I’m only a little bit late to the party posting about this dual munro hike. And by a little I mean the best part of 2 years!! This was the first hike I took with a then-new hiking buddy. The appeal was a double header of munros, apparently easy to follow route and a cheeky little scramble to boot. So off we went for Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn) and Stuc a’Chroin.
| Hike date | 14th May 2022 |
| Weather conditions | Mild and dry day. Bits of sunshine here and there, some cloud cover. A really great hiking conditions day. |
| Distance hiked | 15.5km |
| Walking time | Moving time around 8 hours. |
| Elevation gain total | 1,321m |
| Terrain | Easy to follow paths up to Ben Vorlich. A scramble (straightforward one) to the summit of Stuc a’Chroin. Very boggy terrain back down. |
| Hiked With | A friend |
You can never guarantee views at the top of anything when you hike in Scotland. I’ve seen my fair share of summit white outs. So it was a wonderful treat to get views all round on this hike.
For me, this was about a relatively straightforward route with 2 munro summits. I’d read that views were fab on clear days but I know better than to get my hopes up for those. And I’d also read that the quickest way to the second summit, Stuc a’Chroin, was via a scramble. It’s not a graded scramble in the summer months (though I believe a winter ascent does list it as a Grade 1 scramble). But I fancied it! So off we headed.
Ben Vorlich and Stùc a’ Chroin Route
This is the route we followed courtesy of Alltrails:
In all, this was a really straightforward route to navigate, though of course could be tricky in low visibility or winter conditions.
The path from where we parked up to the Ben Vorlich summit was very straightforward and good under foot.
Steep in parts (but hey, it’s a mountain) but ultimately easy to follow.
So the first summit was pretty easy going by the standards of some munros!
After a stop for a sandwich on the summit, we started to look ahead to the second one – Stùc a’ Chroin. Now I knew there was a scramble and I also know that you can’t really tell how complex a scramble is until you’ve gotten up close.
From the summit of Ben Vorlich, the ascent up Stùc a’ Chroin looks like you’re climbing up a cliff face! But we adopted a “let’s get closer before we make a call,” approach and began heading towards it.
From the summit of Ben Vorlich there’s a steep descent into the valley and then over to the foot of Stùc a’ Chroin.
That is, for me, where this particular hike got really fun!
Scrambling Stùc a’ Chroin
From the bottom of Stùc a’ Chroin, it looked quite a scramble:
There’s me at the bottom!
And there were points that did require some concentration, like this bit…
But most of it was a fairly straightforward “clamber.”
As you can see from the photo above, there’s often a loose “path” marked out.
In reality, you could take a whole host of different routes.
Boggy Descent
Coming back down from Stùc a’ Chroin started with a steep rocky path. This then became incredibly grassy and boggy – very boggy!
Soon enough though the bog fest meets the same path that took us up to Ben Vorlich and the last couple of km are plain sailing.
The Summits
Both of these summits were beautiful and offered up really spectacular views.
We were so lucky with the weather!
How tough is the scramble up Stùc a’ Chroin?
This is a question I see asked a lot on munro bagging groups and forums. If you’ve done any graded scrambling before, you’ll most likely find this straightforward in reasonable weather conditions.
If you haven’t done much scrambling, I actually think this is a really great one to start with.
Of course, poor weather would have a serious impact on the complexity of the scramble.
Would I do it again?
If I happened to be in the area, I’d have no problem doing this one again. Though in the interest of getting as many munros as possible, I’ll probably bag a load more before revisiting this one.
This really is a stunner of a hike though! Enjoy!
