Beinn Dubh to Cruach Dubh, the long way, Long Distance Fell Fun

This is a run of about 33 miles and 14,000' of ascent taking in 21 hills and tops to 2400' around Glens Luss, Douglas, Fruin and Finlas (LDFF) that lie crumpled between the Highland Fault Line and lochs Long and Lomond. You are rewarded with fine views, Ben Lomond, the Arrochar Alps, Crianlarich Munros and beyond, views down the Clyde estuary to Arran and Paddy's Milestone.

The route starts and finishes using a couple of hill race routes at the foot of Glen Luss, the Beinn Dubh Hill Race ascent, and Cruach Dubh, the Luss Highland Games Hill Race descent, although it could be done in either direction anti clockwise gets the bigger climbs done at the start and finishes mostly downhill.

The terrain is a mixture of grassy paths, heather and tussocks, there's some quad bike tracks and a few fences which can aid navigation on misty days.

There are three short sections of road providing access to the route, one at the top of Glen Luss after 5 miles the other two before and after the Glen Douglas hills at 11 and 18 miles.

There are a few route options and a couple of additional hills, the Strone and Auchengaich Hill overlooking the Fruin reservoir which could be included, these require a couple of out and back sections and provide a fourth road/access point for an extra 3 or 4 miles and a few hundred feet of ascent. The descent off Doune Hills second top into Glen Douglas is one to take care on as it is a bit craggy involving re-ascent and traversing if you get it wrong, the ridge line shown is a bit longer to avoid the crags.

Click to enlarge images

I would be delighted to hear what you think of the route, use the comments box below.

If you would like more info or have any questions let me know, 

 

The route was devised by joining many of my local training routes, a few years in the making, I finally managed to complete the route in June 2025 after reducing my training load (thanks to Arend for the advice), link to my plotaroute map. you can find my run on Strava, activity 6th June '25.

Link to google photos from my run.

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Hill List, click to enlarge

If you fancy something a bit shorter than LDFF have a look at my page called Lusstrous, a route taking in all the hills overlooking Glen Luss, its about 19 miles and 8000' of ascent.