I REMEMBER reading a piece on Scottish climbing where it was mentioned that I had climbed on Ben Arthur. I was baffled for a few minutes, then I remembered - that old friend, The Cobbler.

That's the thing about the mountain, it always seems familiar and in Glasgow's backyard naturally it was favourite to those with a lust for the outdoors. The Cobbler name is obscure. In the first place it is not clear to which of the three summits it refers to. The North Peak, with its Ram's Head is seen by some to resemble a cobbler bent over his last, the ''greasaiche crom'' or crooked shoemaker. Also the Centre Peak, the highest, has a hole in the summit block, known as the Eye of the Needle, again connections with the boot trade, whilst the South Peak, known as Jean, is the long suffering but shapely Cobbler's wife.

One of the first recorded ascents was by Hugh MacDonald in 1850. He walked from Garelochhead, climbed The Cobbler, then walked back. En route he called at the Whistlefield Inn for refreshment. There were only two beverages, milk and whisky. He didn't drink milk! This may explain his recording of the event: ''. . . climbing almost on hands and knees over some swelling and precipitous acclivity; scrambling, crawling, and gliding . . . one scraggy and precipitous projection seems ready to topple over, cliffs around of immense depth and the most harsh and jagged features, while projections of knarled repulsiveness shoot out on every side . . .'' Quite an imagination! Others more reticent and daring were to follow.

The first climbing club in Scotland took its name from this mighty-mouse mountain. The Cobbler Club was founded by Professor G G Ramsay, who later, in 1889, was the first president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club.

Giants of the pursuit followed: McLay, Naismith, Raeburn. The Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland, members of which usually aspire to the hallowed ranks of the SMC, held its inaugural Meet under the Narnain Stone in 1926. The Narnain Stone and a clutch of other howffs higher up the corrie offer rude shelter for Cobbler climbers.

The Cobbler became the working man's or rather the non-working man's mountain for this was a time of depression when climbers from Clydeside regularly ''padded'' to the mountain as if on pilgrimage, many following the West Highland rail track. Bob Grieve, later Sir Robert Grieve, was one. So was Jock Nimlin, a brilliant rocksmith, a crane driver, who on a good day could see his beloved Cobbler from his crane.

The ascent to the howffs of the Narnain Stone, or those higher in the corrie, was the finale to a long walk, or, if the weather was bad, the caves in Glen Loin beckoned. Bruce's Cave was the most popular and often it rang with songs from round a campfire.

The Cobbler was Jock Nimlin's mountain and he pioneered many of the routes. Probably the most popular was the Recess Route on the North Peak which he climbed in 1933. Part of it had been climbed by that pundit, Raeburn, in 1904 - an important feat and never properly recognised. Jock climbed it directly from below, completing the route, and later made the first winter ascent which was an amazing pre-war achievement. It is unusual to get really good winter conditions on the Cobbler, it's a bit too stunted for that plus the fact that the salty fingers of Loch Long and Loch Fyne are close by. However the traverse of Jean, the south peak, can give a crampon-biting day when you get it right.

For years Ben Humble was the top sales rep of the Cobbler, his favourite mountain, the centre piece of the ''Arrochar Alps'' as he liked to call them. From his house in Arrochar he was a regular visitor toiling up the side of the Buttermilk Burn to have the mountain suddenly revealed when he crested the slope. Ben (the enthusiast) at any moment could generate Cobbler enthusiasm on a par with the Tartan Army. He once told me: ''I would have resolved to climb one of the other peaks of the Arrochar Alps on a given day, but for some inexplicable reason my climbing boots always seemed to take me up the Cobbler . . .''

The post-war era, the time of the motor bike and the 210 Primus, that great brewmaster, was probably the most productive for new routes and one saw the dedicated few hanging each weekend from its minuscule mica-schist rugosities. The Creagh Dhu Club were most active, especially John Cunningham and Bill Smith.

The Cobbler was never big with English climbers. Probably they felt that the longer climbs to the north in Glencoe and Ben Nevis made their sorties north more productive. Few new routes have been done other than by indigenous Scots. Also the wrinkles which pass as Cobbler holds require nerve and experience to manipulate and when lichen-coated mica-schist is wet it can be knee-shaking! Every west coast climber, especially those who cut their clinkers and Tricounis on this elegant mountain has a soft spot for it. It's like a girlfriend who's never aged.