Milngavie to Fort William

The West Highland Way 

Written and compiled after we returned. The photo's from the camera added too.

DAY ONE

A train ride north

Newcastle

A worrying sign.

A station between Glasgow and Milngavie

The only wild animals in Scotland were Haggis, deer, and ferrel goats,,,,
I thought.

Only sheep and hairy cows would be near the path ,,,,
 I thought.

At no point would we be near any Grizzly's home,,,,,
I thought!
















So here we are at the obelisk in the precinct of Milngavie

The start. 1:25pm

A scotch pie from the local bakers and off we went. A walk through Mugdock woods was first.

Path through Mugdock woods

Bluebells

And on through the Khyber pass.

High on something!

Gesturing or being a fighter jet?

Past Craigallian Loch and Carbeth Loch. Two small lochs next to the way.

This Loch didn't merit a mention in any of the guides

3pm and well on the way.

 My sunglasses had fallen off my strap I realised. I spotted them about 500 metres back and went off to fetch them. You can see me returning in the photo.

 I had found my shades and was walking back up the hill

We had a target. 7 miles from Milngavie is Glengoyne distillery.
The last tour of the day is at 4pm.

 We made it there by 3:30pm. Hot and happy, an average speed of well over 3mph . That's impressive with full packs on in 21C.

Don't mind if I do

Casks, not barrels!

 

The 17yr old malt is rather nice. After a couple of 'wee drams' we returned to the W.H.Way,  at this point, a disused railway line.

On to our destination for today, Drymen camping at Easter Drumquhassle.

 

A sloping field with long grass and a complimentary dog turd

Covered barn area with sockets and a sink

 A barn end with portacabin toilets and showers. The heater in the showers doesn't work, typical of Scottish camp-sites in our experience.

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 DAY TWO

 Drymen to Loch Lomond

It's Only 8:30 and we're already on the road

9am and the first hill begins towards Queen Elizabeth Forest Park

Into the forest where we came across some logs.

I found some logs!

Though some trees did escape the chop

Through to the end of the forest

Our first view of Loch Lomond

Looking at the Loch

 Beyond the forest the views start to open out. The hill in the photo below is Conic Hill, just beyond it is the village of Balmaha on the shores of Loch Lomond.

From the top of Conic Hill, Loch Lomond.  You can just see Balmaha village on the nearest shore.

Taken from near the top with the hill on our left

Balmaha, a shared sandwich and an ice cream from the village shop before we moved on.

Bay at Balmaha

Leaving Balmaha and straight into another hill.

Ooh look, another hill to walk up.

On the shore

It's 1:30pm, that's lunchtime so must be brew time!

Brew time

On through the wooded banks

Another Hill

 3:30pm

Down to the shore

Another bloody hill

The Rowardennan Hotel has a bar that serves food, and a much needed pint of orange and lemonade, with ice, each. It's now 5pm so it must be dinner time.

The view from the table

Rowardennan Hotel bar

An hour later and we're on our way again. Just up the road from the hotel is this.

The obligatory shot

We planned to stop ages ago but carried on to the wild camping area just beyond Rowardennan.

The wild camping permission had been removed from Rowardennan

We were still walking at 8:30pm.
The problem then was finding a suitable spot to camp.

Ferrel (wild) goat

 We went 7 mile Rowardennan.
Just over 22 miles from this morning we found a great spot.
Just us and the waves lapping the shore of the Loch.
 Oh, and the Owls hooting. Ferrel goats, Pine Martin and Red Deer are all in this area too.
I've set a Haggis trap, you never know :)

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DAY THREE

Loch Lomond to Beinglas farm

 

08:30am finds us just getting up.

The bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond somewhere beyond Rowardennan and not as far as the Inversnaid Hotel

Our pitch for the night was here.

 The days walk begins with some rather difficult twists and turns. Short steep climbs and descents, sometimes stepped in rocks.

 Crossing burns

 With lovely views across the Loch from time to time.

