17: Devils Staircase to Kinlochleven

The view looking east from the top of the Devil’s staircase is a vast panorama of mountains and valley.  I did say that from this point is might be possible to gather a better picture of the caldera and maybe, if you have a working knowledge of geology, it is possible to pick out the tell-tale features of a collapsed volcanic ring. However I can only take my hat off to the Victorian pioneers who came to this conclusion, when it would have been a lot easier to explain the whole process at some other site that hadn’t experienced further volcanic activity and then had glaciers crashing through the entire landscape, thereby obscuring the original structures.  

Although this is the point where the original fracture occurred that caused the volcano, this is no longer the centre of the caldera, we are in fact on the northern edge. Looking east, the glacier crashed through the walls, flattening the caldera.  It rises up above the Glencoe mountain resort and then heads to Stob Dubh to the south, which can’t be seen because it is beyond the mountains that form the south eastern ridge of the Lairig Gartain. From Stob Dubh the fault heads north west along the ridge of Bidean nam Bian until the glacier crashed through it once more to the west, between Aonach Dubh and Aonach Eagach. Aaonah Eagach is part of the ridge that joins Stobh Mhic Martuin to the right of where we are standing.

I've drawn a map on Google maps that marks each of these places and shows the rough line of the fault here .  

The lonely path

Turning to Kinlochleven the path contoured slowly down. To the east between the hill tops could be glimpsed the massive Blackwater reservoir. Seeing the route it's hard to believe that workers from this site made the trip to the Kingshouse Inn for a drink as it would be about a nine mile walk either way with the climb thrown in.  

The far distant Blackwater reservoir

The Blackwater reservoir was made by hand, the last major project of its kind to be built without machinery and the men and women that worked in this brutal spot were the misfits and loners of their time. Quite a number lost their lives here and in the Navvies' graveyard, a small forlorn hillock in front of the face of the reservoir, only four of the twenty-two gravestones are named. Take a moment to reflect on the tragic lives of those poor people who lost everything, including their identity, here in the bleak highlands of Scotland. 

There was, at last, no rumble of transport, only the soft rustling of the wind on the heather. The drover's road takes a more direct route to Kinlochleven than the road and the railway is far out of sight beyond the eastern end of the reservoir. Only fellow walkers dot the path and even they are spaced out along the route. For a couple of miles it is a gentle stroll in this most remote of places.  

The Mamore hills

Ahead of us are the mountains of the Mamore forest. The sides are bare of trees but the imposing walls are a tantalising sight and reminder that we are near to Ben Nevis and the end of the West Highland Way.  

Turning west, we zig-zag down until we meet a track coming from the reservoir. We follow the track down into the valley where it meets an extraordinary layout of huge pipes that have occasional gushing leaks of highly pressured spray.  Six parallel tubes of steel, each 39 inches in diameter leading to the hydroelectric plant in the town. When it was built, the purpose was to power an aluminium smelting plant, which continued for nearly ninety years. That has since closed and it now exports its electricity into the national grid.  

Kinlochleven is an odd town. It has long lost the smelting works that was once the major employer. It also used to have more passing traffic before the bridge at Ballachulish opened. So it sits, forgotten, at the end of Loch Leven. It is on a revival though. There's a museum to its smelting past and the old factory has new businesses in it. This used to house the Ice Factory - an ice climbing wall but this has recently closed (hopefully not forever). There is also a brewery and the beer that we've been drinking in the better pubs along the route so far had been brewed at the Loch Leven brewery.   

We arrived about two thirty in the afternoon and had a pint and some snacks in one of the pubs before heading to our b&b on the western edge of town.  Our accommodation for this evening boasted that it had mountain views from every window. Deep in the steep sided Glen it would be much more difficult not to have a mountain view, in this town.  

We had very comfortable triple room with ensuite and the first thing I did was remove my boots and cast them a long way downwind.  For dinner, the owner recommended the Highland Getaway Inn and we headed there to book - which turned out to be a difficult task but finally they found a table for us on the last sitting.  While we waited we headed upstairs to the Balcony Bar to watch the sunset and phone home.   

Sunset in Kinlochleven

Soon they called us to the table and told us that some things were going off the menu as we were the very last to sit down. We are grateful for the food but the place was more interested in getting us to leave as quickly as possible so they could set the room up for breakfast.  

It was all very odd.