West Highland Way: Day 4

Date: Wednesday 4 April

Route: Rowardennan to Inversnaid

Distance: 7 miles

Accommodation: Craigmore Guesthouse, Aberfoyle

The fact that this blog post was written in the pub at 7.15pm, fuelled by cider and sticky toffee pudding, is a good indicator of the fact that this was yet another short-ish stretch of the West Highland Way, rewarded with another early finish.

After the previous day’s snow, I was slightly worried when it came to opening the curtains, but we were luckily greeted with a clear blue sky, very few clouds and such outstanding views over Loch Lomond that we couldn’t wait to finish our fantastic veggie breakfasts at the Rowardennan Hotel (the first of many potato scones!) and get outside and walking again.

The hotel deserves a special mention for its friendly staff, delicious food and jaw-dropping loch views (both from the bar and very comfortable bedroom) but we were all too keen to leave it behind and tackle the next section of the Way, to Inversnaid.

The walk can pretty much be divided into two sections: the first bit (after the iconic Ben Lomond memorial) is a wide forestry track, easy to walk along side-by-side, with gradual climbs and descents, and the loch frequently visible through the trees to the left; the second section, whilst more narrow, is less steep than the previous day’s walking and passes a number of pretty waterfalls, with gaps in the foliage exposing wide loch views, which were worth braving the cold for.

The path was much quieter than in previous days, suggesting that we had now gone “out of sync” with the majority of people who had left Milngavie on the Sunday. This also meant that there were many more birds audible and visible along the way, with chaffinches and robins in the trees along the path and even on the path itself.

Another highlight was the primroses, which clumped together on the mossy cliffs to the right of the path – multiple clusters of plants dotted around over vast sections of space but with none of the orderly planting of municipal flower beds, just scattered in the shade.

After 7 miles it was almost a disappointment to arrive at the Inversnaid Hotel and its waterfall (a tourist attraction for over a century) and discover it was only 1pm – we could easily have continued on to Inveroran, which we had to look forward doing the following day instead.

Due to a shortage of accommodation in Inversnaid, we also had the slight novelty of leaving the route of the West Highland Way for the night, with a (slightly bumpy) taxi trip to Aberfoyle, a tourist-friendly village by a pretty river, complete with Co-op, Woollen Mill (including oblivious sheep for wool demonstration purposes) and two pubs.