West Highland Way: Inversnaid to Crianlarich

Friday 22nd May 2026

During the first week of my holiday in Scotland I walked along the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way, finishing at the railway station of Arrochar and Tarbet, not far from the shore of Loch Lomond. However, rather than continuing my trek north from there the following day I had caught a train to Bridge of Orchy and headed south along the West Highland Way to Crianlarich, effectively skipping a stage on my stitched sequence of trails and reversed the direction. In fact, I had intended to ignore any idea of a coherent trek north for a couple of days and instead visit some of the mountains around Crianlarich, but the weather was so poor I had reverted to the trail and it was especially poor the previous day so skipping the stage made sense. With better weather this day I had the opportunity to do the missing stage, so to start I caught a train from Crianlarich back to Arrochar and Tarbet and then a ferry across Loch Lomond to Inversnaid joining the West Highland Way heading north along the eastern bank of Loch Lomond. I originally did the West Highland Way in 2004 and I have not done this section to Beinglas since, although, I was at Inversnaid in 2022 to the start of the Great Trossachs Path, but now I was heading onto the roughest section of the West Highland Way.

After crossing Loch Lomond I initially turned south to look at the impressive waterfall on the Arklet Water, beside the Inversnaid Hotel and stopped at the point where the Great Trossachs Path begins, at the junction with the West Highland Way, where I turned around and crossed the bridge over the falls again passing in front of the hotel. I wasn’t in a hurry as I set off along the path beside Loch Lomond, intent to enjoy every step through the trees and along the rocky, muddy path. There were some slow, tricky places where hand was on rock, particularly around Sroin Uaidh where the map indicates that Rob Roy’s Cave is located, but despite a brief look for it I couldn’t find it, so, perhaps I was looking in the wrong place. Apart from the fabulously craggy, rock-filled path, the highlight of this walk was the bluebells, which at this time of the year were gloriously in flower, decorating the hillside and producing a constant display. Later the trees thinned to reveal a meadow covered in bluebells, which I thought was an amazing sight, despite having seen many bluebells in my time, even just this year, but these bluebells just blew my mind and they weren’t even being shown off in the best conditions as it was grey and misty. But these bluebells were special.

I really enjoyed walking along the rocky path beside Loch Lomond and my body seemed to respond to the challenge, feeling fit and strong enough to tackle any terrain as I sailed along the path, enjoying every moment. The difficult terrain finally ended when the path moved away from the loch and began to climb past Creag Mhadaidh, but after passing Doune Byre another vast bank of bluebells appeared, this time with views across Loch Lomond to the distinctive peak of Stob nan Coinnich Bhacain. I then briefly came back down to the shore of Loch Lomond for a final time where I lingered, taking a few pictures and taking in my surroundings before setting off along the increasingly muddy path. Despite the huge amounts of rain recently, I was astonished by how bad the path was considering how popular the trail is, or perhaps it was this muddy because of how popular it is. You would have thought a trail as popular as this would have a good all-weather surface throughout its length, but clearly not at this point. Earlier, on the craggiest section, the ground had still been very wet, which had forced me to take extra care, but the abundant rock ensured that it wasn’t too muddy, unlike at the northern end of Loch Lomond. 

Finally I left the loch behind, climbing over Cnap Mòr with stunning views behind me on an excellent path that reminded me of how great the West Highland Way is and deserving of its popularity. Some sections have dull, wide tracks, but this bit was fabulous, especially as the weather was slowly improving. The great walking eventually brought me to the Beinglas Campsite where it now became much easier, initially on a wide track before branching onto a stony path that led me into the narrowing Glen Falloch where waterfalls created a lot of noise, but it was difficult for me to get a good view because of the trees. Eventually I crossed the River Falloch and followed a well-made path beside the river, through woodland, under a very low railway bridge, under the main road and up a recently improved path to the old military road that took me across the northern slopes of Glen Falloch all the way back to Crianlarich with stupendous views across the valley to Cruach Ardrain, which I had managed to climb again in 2022 when I was last in Crianlarich. 

