Great Glen Way July 2022

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Monday, 18 July 2022, Day 2 GGW Spean Bridge to Glengarry Castle Hotel. 16.95 miles, 6 hours 35 minutes walking, 2059 elevation gain.

Today is one of the longest distances on the Great Glen Way (GGW). Jo and I are walking while Norma, Sandy and Karen are taking the bus. Simon and Morven at the Coire Glas B&B are most accommodating. They book tickets online for the bus. We have to wait until after the last breakfasts are served before Simon can take six people, who are walking, back to the bridge at Gairlochy where we start our next segment of this walk.

Straight across the bridge and we start up the hill on a trail. We climbed a lot and walked above and along the northwest side of Loch Lochy. The path varies between mountain trail and forest service road. It does not vary in its continual undulating up and down along the side of the loch. We pass the WW II training location for amphibious landings and the Cameron Museum sign. A visit would add more than a mile and take more than an hour. We continue to walk the direct route to Clunes around the loch.

At the north end of the loch we pass the River Oich which joins the Loch Lochy and Loch OIch. We see some beautiful homes with million dollar views of the mountains and the loch. We also note that a swath of trees have all been cut down in the sector between the house and the loch to protect the view from the picture window and deck of the house. A little farther and the road becomes a logging road with lots of cut logs and the scattered debris of the logging practices that characterizes this industry in Scotland. The surrounding slopes are a mass of broken limbs, bark and litter from the work.

We are still walking along Loch Lochy. We finally come to the A82 bridge at Laggan, where the main GGW route goes to the east side of Loch Oich, but we continue on the west side because our hotel is the west side of the loch. This is an alternate GGW route that shows as dotted lines on my All Trails navigation maps. Our guide book has a note to go to another page with little description. It is still a long 4.5 miles from here to the hotel.

At about 1.5 miles from the hotel the path climbs and makes a curve to the west into a point and then returns down a highway to the road to the hotel. I tell Jo that we can take the A82, Scotland's busiest long north south highway, and save about 2 miles of walking. It is very dicey walking into the traffic on this road and we stop and scramble to the side for each car and big lorrie (semi-trucks). We soon see the sign and reach the turnoff to the hotel. On the drive into the hotel we walk past the ruins of Invergarry Castle. The Glengarry Castle Hotel is also a spectacular stone structure with all the turrets and inscriptions of when it was built in 1869.

A message while we were walking indicated the three girls had arrived and that Karen was in heaven with the room and the hotel and its walks along the loch. We had our bags delivered to our rooms instead of us having to lug them upstairs. We asked for a drink at reception and they delivered it to wherever we were: patio, library, room or parlor.

The four individuals from Switzerland who had ridden with us in the morning also arrived and we sat at adjacent tables for dinner and breakfast the next morning. After dinner we walk along the farm road that the girls used, not the route that Jo and I used.

Silvertoes notes: Asolo Boot Ode—Glengarry Castle Hotel

Asolo Boots Ode:

We walked across the north of Spain

500 miles and caused no pain.

We also walked England's Coast to Coast,

Then through Portugal where we were tested the most.

In dry Nevada we did not fail.

We would look for more Asolos if they were ever on sale

But here in Scotland - on West Highland Way

We fell apart the very first day. By HRS

I sadly throw my boots into the green trash receptacle at Morven and Simon’s. Sandy takes a picture to have a record that I actually did it!

Norma, Sandy and I walk downhill to the little village of Spean Bridge to the bus stop.

Our map is not very clear as to where we get off in Invergarry. Sandy sees a sign for our hotel and wants to get off immediately. We come to a junction, see a hotel, and swerve to the right to Inverness-time for acton. The bus driver lets us off at the next stop and we alight from the coach and have no idea where we will go from there. There is not a building around so we think the safest thing is to backtrack to the hotel we have seen down the road we do NOT want to take! There is no activity at the hotel but there is a woman leaving as we walk up. She tells us the hotel will not open until 3:00 p.m. We tell her we just need information. She says, "You need to go back to the junction, start back up the road we have just come from, cross the river and take the first dirt farm road we see." She then repeats, no exaggeration, at least five times, how dangerous the road is and we must reach the farm road as quickly as possible because of the crazy traffic.

We follow her directions exactly and find ourselves on the most delightful road with tree branches overhead dappling the sun on the old, old road surface. There is a high stone wall to our right with a row of ‘capping stones’ to give it a fine finish. River Oich is babbling on our left, although we cannot see it because of the thickness of shrubs and trees. Traffic noise fades away, the river babbles, and the temperature is perfect. I believe the word is ‘copacetic’ or—all is well.

We pass the gatekeeper's house and continue up a long drive and enter the main courtyard of the 1869 building. A few cars are parked in this space and a door is open to the big house, welcoming whosoever passes by. We walk through several small rooms, turn and there is the reception with Heather ‘manning’ central station. Of course our rooms are not ready but we order something from the bar and 'we will bring it to you in parlor, library or terrace overlooking the loch.' I decide to have morning tea. After some relaxing minutes Norma and I decide to go for a walk. We decide to descend to the water using a flight of stairs that gracefully guides one down the grassy path. There are two row boats at the dock. We first go down a passage to the left till we come to a gate and then return to another path going off to the right.

Having morning tea, we experience one of those serendipity moments. A couple come walking by and we exchange morning greetings and they ask where we are from. We get to Norma who replies she is from Kentucky and they say, "We are from Kentucky!" Within a few minutes they have established they have mutual friends--what a small world.

We journey along this path, following signs to “The Castle” until a fenced in edifice rises up out of the ground. It is in very sad shape but is now under the protection of Historic Environment of Scotland. There is a lot of work to be done on this restoration!!! This castle belonged to the Clan MacDonell, a powerful branch of the Clan Donald clan. The castle is on Raven’s Rock. overlooking Loch Oich, a strategic location in the days of clan warfare. Oliver Cromwell ordered the castle burned down in 1654. Repaired, the castle passed back and forth between various factions until the 1745 uprising when the Jacobites controlled it. But, sadly, Bonnie Prince Charlie misplayed his hand, the Jacobites were massacred at Culloden and the castle was sacked and partially blown up by government troops as a systematic suppression of the highlands began.

Later in the afternoon I return and walk down the path to the gate. There is a pasture in front of me and since Scottish laws protect the rights of citizens on land that is not their own, if they do not damage it or its contents, I decide to take a walk across the pasture and see how far I get. I am mulling over various thoughts in the mind when I look up and just off to my side is the biggest sheep I have ever seen. Of course a large part of its girth is actually wool but, nonetheless, it is impressive. We stare at each other quite some time (of course this is my time clock) and since it does not lower its head in a battering stance, I quickly trod down the path.

This same pasture also has the most magnificent tree. We cannot get over the girth or height of some of the trees we have seen! I have to back through the gate and into the woods to take the picture.

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Photos

Ben Nevis as viewed from Coire Glas guest house
During the morning when we left

Gairlochy Bridge and the start of day 2
Our four friends from Switzerland who are doing much the same trip as we are.

Assault training remains
Amphibious training during WW II

Ben Nevis from across Loch Lochy
From far north end of the loch

house with a view across the loch
the Coire Glas and Ben Nevis mountains