Beinn Dubh, Returning Via Mid Hill And Glen Striddle

Beinn Dubh - Part One

The walk begins from the car park at Luss Visitor Centre, and there are charges to pay.  At the time of writing, the charge was £1 per hour, 9am to 6pm.  So you will have to guess how long it will take you - being quite old, I reckoned on 5 hours - and added an extra one for luck!  (5 hours was about right)

See the map on the right for the car park location.

Whichever way you are coming along the A82 Loch Lomondside road, follow the sign for Luss, and park in the visitor centre.

Note: This car park is incredibly busy - I recommend an early start.

From the car park, head back towards Luss village, and you will soon see a sign for the school pointing to the right - follow this path and use the footbridge to cross over the main road .

Beinn Dubh - Part Two

After you cross the bridge, you will see a house on the right hand side.  Past the house is a gate, go through that and the path starts to climb right away.

Follow the path through the trees up the hill - the views of Loch Lomond just keep getting better and better.

Once you clear the trees, you can see more open ground ahead, and the steep slope up to Beinn Dubh.

Now you have a long, grassy climb to the summit - and the views just keep getting better and better - even on a cloudy wet day like I had!

Beinn Dubh - Part Three

Nearing the top, and now, not only do you have great views of the loch, including Conic Hill and your first sight of Ben Lomond, but to the left you also now have wonderful views of some of the other Luss hills.

Beinn Dubh - Part Four

The top is marked by a cairn, and from here you have one of the best views you can get of Ben Lomond.

You can now chose to return the way you came, or carry on round and return down the other side of Glen Striddle.

I chose to follow the path and complete the horseshoe - in this direction you now get views of the other end of the loch.

You should also get a fine view of the Cobbler and other Arrochar hills, but these were obscured by cloud that day.

In the picture, you can just make out the path swinging off to the left over the ridge.

Beinn Dubh - Part Five

Just before the path swings left through some boggy ground, you get a great view down the steep slopes to Glen Douglas.

Now just follow the path past a couple of cairns, and you will eventually start to descend down the other side of Glen Striddle.

The path down is steep and grassy.  On the day I was there, which was very wet, it just needed a bit of care to avoid slipping.

At the bottom, you will eventually reach the tarmac road which runs up Glen Luss.  Follow this road back to the carpark.