West Highland Way

In late June and early July of 2005, Francia and I walked Scotland’s West Highland Way. We took 8 days going from Milngavie to Fort William, staying overnight at Drymen, Rowardennan, Inverarnan, Tyndrum, Inveroran, Kingshouse and Kinlochleven. We did it the easy way, staying at B ‘n B’s or small hotels and using a commercial baggage transfer service. (Contact me if you are interested in specifics and recommendations.) The walk can also be done carrying one’s things, or camping out. There are designated camping areas, it is easy to buy meals, and there is limited grocery availability. (Again contact me for detailed comments.) We were fortunate with regard to weather and only had a little light precipitation on days 4 and 8. There was little mud, but we could see how some areas could be much worse if it were raining hard. There were many wildflowers in bloom over the whole of the walk, with the greatest concentration being at the southern end. The scenery and terrain varies quite a bit so that the entire walk is interesting and the large number of photos tries to show this as well as the variety of the wildflowers. As one might expect, the foliage is more lush at the southern end. I also found that REI Jungle Juice (100% DEET) works as well with Scottish midges as it does with American mosquitoes. (That was a very good thing.) The photos of things that we saw en route are arranged in the order that we encountered them.

The path above is typical of many parts of the walk.

Highland Boundary Fault Running Through Loch Lomond

The foreground in the above photo indicates recently completed timber harvesting in this section. We also encountered more of this on the last day of the walk.

Conic Hill