Ben Nevis, Ireland, and other random craziness

So I’m trying to shoehorn an ascent of Ben Nevis into next week’s brief visit to the UK. I could do with knowing who else of my friends are actually interested in doing it – hence the wide circulation blog spam. Read on for some options.

Driving from London to Fort William is about 500 miles, which is reasonable in the US but totally insane on UK roads. Therefore, it makes more sense to fly from London to Glasgow and drive/take the coach. There are flights with EasyRyan (RyanAir in this particular case) that are inexpensive, and a coach with Scottish City Link, and a hostel in the local area with a couple beds left. Alternatively, rental (hire) cars run at about 80-90GBP with insurance for a day from Glasgow to Glasgow. Either way, it winds up being an overnight – e.g. fly late Sat (9th) return late Sun (10th). Still, that potentially gives time to find a distillery while we’re in the area, or just do some touristy things with the extra time. The ascent takes 8 hours if you’re in good shape, so I’ll totally understand if nobody else actually wants to do the mountain itself but perhaps even just come for the ride ;)

If you’re interested in this random craziness, and/or visiting Ireland for the day on August 11th, then drop me a line. This latter trip is largely whimsical and I haven’t yet booked anything. But I’m planning on taking at least one actual day off aside from weekends, and the idea of going to Dublin for some Guinness is appealing, as is visiting Ireland rather than flying over it for a change.

Later,

Jon.

2 Responses to “Ben Nevis, Ireland, and other random craziness”

  1. Mike Nolan says:

    If you’re all in reasonable shape I can recommend the ridge route to the top via Carn Mor Dearg.

    http://www.incallander.co.uk/walks/ben-nevis.htm

    Bit of exposure in places but nothing too bad. Much nicer than the motorway to the top!

  2. DG says:

    If I could, I’d have come along to do Ben Nevis… but I can’t (the joys of parent hood).

    Hope you have a great time scaling the mountain!

    Have you visited the Guiness factory before? Interestingly we had better guiness pints in other pubs in Dublin than at the factory itself….

    David.

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