The photo below shows the short pier at the Inversnaid Hotel. This was 10:45am. About an hour after starting out this morning.

 Beyond the Hotel and the going got really tough

 This is me stepping down. The steps are so steep my short legs couldn't get the pack clear if I went down forwards.

Directions to a hole. It's 11:20 and we have covered hardly any distance

The Drovers Inn for dinner

Haggis Slapshot (neeps n tatties) and a dram for me.

Fighting the wildlife.

Our little green house at Beinglas farm near the Drovers Inn

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DAY FOUR

Beinglas to Drymen

We were woken early this morning by our German neighbours so were on our way by 08:30. Up past The Falls of Falloch

Pylons aside, it's a nice walk

  A hill in a wood

A big hill beaten
Now look at this carefully, we're sure these are Haggis's, hiding in the grass. Maybe they'll shake their heads and we'll see there eyes through that straw hair.

 

A well earned rest

 

On to Tyndrum and our home for the night. Pitching our house at 3pm.

Among other things, Tyndrum has this well known place

With a bottle of wine we took a bag of chips home and had dinner

And then went to the pub!

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Day Five

Tyndrum to Kingshouse

via Rannoch moor

At 9:30 we were outside Brodies store eating a Scotch pie each for breakfast.

This was due to be a long day and we were already late up, ah well.

The way takes you through a valley towards Crianlarich. A lovely sunny day to begin with.

Over

 

and under 

Past some hairy Moo-moo's

On towards Bridge of Orchy

The Bridge of Orchy

The view from the bridge

 Keeping my feet cool

 Looking back over Bridge of Orchy

 Have a look at this one large, The Inveroran Hotel is the white building centre left.

A closer look at the Inveroran Hotel Garden

 Up to Rannoch Moor

 Rannoch moor, one of the remotest areas in the UK

Glencoe ahead

 Wild camp at the Kingshouse Hotel

 Sunset at our house

 Last light over Glencoe

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Day Six

Kingshouse to Kinlochleven

via The Devils Staircase

 

Leaving early as there are no toilets available and not a quiet area or any cover for Jac. This is the wild but in a crowd!

Kingshouse Hotel getting smaller

 Kingshouse even smaller

 A big Golden Bird

 The Devils staircase begins

 Half way up and it's coffee time, We're sat in a stream at the side of the path with water flowing through the rocks beneath us.

Looking back down the Staircase

At the top

Some don't make it intact, a small reminder of such

 Look at where we're going

 The hill in the distance on the above photo but from the other side in this one. 

Toilet break

This is looking back at the indiscernible path we are descending. Twisty ankle slippy foot time.

The path behind us

Kinlochleven a long way below. This forest track zig-zags going down steeply for ages.

 The pipe's that fed the Aluminium smelters in Kinlochleven. Bit of leak here.

 We followed these down the hill for some time.

The Macdonald Hotel Campsite

Loch Leven from The MacDonald Hotel car park

Dinner at the Hotel. There was a shower as we were eating. The view from our table in the bar.

And in the bar is this chimney

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DAY SEVEN

A very wet day so not many photos.

The first of many fast flowing, slightly too deep,streams to cross.

 A look back at Kinlochleven. It's a steep climb straight out of the village.

The way levels out but the rain doesn't stop.

In spite of the weather the walk was nice.

The rain continues and the burns overflow and turn the path to a stream

The way descends through some wooded areas, quite steeply in places.

The forest is felled in parts revealing another hill to climb. The Little Scottish Lady who upon seeing this made us laugh, she almost cried. It had been a long walk to here and she obviously didn't like the idea of another climb. In her heavily accented, soft voice exclaimed "Ohhh Nooo"

Our first view of Glen Nevis. The campsite in this shot is about 3 mile from the end of The West Highland Way.

On to the end and I know just how much this blokes feet ache!

Nearly a hundred miles, brilliant.

Wet through, worn out and happy, very happy!

Back at Glen Nevis camp-site later on the rain had stopped . This is what we could see from near our little green house.

Ben Nevis