2: Why walk the West Highland Way?

Scotland’s first long distance path is one of the most popular long-distance walks in the world. So what draws over 30,000 people each year to walk the West Highland Way?

 

Is it the spectacular scenery? - which is practically continuous from the start at Milngavie, a suburb to the north of Glasgow to the end at Fort William, nestling under the shadow of Ben Nevis the highest mountain in the British Isles. 

 

Glencoe

Or is it history? From the Romans who built the Antonine Wall, part of which can be traced through Milngavie. Or passing by a neolithic monument of standing stones at Drumgoyach? - the significance of which is lost in time. Or walking in the steps of Rob Roy and Robert the Bruce? Or crossing Glencoe? - the setting for the vicious slaughter of members of the clan MacDonald. Maybe looking across to Lochan Lunn Da Bhra? - where on a tiny island Macbeth was alleged to reside (a Scottish King who should be contacting his lawyers about the lack of historical accuracy in the Shakespeare play). And the Way itself is made up of old drovers’ roads that were pressed into service by the military, a tangible reminder of the tragedy of the Jacobite revolutions.

 

Or is it geology? Scotland has been formed from numerous collisions with continents as the tectonic plates have floated the land from the south pole to its present position and this has led to hugely complex geology. The rocks walked over are so entangled that they are referred to as supergroups as the mix of strata changes so rapidly. Faults, intrusions and the world’s first recognised caldera volcano are all to be crossed along the Way.

 

Some walkers only get this far

Or is it the whisky? The Way passes two distilleries of Highland Whisky, Glengoyne in the south and Ben Nevis Distillery at Fort William. And in the hostelries there are extensive collections of whisky for those with the nose and deep pockets to match.

 

Or is it because it’s relatively short? At under a hundred miles this is a walk that can be completed in any time from four to ten days depending on the ability of the walker. Also, because the Way is very established and extremely popular there are many and varied stopping points. The intrepid can wild camp, or stay at campsites. For the rest there are youth hostels, bed and breakfast places and even fine hotels. Finally several companies compete to offer a luggage transfer service, taking the strain off the back of many walkers.

 

There’s no reason to even walk it all. Loch Lomond is a popular beauty spot, as is Glencoe and many people just walk the section that most appeals to them. There are others who will carry on beyond Fort William, following paths that lead to wild, lonely places, some all the way to the north western edge of Scotland, Cape Wrath.

 

So why have we come to the West Highland Way? 

 

For the answer we have to look back to our previous walk. Successfully completing the Pennine Way for the second time we knew it was going to be the beginning of returning to long distance walking and as the autumn months passed by we both began to discuss where we would walk next. Our younger selves had tried to walk Offa’s Dyke. The meteorological record tells that June 1980 was the wettest June since records began. And boy did we get wet. We gave up on the third morning during a thundering downpour that I have never seen the like of, before or since. Despite this we had been encouraged by meeting an elderly gentleman on the Pennine Way who had completed and enjoyed Offa’s Dyke. Therefore we pencilled it in.  

 

Then it was 2020 and everyone’s life was turned upside down and it was not until the beginning of 2022 that our thoughts returned to the walk. In between we had practically completed our book about the Pennine Way (which you can read about here) and I had written a last piece to suggest that we may follow up with a further walk. 

 

Instead of introducing Offa’s Dyke, I remembered that forty years earlier I had really wanted to go back to Scotland but that Chris was less enamoured with this plan. I shot my piece over to Chris and he wrote a reply, which can be summarised as, 

‘If you want to do it, then count me in’. 

Which was how we left it until one Thursday in February when we were walking across a muddy field in the strong midday sun and Chris said, 

'Well how about it, why don’t we do the West Highland Way?' 

and suddenly I realised that the piece that I had written (as a classic bit of misdirection, really) could actually be a plan.

I mean, why not? Apart from the weather and the midges of course…