Dan's Adventure

The West Highland Way is billed as Scotland’s premier long distance walk. Officially its 95 miles long, but according to the GPS recordings of fellow walkers, its a fair bit longer. I started the walk last Tuesday in Milngavie and arrived at the end point in Fort William on Sunday. I started alone but finished with five others. Six days of fantastic scenery, sunburn, blisters and bites, what more could you ask for?

The West Highland Way begins in the centre of Milngavie, sign posted from the train station the start point lies on the high street. The first section between Milngavie and Drymen eases you into it gently, easy walking with not much to note. A lunch stop at the Beech Tree Inn was my first meeting with a group of ten from Hamilton who were doing the walk for charity, I would later meet them again at the campsite at Drymen and then every day following that. This was a recurring theme for the walk, I would meet the same people every day at lunch stops and in the evenings as it seemed most people had planned the walk in the same way as myself.

I arrived at the campsite in Drymen at around 2pm, a lot earlier than I had anticipated. It was fantastic weather so I was very happy to spend the rest of the afternoon lying in the sun. The campsite owner was no where to be found when I arrived, but appeared with a trailer load of luggage shortly after the group from Hamilton arrived. It turns out they were using a luggage carriage service which picks up your luggage in the morning and drops it off at your accommodation at each stop on the way to Fort William. I was told I could sign up for it that night, but I was so tired I fell asleep by about 8pm and missed the opportunity to. A number of chickens and roosters roamed the campsite freely, crowing constantly, much to the annoyance of everyone within earshot. Despite being on a campsite, I wasn’t camping, I was spending the night in a wooden wigwam.

The benefit of an early night became clear when the roosters started crowing again as the sun rose. I managed to block it out for a couple of hours, but by 7am I’d had enough and was on my way. I wanted to complete the climb over Conic Hill in the morning to avoid the high temperatures forecast for the afternoon, so an early start was on the cards anyway. When I left the campsite the morning mist hadn’t yet lifted making visibility poor until the road dipped into Drymen. After a mile of road, the route entered farmland and slowly made its way towards Garadhban Forest.

Walking through farmland is a challenge in itself; an obstacle course of cow pats, sheep droppings and nettles. Those that breath like fish will have even more worries, as flies evacuate the cow pats as they approach they’ll either quickly learn to breath through their nose or they’ll be feasting on flies all day long!

As I entered Garadhban Forest I was becoming increasingly annoyed with the cloud of flies that surrounded me. Midges weren’t the problem, it was horse flies, or clegs as they are known locally. Clegs are far more vicious than midges, they will follow their victim until they find an opportunity to attack and then they’ll sink their teeth in to suck the blood. On the first day I was wearing shorts, but after noticing a trail of blood running down my left leg I decided trousers would be a better option for the rest of the walk, its a shame I didn’t have any shirts with me because my arms were ravaged. Clegs are also a lot more bold than midges. They are used to attacking animals which may simply swat them off with their tails, so they’ll just keep coming back until they get their feed. I started off swatting them, but in the end I realised I had to do my part in keeping their population under control.

Garadhban Forest eventually opens up to moorland and Conic Hill becomes visible in the distance. From there I doubted that it was Conic Hill, thinking that it was far too big, it can’t possibly be that that I need to get over. As I got closer it soon became clear that it was indeed Conic Hill and I would be hauling myself and my rucksack up it. At this point I really did wish that I had caught the farmer the previous night to sign up for the luggage carriage service.

Conic Hill is a significant point on the West Highland Way. Its the one point which lies on the Highland Boundary Fault separating the highlands and the lowlands. Its the first climb of the route and in my opinion the toughest, especially when carrying a rucksack! The path is steep and rough, many sections with loose rocks and gravel, but I was thankful that I was tackling it on a dry day, in the rain I can imagine a river would be flowing down it making it several magnitudes harder. The climb may be tough, but upon reaching the summit, the views across Loch Lomond quickly make you forget about it.

The descent from Conic Hill was far tougher than the way up. It was incredibly steep and at times the path looked like someone had intended to make steps down but gave up half way through and left it as an almost smooth surface at a 60 degree angle. I was very happy to reach the forest at the foot of the hill and follow the path down into Balmaha. I had been looking forward to a late breakfast when I arrived, but my plans were shattered as the only open bar didn’t start serving food for another hour. A scone and jam tided me over until I received the best meal of the week; a spinach and butternut squash lasagne. It was definitely worth the wait.

Refueled, I set off hoping to reach Rowardennan a few hours later. Any illusions I had of an easy afternoon were rapidly dispelled. I was under the impression that the path would follow the banks of Loch Lomond but instead it went up and over hill after hill, every one getting steeper. After walking for hours, myself and another group, 2 couples, that I met along the way were sure we weren’t far away. We estimated that it could only be another half kilometer at most, but around the next corner we were faced with a sign informing us that it was a further 2km. One of them had a GPS, so I can tell you with confidence that the sign lied to us, the actual distance was closer to 4km. I didn’t actually arrive at the hostel until after 6pm that evening, absolutely exhausted, but remembering to sign up for the luggage carriage before I headed to bed!

Balmaha to Rowardennan was without doubt my least favourite section of the entire walk, not only due to the hills, but because of the state that the beaches are kept in. The beaches are all very accessible, with camp sites and caravan parks all around, so as soon as the sun comes out they become very busy. The people visiting these beaches obviously don’t care about preserving the natural beauty of the area as the beaches are all covered in litter. Over the next few days several people that I met commented on how disgusted they were by the state the beaches are kept in. Balmaha is a popular tourist area which makes it even more of a disgrace that they are such a mess.

• West Highland Way Part 2
• West Highland Way Part 3
• West Highland Way Part 4
• West Highland Way Part 5
• West Highland Way photos