Ben Chonzie and Maell na Seide and Carn Chois from Comrie
Ben Chonzie is one of the gentlest Munros to reach, so you get a genuine 931m summit and miles of empty Perthshire hill for a fraction of the technical effort of most.
Mostly on runnable ground, but most runners still walk the steepest climbs.
A 28.1km circuit that climbs Ben Chonzie, a 931m Munro, from Glen Lednock north of Comrie. Long, quiet and mostly on hill track, with the big summit plateau at its heart.
Ben Chonzie is one of the gentlest Munros to reach, so you get a genuine 931m summit and miles of empty Perthshire hill for a fraction of the technical effort of most.
The route
Start from the parking at Coishavachan, at the end of the single-track road up Glen Lednock north of Comrie. From the old school the track climbs steadily towards the white cottages, then bends up the hillside on a wide, well-graded line. This is why Ben Chonzie gets called a beginner's Munro: the gradient stays honest and the track does most of the navigating for you up to around 700m.
The summit
The track fades on the broad summit plateau, where a fence line and a scatter of cairns lead to the top at 931m. On a clear day the view runs across Loch Turret to the Lawers range and the southern Highlands. This is open, rounded ground, and in mist it becomes genuinely disorientating, so the plateau is where map and compass earn their place. Mountain hares are common up here and often the reason people remember the day.
Why it works
At 28.1km this is a longer outing than the standard there-and-back, taking a wider circuit through the glen rather than simply reversing the climb. It works as a long, steady day on runnable ground: the surface is grassy hill track and open moor, boggy in places after rain but rarely technical. The remoteness is the real character here. Once you leave the cottages you are unlikely to see many people, and the glen holds its weather, so conditions on the plateau can be very different from the road. Save it for a settled day, carry full hill kit, and treat the descent off the tops with respect when the cloud is down. Winter changes the game entirely, with the plateau holding snow and ice long after the glen has cleared, so treat the colder months as a full mountain day.
The summit plateau is broad and featureless, and becomes disorientating in mist, so map and compass skills are needed. The track is boggy in stretches and the glen holds its own weather.
Summits on this route
Safety on this route
- No signal? Text 999 — pre-register first: text register to 999
- Tell someone your route and expected return time before you head out
Leave No Trace
- Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories.
- Please respect the countryside and all its inhabitants.
- Dogs on leads near livestock, and around ground-nesting birds from March to July.
- Gates as you find them — open or closed, leave it that way for the farmer and the next runner.
- Take it all home — wrappers, peel, tissue, the lot. It doesn't count as biodegradable if you can still see it.
- Stick to the path where the ground either side is wet, planted, or nesting habitat.
Common questions
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