Munros and Other Walks

It's coming up for a year since I last walked the West Highland Way, it certainly doesn't feel like it. Of all the posts I made last July, this one had stayed in draft form. A post I was meant to get around to months ago, well better late than never.  Below I have included some places to stay on the West Highland Way, as always I'll try to include places to suit a range of budgets. this isn't an exhaustive list and doesn't include options like Air BnB. I have stayed at some of these places on this list but i have not been paid by any of the campsites or hotels for my opinion (unfortunately)  The Start Milngavie Glasgow has far and away the largest choice of accommodation to choose from. Milngavie is only a 40 minute train ride from Glasgow, however if you wanted a place to stay before starting your walk then there are a few places to stay. Premier Inn  budget hotel room, well kind of.  Best Foot Forward  is a B and B which caters ...

I would like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to everyone who has supported myself and Pat on our challenge this summer. The aim was to walk the West Highland Way and the Great Glen Way. As we were doing this challenge, we thought it would be a good idea to raise money for a good cause and so we decided to support Cancer Research. Many thanks to this charity for supporting us along our way. We managed to raise £940, which far exceeded our set goal of £500.   The link to our Just Giving page is below, further donations are appreciated to keep up the fight against cancer.  West Highland Way and Great Glen Way Charity Walk

Where is it? This is where it is Conic Hill is situated at Balmaha and is part of the West Highland Way. The hill itself is only 360m in height and can be easily walked in a few hours. From the top you get wonderful views of Loch Lomond and its islands. From Glasgow, travel north via the A81 towards Drymen. The journey takes about an hour. There is a bus service, the 309 from Balloch to Balmaha. Balloch can be reached by train from Glasgow Queen Street station. The journey by public transport can be as long as 2 hours.  The most convenient start for Conic Hill is at the main car park at Balmaha. The car park is large but fills up fast, especially in the warmer months. It is best to park here before 11am as you may struggle to find a space any later than this.  The car park also has a small tourist / ranger office with a toilet. There is a 30p cost for this, and it closes at 4.30pm. There is a local shop and the Beech Tree pub that serves good lunches...

We had much better rest at Blackwater campsite, due to the fact that we hired a small caravan for the night, I know hardly slumming it. We knew that there was only 14 miles between us and the end of the West Highland Way. Again, the weather looked like it was going to threaten a major downpour, but this never happened. The day stayed dull but muggy.   A large part of the morning was spent on largely flat track, as you can see above. Bear in mind that the start of this walk, from Kinlochleven was all uphill for the first couple of miles. Where did all the trees go? I knew from previous experience on the West Highland Way that there was a large wooded section that lasts for about 3.5 miles. The last section of the walk, before it heads down to Glen Nevis is a walk through the woods. The path ascends and descends a couple of times and keeping track of where you are during this time can be quite tricky. Things were different this time as a lot of the trees has been f...

Otherwise titled as "Are we going to make it to Fort William? During the night at Glencoe the heavens opened and the rain belted down on our tents for most of the night. The cloud base was also really low, and I started to think that we wouldn't make it to the end of the West Highland Way. I thought that trying to get over the Devil's Staircase, in the mist and driving rain with heavy packs and beat up feet would be the end of us. So we decided to do a couple of things to help us to get to Kinlochleven. First we used the baggage transfer, taking the heavy load of our feet. Second, we had a proper breakfast at the café before we left.  Glencoe Car Park The weather did seem to threaten to turn for the worse luckily it stayed dry for the day. Without the hindrance of a heavy pack my foot didn't get any worse and we were able to get to Kinlochleven in decent time, in just over 6 hours. Low cloud around the mountain View from top of Devil's Sta...

For the first 3 days we had been blessed with good weather. The temperature had been in the mid to late 20's(Celsius) so the only things we had to worry about was sun lotion and water. At the start of our 4th day the weather turned, and we woke to a dull wet day. At the start of our journey we were planning to hike to Kinlochleven, which would have been another 20 miles. The relative that I was walking with has suffered badly blistered feet during our last 3 days walking. It was going to be a great enough challenge for him to finish the West Highland Way. For that reason we decided to walk the 10 miles to Glencoe where we could spend the night there at the campsite. A few miles into our walk my right foot started to get worse. By the end of the 10 miles the foot had swollen around the ankle. Now it was more a case of me being the one in danger of not finishing the West Highland Way.

Our second day started brightly enough. We had a quick hike to Rowardennan and then a short walk from there to the start of the loch Lomond stretch. We took the lower path when it split, taking us along the shore of the Loch. The path was narrow but dry and I made good progress along its 3 and a bit mile stretch to Inversnaid. There was a tree that had fallen across the track at one point, the only way was to crawl under it. At another point later we had to take our rucksacks off again to squeeze paat a large boulder.  Our journey slowed down conaiconside after Inversnaid, the track continued to be narrow however the undulating nature of the track and the amount of boulders you had to negotiate meant that we lost a lot of time during the six miles it took to get to Bein Glas. The effort involved drained both of us and we were glad to stop at a campsite with daylight to spare and a pub for a bar meal.  Fallen tree over track before Inversnaid Rowchoish ...

Updated May 2019 The Start at Milngavie Where Does It Start?  The West Highland Way begins in the small town of Milngavie, which is a 40 minute train ride from the centre of Glasgow. There is a regular train and  to bus service to Milngavie, however the train is more convenient as it is a direct line.  The Route This Is Easy As expected the first part of the West Highland Way is flat. From Milngavie to Drymen it is easy going and with or without a loaded pack you will be making good progress. After Drymen, the route shifts through a forest section before opening out onto Conic Hill. In the past this forest section can be tricky to pin point exactly where you are on the map, when all you see are trees as a reference point. sections of this woodland has since been cut down making it easier to track your progress, by having Loch Lomond and Conic Hill visible from afar. Tiredness Sets In It gets tougher at the 16 mile mark. After walking for 6 pl...

Knowing what type of gear and equipment was easy. Planning out a route with how many miles were planning each day was also straight forward. I've went for my trusted Trangia stove again this year, but instead of the spirit burner I'm using a gel burner. This is lighter than the spirit burner and the burner itself holds about 47ml of gel, this is 2/3rds full. It took about 6 mins to heat up a bowl of water and the gel lasted for about 13 mins in total until it burned out.  However, the most time thinking about what I was planning to eat on our hike. Obviously, I broke my food into seperate meals so; Breakfast Mid morning snack Lunch Afternoon Snack Dinner Breakfast This will consist of porridge. I have bagged each day's breakfast into 40gram packs. In This I have added a little sugar and chia seeds. I have also included with some flaked almonds, dried fruit or trail mix. I covered the mixture with about 300ml of water. The porridge tends to cook ...