West Highland Way: Day 8

Date: Easter Sunday, 8 April

Route: Inveroran to Kings House

Distance: 10 miles

Accommodation: Kings House Hotel, Kings House

The main themes of this section of the walk are beautiful bleakness, miles of empty moorland, imposing mountains and (today, at least) grey cloud, followed by drizzle, followed by light rain, followed by heavy rain.

Despite the general dampness (which was nowhere near as bad as forecast at the start of the walk), this was still a highlight of the West Highland Way (so far), crossing one of the most remote areas of countryside in Britain, with ever-changing views of hillsides, lochans and moorland, before ending up at the ever-impressive mountains of Glen Coe.

We were also fuelled by specially-cooked Quorn sausages and a free Creme Egg from the hotel, an unexpected Easter bonus that was gratefully received.

The path is another companionable road-width track, sometimes like a farm track and at other times cobbled, courtesy of Thomas Telford, who took on the task of improving the military roads that had fallen into disrepair and improving them for the cattle drovers of the early 19^th century.

Although there is plenty of ascent and descent , the road is comfortable to walk on and the climbs are gradual so it’s easy to cover a lot of ground in a short space of time. There aren’t a whole lot of obvious landmarks on the route (as you would probably expect from an area that is uninhabited for 50 square miles!) but there are a few tree plantations, bridges, rivers and streams along the way, as well as a succession of hills, many of which were sadly hidden below a blanket of clouds as we walked along.

We also encountered a very nonchalant grouse, which didn’t seem to have any issues with being photographed from reasonably close quarters and merely hopped off the rock it was resting on, rather than flying off in a flurry, when it tired of the attention.

Although the Rannoch Moor section of the walk is exposed, it was disappointing to near the end of it, seeing the A82 down below. As it was starting to rain more heavily, we followed the path down and round the hillside and took a slight diversion to the Glen Coe Visitor Centre, a great place to grab tea and soup and sit out the worst of the weather (in kinder climates, it would have been possible to take the ski-lift to the mountain-top but once glance at the family that had ventured this in the pouring rain confirmed that this really wouldn’t have been a great plan for us!).

 
The final half hour of the walk combined some of the worst (wettest and windiest) weather with some of the best (looming mountain) scenery. After crossing the A82 we wandered down the hillside to the Kings House Hotel, in a perfect location near the pyramid-shaped Buachaille Etive Mor (mountain) and with deer grazing in the garden. A good end to a great walking day.