M250 |
931 m. |
3055 ft.
Translation: Probably mossy hill
Pronuncation: byn ee hoan, or locally, byn honzee
The first hill in Scotland in 2004. Around noon our plane had landed at Edinburgh Airport. Two hours later we reached the parking at the dam of Loch Turret. The routine of getting our stuff togehter before the walk had become a little rusty. It took us some time to get things going but finally we were on our way along the land-rover track on the east side of Loch Turret. The going was easy, the weather was warm, the sun shone. As expected we made good progress and reached Lochan Uaine after about an hour and fifteen minutes. The broken cliffs of Ben Chonzie high above the lochan did not look boring at all. At least not to us: a year (and more) of abstinence from all Scottish hills helped us enjoy this undemanding Munro. A snack and some water and off we went heading for the col between Biorach a’ Mheannain and Ben Chonzie. The grassy back wall of the corrie is steep below the col. Once at the col we turned left and climbed steadily for maybe another 20 minutes until we saw the cairn of Ben Chonzie. There we congratulated each other on our first hill of the year, looked around identifying hills further to the west and north and had another little meal by the cairn. The hill’s a good viewpoint. We continued our tour around Loch Turret by following the grassy ridge which has some stretches of open peat and can be boggy in places. At Carn Chois we paused again. Nice views of the Loch below and the sky above. It had become a little colder and windier on the ridge. A few hundred metres after the summit of Carn Chois we picked a line down into the grassy corrie leading to the loch and the track on its west side which took us back to the dam and the car. Easy walk, good weather, nice start for a week of hill walking in the Southern Highlands. (2004-05-07)
Description This solitary Munro is the highest point in the extensive tract of flat-topped hills and high moorland between Strath Earn and Loch Tay. At the centre of this area Ben Chonzie rises just sufficiently above its neighbouring hills to be the most prominent among them. The summit is a long broad ridge and to its east there is a large corrie ringed by grassy crags at the head of Glen Turret. The hill can be climbed either from Glen Turret or Glen Lednock.The Glen Turret route starts at the carpark at the Loch Turret Reservoir and goes up the track on the east side of the reservoir to reach Lochan Uaine at the head of the glen. From there climb north-westwards to the ridge of Ben Chonzie just north-east of the summit.The Glen Lednock approach starts at Coishavachan and follows the track up the Invergeldie Burn and north-east onto the wide ridge of Ben Chonzie 1½ kilometres south of the summit. Continue along the line of the fence to reach the summit.