Arguably, I should have been walking up a mountain this day as the weather was no worse than it had been four years ago, but, since I have already been to the top of all the mountains around Crianlarich, I had wanted good weather to make it worthwhile. Earlier in the day there had been a lot of cloud covering the mountains and it was only by late afternoon that the cloud eventually began to clear those peaks. So, would I have had more fun walking up a mountain in this weather than I had this day walking along the West Highland Way? I doubt it. I enjoy a good, clear footpath and the paths up mountains are often quite sketchy, but with the exception of the quagmire at the northern end of Loch Lomond, the paths on the West Highland Way were excellent. I love having a good view from the top of a mountain, so if there is no view then what is the point? I just enjoy a good walk and I am increasingly finding that a long distance trail provides me with everything I enjoy doing.

West Highland Way: Bridge of Orchy to Crianlarich

Thursday 21st May 2026

Having walked along the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way over the previous three days, it would make sense for me to continue heading north by crossing Loch Lomond and heading up the West Highland Way, but the weather was so poor this day I didn’t feel like doing that, and so I felt the following section heading north from Crianlarich was the only possible alternative. During my planning for this holiday any part of the West Highland Way had lacked appeal for me and I had eventually decided to spend a couple of days in Crianlarich climbing the mountains in the area, ignoring my original intention for this holiday, but the bad weather forced me back into walking along the West Highland Way, despite its familiarity, as it was my only option. I was most recently in Crianlarich in 2022 when I had also planned to climb some of the mountains in the area, but bad weather on that occasion forced me again into walking along the West Highland Way going all the way to Fort William, so for a bit of a change on this occasion I decided I would catch a train to Bridge of Orchy and walk back to Crianlarich. It was also better for me to do it this way so I was not rushing to catch a schedule, though the timetable was not helpful as the train from Bridge of Orchy leaves at one pm or seven pm with nothing in between. There are only a few trains on the West Highland Line and the train in the morning was not until 10.21, so it was already mid-morning when I eventually arrived in Bridge of Orchy and headed south along the West Highland Way.

The vast majority of people walking the West Highland Way head north to keep the prevailing wind to their backs and, since Bridge of Orchy is on the fifth stage of the trail, those who had started the trail the previous weekend were now coming towards me. The West Highland Way is a very popular trail and it seemed like I passed hundreds of people just on this initial section below the steep slopes of Beinn Dòrain that leads all the way to Gleann Achadh-innis Chalein. The weather was not too bad at this point with hardly any rain, it was just misty and soon I began to get hot in my waterproofs, which showed a change in the weather. It had been quite cold at the start of my holiday, but now a heatwave was developing over England, which was bringing warm, moist air over Scotland, hence the bad weather. I attempted a few things to cool down, such as unzipping and then eventually removing my cagoule, while leaving on my poncho to keep me dry. It also helps enormously to take your hood down as a hood will prevent a lot of heat from escaping, and so I adopted a wide-brimmed hat to keep me dry. These measures succeeded in keeping me cool as I continued along the trail, over the Allt Kinglass river and beside the railway line, enjoyably disengaging my brain while quietly making my way along the wide path until I eventually entered Tyndrum. The path narrowed beyond, becoming difficult to find in places and then entered the Tyndrum Community Woodland as it began to rain more heavily. The path was now so narrow that whenever people were coming towards me I had to get completely off the path to let them pass, which happened often, so was not easy.

Eventually the heather moorland passed and the path widened, through woodland beside the River Cononish, passing underneath the railway line and main road. As I crossed Strath Fillian the rain now fell even more heavily, while passing the ruins of St Fillian’s Priory and back across the valley, over the river and across the main road and railway line again. As the terrain steepened, the path became rough passing a felled conifer plantation that afforded me with misty views across the valley, which in better weather would have included Ben More, a mountain that I had planned to walk up if the weather had been better, but now I couldn’t even see it. While the trail took me into more mature conifer woodland, I just wanted the rain to stop or for me to get back to Crianlarich, which never seemed to happen until eventually the rain eased and I reached the junction where the West Highland Way makes a sharp turn to the right while Crianlarich was straight ahead descending under the bypass to finally bring me back to the youth hostel. This was a disappointing day when I had hoped to be able to go up some of the mountains that I had last visited twenty years ago, but instead I walked along the West Highland Way, which I had last done just four years ago and while the walking in the morning was quite pleasant, the afternoon’s walking in the heavy rain was not at all enjoyable.