Ben Chonzie is one of the easier Munros in Scotland, and is located to the west of Perth, near Loch Earn. The easiest way to access it is to drive up Glen Lednock until the small parking area is reached at the end of the passable road. Geln Lednock also has a great low level walk, which is suitable for pushchairs. This carries along the gated tarmac track and leads up the valley, passing quite a few good rock outcrops, which also make great introductions to climbing.
From here a track leads off past a couple of houses before starting to make its way up the mountain. The track is a large and well maintained vehicle access track and it rapidly allows you to gain height and cover the distance, even if it is a little boring and hard on the feet. This track leads you about ¾ of the way up the hill, with the final ¼ being very different by contrast.
Near the end of the track, a small footpath heads to the right up hill. It is quite a small path and would be easy to miss, but is marked with a cairn. It climbs steeply over some boggy ground at first, but quickly leads to the top of the ridge, and easier going. From here the route leads first straight ahead to a minor top, before turning almost 90 degrees to the right for the final pull up to the summit.
There is a good line of broken fence posts all the way along the ridge, making navigation pretty straightforward If the cloud does come down. From the summit you get great views to the south, looking towards the lowlands, and to the North, looking further in to the more mountainous highlands.
The return trip is a reverse of the outwards walk, retracing your steps all the way back to the valley floor. This Munro would be a good hill with a family in the summer, or is a good introduction if you have not walked the bigger hills in Scotland before. A few of the other Munros which we have walked that would be possibilities with families include Carn Asoda, Cairnwell and Dreish in the South East Cairngorms.
An Outdoors Family 