West Highland Way: Day 10

Date: Tuesday, 10 April

Route: Kinlochleven to Fort William

Distance: 14 miles

Accommodation: Guisachan Guest House, Fort William

We’ve done it – yaayy! 95 miles from Glasgow to Fort William, up and down hills, along valleys and amongst some of the most beautiful and dramatic scenery in the UK.

But, also… we’ve done it – noooooooo! What are we going to do tomorrow?! We both really want to keep walking now (and the Great Glen Way does seem very appealing).

Today definitely wins the spectacular prize – a fantastic section of the walk with some jaw-dropping scenery.

We woke up in the Highland Getaway in Kinlochleven to see the hilltops dusted in snow, after a night in the most comfortable bed encountered on the whole Way, with little noise outside apart from the tumbling water of the river outside the window.

Once you are out of Kinlochleven there is a steady climb up the hillside to contend with – luckily this isn’t as gruelling as The Devil’s Staircase and there are plenty of fantastic views, both back over Kinlochleven, where you can see the aluminium works pipes that the path accompanied yesterday, as well as along the narrow Loch Linhe, which is very fjord-like at this point, so you have lots of excuses to stop and take photos (and a breather).

The bulk of the walk follows the reasonably easy military road across open moorland, with towering snow-capped peaks on either side, looking almost Himalayan at times. As per usual, the mountains look breathtakingly impressive in real life and absolutely tiny and lost against the grey sky through the camera lens – you’ll either need to trust me or walk this bit yourself to get a true sense of the scale of this section.

After lots of exposed path, with the river away to your left, you finally start to get into patches of woodland, however, in common with earlier sections of the walk, there is lots of evidence (none too easy on the eye) of forest clearance, with the stumps of felled trees giving the hillsides a desolate feel. On the plus side, of course, this probably exposes views that were hitherto hidden and is putting money into the local economy.

Whatever your views on forestry, the first time you see Ben Nevis up ahead, the only feasible reaction is “wow”! Flanked by two white peaks, it is even more imposing than the mountains  encountered so far – and the views off to the left are pretty lovely too (it may have helped that the sun came out for us at this point – during the walk we had spring sunshine, wintry cold and April showers to contend with).

Eating a packed lunch while sitting on a dry stone wall might not sound that spectacular, but when you have amazing mountains to the right and left and a green hillside ahead, it definitely takes a lot of beating.

The next section of the walk is through more woodland – spookily dark pine plantations, with a rock-strewn floor, carpeted with pine needles and unfeasibly bright green moss, clover and ferns. Suddenly the path enters a cleared forest and it’s all about Ben Nevis again, which looms up ahead, its top shrouded in cloud.

The final climb of the walk gives you a variety of views of Britain’s tallest mountain, plus the peaks to either side of it, then it’s an easy descent along a forestry road to the valley bottom, the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre and the final stretch of pavement into Fort William.

 
Very sad that our walk is at an end – but what a way to finish it. It seems to be very straightforward to get a bus from Fort William to Kinlochleven and walk back, so even if you don’t have the time or energy to do the whole West Highland Way, this section on its own could be a (challenging but beautiful) option.