Ben Cleuch from Tillicoultry

Ben Cleuch is, Wikipedia says, the highest point of the Ochil Hills at 721m, and also the highest in Clackmannanshire and in Scotland’s Central Belt. Wikipedia translates the Gaelic Beinn Cloiche as “stony prominent hill”, records a trig point inside a stone windshelter on the summit and a viewpoint indicator, and notes that the hill was the origin, or meridian, of the six-inch and 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps of Perth and Clackmannan. Walkhighlands calls it one of the most popular hillwalks in Central Scotland, and describes Mill Glen, where its circuit begins, as one of the gorges that scour the southern wall of the Ochils.

The route starts from Upper Mill Street in Tillicoultry and follows the burn into the wooded lower glen, over an old stone arched bridge and up a first flight of steps. Walkhighlands then describes a path across the rocky side of the gorge with a handrail, several bridges, one of them spanning the gorge high above the burn, and a place where the path has fallen into the river and a short scramble needs care and agility. After the last bridge a very steep, rough path drops to a small wooden footbridge, and the ridge to The Law is a long pull, rocky at first and then grassy. Fences lead on to the summit, where Walkhighlands names Ben Lomond and Ben Ledi among the prominent hills to the north. The descent crosses Ben Ever and drops steeply back into the glen.

Walkhighlands gives 9.5km with 731m of ascent in four and a half to six hours. It suits a walker who wants a proper summit reached on foot from a town, with a gorge on the way up. It does not suit anyone uneasy on a scramble above a burn, which the glen path asks for, or on the steep slopes of the descent. The reader who wants the waterfalls without the hill has Bracklinn Falls at Callander, a woodland walk of 5.25km and 157m of ascent.