Photographs, route description and map of an ascent of Ben Venue from Ledard farm on Loch Ard in the Trossachs in the Southern Highlands of Scotland

Location: Ben Venue, Trossachs
Grade: Moderate hill walk
Distance: 7 miles/12km
Time: 5-6 hours

Away to the west, streaks of yellow light lit up the darkening sky while below, Loch Katrine stretched out through the rough and tumbled landscape of the Trossachs. In the north-west the Crianlarich hills bowed their heads to the higher tops of Stob Binnein and Ben More and further east the Ben Lawers range all but dwarfed its neighbouring Tarmachans.
The twin tops of Stuc a’Chroin and Ben Vorlich stood clear, their highest slopes still topped by the winter’s snow.
The summit of Ben Venue is one of the ﬁnest viewpoints in the Southern Highlands.
Ben Venue is sometimes said to be “the Hill of the Caves” and, with its twin tops, western outliers and craggy countenance, it lords over the rugged landscape of the legend-rich Trossachs.
There are whispers of the past in every notch and cranny of these hills. The slopes that tumble from the summit of Ben Venue down towards Loch Katrine are breached by the Bealach nan Bo, the Pass of the Cattle, an ancient trade route for stolen cattle, driven back from the lowlands to the Macgregor lands at Glengyle. And below the bealach lies knobbly Coire na Urisgean, the corrie of the goblins.
Sir Walter Scott, who found so much inspiration in the Trossachs, depicted the goblin’s corrie as a retreat for Ellen Douglas and her father after they had withdrawn from Roderick Dhu’s stronghold on Eilean Molach. An even older account suggests this corrie was the meeting place for all the goblins in Scotland. According to Scenery of the Southern Confines of Perthshire (1806), “the solemn meetings of the order were regularly held in this cave of Benvenew”. Most people climb Ben Venue from Ledard Farm on the B829 Aberfoyle to Inversnaid road, and from the roadside signposts point the way seven miles to the Trossachs via the summit of Ben Venue.
A good track runs past Ledard Farm and passes a little pool and waterfall where Scott apparently liked to come to work on his notes for Rob Roy and Waverley. A footbridge crosses the Ledard Burn, in its lower stretches this path can be extremely
boggy, but it improves considerably as you climb higher With the trees left behind, the hill gradually rises northwards onto
the eastern slopes of one of Venue’s outliers, Beinn Bhreac. Here, a wide bealach introduces the craggy slopes of Ben Venue itself and the ﬁrst views begin to impress themselves. On steeper ground now, the footpath begins to switchback, weaving its way between rocky outcrops to reach the ﬁrst, and higher, of Ben Venue’s two summits at 727m / 2380ft. The view across Loch Katrine to the Loch Lomond hills and the peaks of the Arrochar Alps was outstanding. The path winds its way through the summit outcrops and shortly after reaches Venue’s twin top - only two metres separate the two tops. With the view opening up eastwards now, out along the silvery lengths of Loch Achray and Loch Venachar to the Menteith Hills, it was hard to understand the thinking behind the hill’s original name. In an old Statistical Account, the hill is recorded as A’Bheinn Mheanbh, the small peak.

ROUTE PLANNER

Map: OS Sheet 57 (Stirling & The Trossachs) or Harveys Walkers Map: Ben Venue, Loch Ard Forest & The Trossachs.
Distance: About 7 miles/12km.
Approx Time: 57 hours.
Start / Finish: Ledard Farm on B829 Aberfoyle to lnversnaid (GR: NN459024).
Information: Aberfoyle TIC, 01887 382352.

Route: From Ledard take the path N through the forest and then below the shoulder of Beinn Bhreac in a rough NE direction.
Ignore the path that drops away to the SE to Gleann Fliabhach and continue in a NE direction.
The path begins to zig—zag up some steeper ground before reaching the summit of Ben Venue.
From the summit continue SE for a few hundred metres to the trig point on the hill’s SE top.
Retum the same way.

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