The West Highland Way in July (with side trips)

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The West Highland Way is a 96-mile trail from Milngavie north of Glasgow to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. There are loads of suggested itineraries online and it’s pretty easy to get caught up in what some perceive to be the proper way to walk it, but we decided to begin partway through, spend two nights in one place when possible, and take day hikes to get off the beaten path.

Day 1 - Tyndrum Day Hikes

The 2-hour train from Glasgow to Tyndrum was easy and scenic. The town itself is tiny - just a few homes, restaurants, inns and campgrounds, all of which exist mainly because the West Highland Way goes through it. We stayed in a tiny, cylindrical hobbit cabin (see photo), identical to what is found at most campsites along the trail.

We went for a short hike the afternoon we arrived and decided to attempt to summit Ben Lui the following day, since we read that the approach is less boggy than the trail to Ben Oss.

The trail from town to the base of the mountain was a dirt road that eventually reached a gorgeous valley surrounded by lush hills, referred to as various names - Grahams, which are 2,000 feet, Corbetts, which are over 2,500 feet, or Munros, which are over 3,000 feet. We later learned that there are 282 Munros in Scotland and, of course, some people have hiked them all multiple times, according to a Scottish guy we met.

Unfortunately, we encountered some pretty typical Scottish weather on the approach. We could barely see the bottom of the mountain and the top was completely shrouded in clouds. The rain was light and intermittent but the winds were steady at 15-20mph. My poncho no longer seemed like the ideal protection from the rain:

We began to ascend the rock staircase and after 20 minutes the conditions worsened. It didn’t take much imagination to realize that the weather would be much worse at the top and that there would be no view, so we retreated.

We detoured to the West Highland Way and walked south - the opposite direction we’d be walking the next day.

The trail is similar to El Camino de Santiago, which I walked part of last month. It’s wide and well-marked, has a variety of surfaces - dirt, gravel, asphalt, etc. - and at times runs parallel to busy roads. The scenery is better but the towns are far less populated and lack medieval walls and ancient bridges. It also crosses low passes, so it isn’t terribly hilly considering the topography of the area.

Day 2 - Tryndrum -> Glencoe Resort (near Kingshouse) - 19 miles

We decided to have a transport service take our heavy packs from town to town so we could enjoy the walking more. After a couple of hours, the trail veered father away from the highway and the whines of motorcycles disappeared, making for a beautiful walk along an old carriage road that was constructed in the 1700s with rocks smaller than cobblestone for the wealthy to reach their summer estates without breaking their wagon springs. The surface is eventually hard on the feet since no step is quite flat.

When doing research on the trek, it was difficult to find much information on what kinds of shoes to wear, and some people said you would be fine wearing tennis shoes or sandals. But that would probably not go well regardless of weather conditions. I’m glad I ditched my walking sandals and switched to lightweight boots before Scotland. The trail is pretty rocky (sometimes large loose rocks and sometimes fixed, jagged ones) and some sections would turn into basically a creek in rainy conditions. Only boots or trail shoes would handle this without likely foot problems, and gaiters wouldn’t be a bad idea either. There weren’t any stream crossings during this time of year but some of the side trails apparently get very boggy (some reviews described stepping into knee-deep mud), another reason to not just wear regular tennis shoes.

DAY 3 - BAGGING TWO MUNROS

Meall a'Bhùiridh (3635 ft)

Unfortunately, the hike begins at a ski hill and follows the chair lifts. It’s basically all uphill for 2 hours. We had another rare sunny and warm day, so the peak afforded vast views in all directions and it was comfortable enough to eat lunch in shorts and a tshirt.

Sròn na Creise (3609 feet)

From the summit, it appears to be near impossible to walk up the sheer cliffs of Sròn na Creise, but we could see a few others walking along the ridge, so we descended the rocky path to the saddle between the two munros. A Scottish woman walking the other way assured us that there was in fact a path, though it was still impossible to make out.

Eventually the path became very steep and at first I couldn’t make the scramble with my bad leg, so Peggy continued on without me. I eventually figured out how to shimmy up the rocks backwards and made it to the top. I’m glad I did because the summit afforded the best view of the journey:

The weather was perfect and we had the entire panorama to ourselves for a few minutes before some other hikers arrived. Apparently we were very lucky to have both good weather and no crowds.

The way back down to the resort was pretty rough on the knees. The hike took about 6 1/2 hours but was only 10 miles, since besides the ridge on the second summit, the entire hike was 40 degrees up or down. We were very happy to reach the bottom and the relative comfort of our hobbit hole.

DAY 4 - GLENCOE RESORT -> KINLOCHLEVEN (10 miles)

The trail runs parallel to the highway on an old military road for the first couple of hours. The tradeoff is that it offers fabulous views of Buachaille Etive Mòr, the most photographed munro in Scotland.

The Devil’s Staircase didn’t really live up to its name, especially after the much more difficult climb the day before. But hikers carrying full packs might disagree. Once over the pass, the trail was remote until we reached the seemingly never-ending descent to Kinlochleven, the largest town so far on the trail. Despite the hydroelectric dam and old aluminum works, it’s still an attractive place to spend a night, with a nice city centre and a couple of classic pubs to visit.

Another concern of mine when doing research was how crowded the trail would be in the high season. Since we stayed two nights in some places, we were able to compare different groups of walkers. Most left by 9AM but the real campers took a bit longer to break camp and get on the trail. We left after 10 and generally caught up with everyone with heavier packs, but it was never terribly crowded. There was only one group of 10 that was tough to get around. But with so many hours of daylight in the summer, you could leave even later if you wanted the trail to yourself. There are only so many accommodations, after all.

DAY 5 - KINLOCHLEVEN -> FORT WILLIAM (14 miles)

The final leg of the walk begins with a tough climb and pleasant views of Loch Leven but then passes through a recently logged pine forest before passing below the towering Ben Nevis and onto a busy road into Fort William - a fairly anticlimactic end to the trek.

When we broke for lunch, I finally got my first dose of midges because I was wearing shorts and a tshirt and had forgotten to spray my exposed skin. Midges are tiny swarming flies whose bites cause an allergic reaction. Every store sells repellant which either worked very well or which wasn’t necessary while walking. Staying in cabins and hotels limited our exposure to them, so we never used our head nets either. Campers we spoke to had a tougher time when cooking, etc.



FORT WILLIAM

We spent two nights here to get our bearings straight. I ran a few miles of the Great Glen Way, another multi-day trail that follows coastal plains to the sea. We took a day trip by train to Mallaig, a touristy seaport town. The coal-powered Jacobite Train (aka Hogwarts Express) has to be reserved months ahead and is three times the cost of the regular train, so we took the latter on the same track. In some ways, the scenery along the train route is better than it is on the West Highland Way because it’s so remote and pristine, especially when passing by lochs.

When we crossed the iconic viaduct from the Harry Potter movies, there were hundreds of people waiting at different vantage points to watch the Jacobite Train pass after us. For lunch we had a seafood chowder, kipper and port at a cozy restaurant, where there was more than one adult wearing a cape. We missed the ferry to Isle of Skye because our train was late, so we walked to a beach near the village of Morar before heading back to Fort William.

Ultimately, we certainly walked at least the length of the West Highland Way, but the day hikes allowed us more freedom to get off the beaten path. We had incredible weather overall, met some nice people and managed to avoid any injuries, so the walk was quite a success!

There are several more photos far below.

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Photos

Ben Nevis
The largest munro at 4,413 feet (1345 meters).

Room with a View
This was the view from our B&B in Fort William.

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Very cool!
This would be fun to stay in. Looks like you planned a nice trip.