Take the signposted path right, following River Turk to the Brig o' Turk itself (the actual stone bridge). The path here runs left alongside the A821, then on pavement, through Brig o' Turk village. At the village end the path is alongside the road for 400 metres, then heads up right onto a low grassy ridge.

 For woodland without a cup of tea Turn left through a kissing gate. The path slants up under trees to two field gates – take the kissing gate between them. In 300 metres turn off left, waymarked, on a path that becomes a boardwalk. It runs past a swamp to reach the A821. Cross to a kissing gate, and head up onto the low grassy ridge beyond.

The two routes rejoined follow the grassy ridgeline east, entering oakwoods. The path drops to a junction. Here waymarks indicate some short woodland walks on the right, but the main path turns left, to Little Drum car park.