West Highland Way, part 1

Wednesday 14th July 2004

My first walking holiday in Scotland was three years ago and began with a walk along the West Highland Way, but it did not start well, though there were some good moments. Before starting the walk I got some money out of the bank as I would not reach another bank until I got to Kinlochleven, but I had already spent half of it!. When I got to Milngavie it was raining so after buying a sandwich for my lunch I donned my waterproofs and started the West Highland Way. Initially, I made very good progress over almost flat country with the first six miles being covered in one hour forty minutes, but then I stopped off at the Glengoyne Distillery, since, well, I couldn’t resist it. I had a wee dram – very nice, good thing I wasn’t driving – and bought a miniature bottle to add to my collection. Last time I was in Scotland I bought a Highland Park Scotch, and now I have a Glengoyne.

I resumed my walk along the Way along a disused railway line for another three miles until I came off onto a road where I encountered some gradients and my mileage dropped. I reached the twelve mile point, in Drymen, at about lunch time so I had something to eat, and by now my legs were beginning to ache, but after eating I kept going and climbed into the Garadhban forest. The rain at the start of the walk had quickly stopped to be replaced by intermittent sunshine that was really good walking weather. Coming out of the forest I got my first real look at Loch Lomond while on the trail and it took my breath away. I had a fantastic view along the line of islands on the Highland Fault that could be easily seen stretching across the loch. This is what it is all about. There followed a highly pleasurable moorland crossing over to Conic Hill as I passed on to and around the hill. [The picture below was not taken by me, unlike all the other pictures featured in my blog. When I walked the West Highland Way I didn't have a camera with me so I have none of my own pictures to use. The picture below, of the scene across Loch Lomond from Conic Hill, was taken by John Butler and features on his excellent web site End to End Walk. It is being used by kind permission.]

The descent down to Balmaha was easy, and it had taken me less than seven hours to do the whole nineteen miles. It was a good, enjoyable walk, so what was wrong with it? Well, at the end of the walk is a visitor centre wherein I managed to lose my maps. An extensive search failed to locate the missing maps so I had to buy replacements. It was fortunate that they had them there, but it was a huge expense that I hadn’t anticipated. And then there was where I stayed: Bunkhouse Lodge. I didn’t really know what to expect so I was surprised to find a room all to myself, although admittedly it wasn’t very big! My next cockup was with some cans I had bought from the local shop for dinner only to find out that there no kitchen facilities are provided in the bunkhouse. Oops! Instead I had to have something to eat in the nearby pub, which was much more expense, and since the bunkhouse did provide breakfast and packed lunches there was even more expense. Therefore I had already spent £37 from the £50 that I had taken out of the bank in the morning. I supposed that the cans would do for the next day and for now I had just treated myself to eating-out, so it’s just a pity that I hadn’t planned it that way.

The day actually ended quite well as I took a walk along the banks of Loch Lomond to Craigie Fort. It was wonderful watching the sun setting over Loch Lomond while listening to Runrig through my earphones (who were incidentally also being played at the distillery shop). When I returned to Balmaha there was a Highland band playing so I just sat under a tree watching the proceedings in the glorious evening sunshine. All in all it was not such a bad day, except for one or two things.