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.

Loch Lomond & Cowal Way, day three

Wednesday 20th May 2026

It was still raining. The previous day I had spent the whole day walking in the rain along the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way from Glendaruel to a wild camp on the pass Bealach an Lochain and the following morning it was still raining, so after breaking camp I set off along the trail past the lake Curra Lochain between the fabulous crags that are either side of the pass on the side of the mountains Beinn Lochain and Beinn Bhuela. Despite the poor, misty weather conditions there were geese on the lake, honking at me as I passed while my path under foot was excellent and dry, but this wasn’t the case beyond the lake, where the path was very boggy, which continued on the descent into a conifer plantation. It is very difficult to keep a grip on a wet, muddy path that is descending steeply, though not so in ascent. I very carefully made my way down, almost slipping over at one point, so I was relieved when I finally reached the wide forestry track at the bottom that took me over the Lettermay Burn. While looking back now, I was able to see the waterfalls on the burn Sruth Bàn, which I must have walked past on my descent but been too preoccupied with staying upright to notice, while the two mountains either side of the pass looked even more impressive from further away, even in the misty conditions due to their abundance of visible rock. My descent continued down forestry tracks until I eventually reached the road around the head of Loch Goil where holiday homes dominated the coastline while the rain finally eased with the weather slowly improving.

Lochgoilhead seemed like a magical place to spend your holiday because it is quiet, out of the way, a difficult place to get to, so would hopefully not be too overrun with tourists, but maybe if I had been there in better weather I would have seen what it is really like. A narrow lane hugged the coast between the loch and a caravan park before reaching the River Goil where I had to follow this upstream for a distance before finding a bridge. At high tide, I would need to have kept to the road, but that was not necessary so after crossing the bridge I followed the coast into the centre of the village where unfortunately I didn’t stop, but turned left up a lane that steepened to reach an area of rhododendrons. After turning left, a wide, gently rising path took me pleasantly into a conifer plantation, leading me to a dramatic landscape at a crossing of the Allt Airigh na Creige with many waterfalls at its meeting with the Donich Water. I lingered there, taking a few pictures, before continuing to climb through the trees, which became increasingly steep as I toiled up an ascent reminiscent of many I have done in the past. The path zigzagged ingeniously beside a stream until eventually, after leaving the plantation behind, the path became less distinct and boggier with my route guided by white painted posts. During my frequent stops for a breath I now had views over the trees towards the hills the other side of Loch Goil and in the improving weather they looked spectacular, basking in the sunshine that had now come out.

The relentless climb eventually eased and I came to the top of the pass, which is the highest on the whole trail. North of the pass was the Brack, which I had previously climbed in 2022 from this point, so when I began to descend into Coilessan Glen I was retracing my steps of four years ago. Many of the trees I had passed on that occasion had now been felled leaving a desolate wasteland that caused me a few difficulties. Once the steep descent had ended I found my way blocked by young trees, which either crowded out my path or had fallen across it, so when I was once more back on forestry tracks my route down became a lot easier, eventually leading me to a road. I was now near Loch Long, heading north with the sun finally making an appearance, which prompted me to take off all my waterproofs. The contrast in this day was quite remarkable with rain at the start of the day, but now, with all my waterproofs folded up in my rucksack, I was enjoying the sunshine. After a while I came to a path that branched off the road and led me down to the shore of Loch Long heading towards the impressive Ardgarton Hotel, turning left before then to pass a fabulous bank of bluebells.

As great as the sight of the bluebells was, I couldn’t help feeling a bit blasé about them since I had been seeing many of them for over a month and at home they had gone to seed a long time ago. Even just on this holiday I had been seeing bluebells every day, so it was becoming nothing special, which is a shame because bluebells are always a wonderful sight. Eventually I reached the car park in Glen Croe where the trail took me across the busy A83 trunk road and along an excellent path that weaved across the hillside slowly gaining height past fabulous vegetation until I eventually reached a conifer plantation and joined a forestry track. This track led me to a radio mast where a wide, gravel path zigzagged back down to the A83 and the shore of Loch Long, where I rounded the head to reach the village of Arrochar. From this point the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way heads north through Glen Loin to reach Loch Lomond at Inveruglas where there used to be a ferry to take you across Loch Lomond, but since this no longer runs there is no point. Instead, I considered the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way complete at this point so, after having some fish & chips, I headed through the woods above the village, surrounded by bluebells, to get to the railway station of Arrochar & Tarbet. There was a lot of road walking on this trail, though it passes through some beautiful countryside or it would have been if I’d been able to see more of it, without the weather interfering. My main problem with the Loch Lomond and Cowal Way is that it is too short, but for me it was only a good start to much more walking to come.