Map 16 Ascent of Ben Klibreck

8 July 2021

We stayed at the Crask Inn (The Crask Inn – Re-opening Now!), which even after two nights camping in the garden was feeling like a home from home. The Inn is unique. It’s probably the most isolated Inn in Scotland and was gifted to the Scottish Episcopal Church by the previous owners. We were incredibly well cared for by Douglas, who runs the business along with his wife. Denise also works as a GP but was away with family while we were there.

Douglas had already explained that Ben Klibreck is the highest of the northerly Munros, while Ben Hope is the most northerly. Ben Klibreck was a solo expedition with my husband saving his legs for Ben Hope the next day.

I walked from the Crask, warming up my legs with an initial 2km or so to just south of the Vagastie Bridge. The weather was dry but with clouds at around 600m so unfortunately the promised panoramic views on a clear day from the summit would be unlikely.

I turned on to the footpath opposite an entrance where an enormous windfarm is being built. There was a climb up the hillside to the summit of Choc Sgriodain. This itself was topped by some cairns and was an excellent viewpoint below the clouds to see the Crask Inn.

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From there, I climbed further and followed a path below a ridge. This meant that I kept just below the cloud for much of the time. I stopped for a drink and a snack so I could admire the intermittent view across the Strath Vagastie when the cloud cleared.

Soon it was the place to turn off over a bealach and push up to the summit. This was unfortunately well into the cloud with little hope of it clearing anytime that I would still be there. I saw four people making their way down the mountain.

I reached the (broken) trig point at the summit (961m) and ate lunch sheltered by some rocks.

There was no one else there but oddly I spotted a frog despite everywhere looking dry!

Of course the cloud didn’t clear which was a pity as the look of the land on the map suggests that the views would be magnificent.

I made my return to Choc Sgriodain, passing three people who were climbing up. I had been fortunate on the way up – if anything the cloud base was lower so the views from the path below the ridge were less.

From Choc Sgriodain I decided to make my way cross country off any trail directly back to the Crask Inn. I suspect that the land would normally be too boggy for this to be a sensible option, but there had been little significant rain for weeks and the land was much drier than usual. It was a bit tussocky, but I’ve walked across worse! Eventually I reached a boggy area which turned into a track that I could have followed to the road. However I opted for the off road route again to reach a gateway directly into the grounds of the Inn.

My husband had already taken the tent down, as we were about to move from garden camping into a room in the inn for the next couple of nights. Needless to say, the room exceeded our expectations with lots of unique features, including a well stocked bookcase with instructions to start reading a book and then take it home to finish! By the end of four nights we were sad to leave this amazing home from home, where, as the sign stated, we had arrived as guests and felt we were leaving as friends.