UKC

Looking to hike up the SE ridge of Ben Vorlich tomorrow but I can't see how you access the path via car. Google street view seem to suggest approaching from the east roads leads to an MOD live firing range track, which would mean a ginormous walk in. Has anyone done this route before and found better access? Thanks

It seems people park at the Glen Artney car park, though still a 3 mile road walk in from there. Guess it's for the super fit!

I once did this ridge after the Corbett of Meall na Fearna  just to the north from the  starting point on Loch Earn. You can also approach it from Callander but it's a long walk in.

I've done the walk in from Callander, wouldn't recommend it. It's a long walk through a farm knee deep in cowmuck. 

Glen Artney car park at NN 710 160 is the last parking on the public road.

We went up the SE ridge of Stuc a Chroin once from that side, was a decent day. Haven't been up Gleann an Dubh Choirein to access Ben Vorlich, although it's been on the to do list for a while.

I've parked at the end of the road a few years ago. 

You could start at the car park at Ardvorlich and instead of following the normal route up Ben Vorlich, follow the Ardvorlich Burn S up to Bealach Gliogarsnaich and down the other side to reach the start of Ben Vorlich's SE ridge close to the Allt an Dubh Choirein burn (where the Glen Artney track comes in from the South East). 

On the way back, to avoid the crowds descending Ben Vorlich's tourist track, you could instead head NW then N over Ben Our and find your own way down E from there (no track) down to the Ardvorlich path.

Long walk compared to the North side but not hard, and deserted when I did it.

Longer but nicer. Ardvorlich route getting very eroded near the top.

I've repeatedly been up Ben Vorlich by its SE ridge from Braeleny at the end of the high road above Callander - not sure how many times offhand but probably seven or eight times (maybe as much as ten) over the past 35 or so years. It's an excellent ridge, as is the SE ridge of Stuc a' Chroin - the circuit from that side is a great day out and miles quieter than the northern approaches (although I'm also fond of the NW ridges from Edinample).

The trick with the Braeleny thing is to take the standard path that slants up on to the Stuc ridge then leave it almost immediately at the obvious levelling and drop into the back glen - itself a fine place. This is a bit haggy in places but not for long, and once you're on the Vorlich ridge it's good going with a nice old path. I most recently did a round of the two hills from Braeleny in April this year and it took me exactly 3hr to the top of Vorlich, and about 6h45 for the full round although 75 minutes of that was spent sitting about here and there.

Great info thanks. Where do you park at the top of the road? 

At the top of the road! Obvious parking area on the left with space for half a dozen vehicles. In maybe 20 visits I've never seen it full - but that doesn't mean it won't be tomorrow. Be aware that there's often a gate half a mile or so short of the end of the public road - and sometimes also an earlier gate just beyond the main Bracklinn Falls car park. The whole thing is similar to the Beinn a' Ghlo start from Loch Moraig, if you know that - again park at a high road-end and follow a track for a while before reaching the hill paths.

Remember that if you go to Vorlich from here you need to cross the river in the main glen - it shouldn't be in spate tomorrow but it probably won't be trivial either. The much more problematic crossing - the Keltie Water on the walk in/out - isn't now an issue as it's bridged again. There was around a decade when it could be a stopper in wet weather after the earlier bridge was swept away in the August 2004 deluge that also took out the Glen Ogle road and the Edinample bridge.

Which is, surely, the best thing to do in the hills? 

Indeed - although generally more feasible in April than in November. Years ago I climbed a few hills with a bloke who worked on the basis that longer should be spent on top of a hill than in climbing it. Nice idea; not sure how often he actually managed it, though...

There's also the related theory - definitely a good one, I reckon - that one shouldn't spend longer driving to/from a hill day than actually walking. That's easy enough for someone such as me based in Stirling, I suppose; less so for someone in Norfolk or Cambridgeshire. But I do rather despair of some of the Marilyn/Hump bagging folk who have been known to drive several hours to a small hill and then spend something like 45 minutes on the hoof.