[Ben Low-mund] Lomond is thought to derive from the Cumbric word llumon meaning beacon, making the name into Beacon Hill via a mixture of languages.
Ben Lomond is Scotland's southernmost Munro, making it a very popular hillwalking outing from the Central Belt.
Walkers have flocked to Ben Lomond since at least the 1750s; Dr Garnett in 1798 mentions that ‘this mountain is visited by strangers from every quarter of the island', but warns that ‘it is deemed impossible to reach the top without the aid of a bottle of whisky'. Its proximity to Glasgow made it an obvious target for early climbers too, so much so that most of the easy gully and buttress lines had been climbed (in summer) by the end of the 19th century. The SMC published the first guide for the crags in 1901, and the naming convention used here for the buttresses comes from those original descriptions.
Ben Lomond fell out of fashion with climbers as access to more northerly mountains eased. Further exploration of the crags resumed relatively late, and many of the best routes were first climbed in the 1990s and 2000s. Today, the crags still see remarkably little traffic given their location and the quality of the climbing.