The West Highland Way Part 1 Paisley to Inversnaid
- hikingaroundlife
- Jan 26, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 5, 2019
In September 2018 we walked The West Highland Way, a well known long-distance trail that runs from Milngavie near Glasgow all the way to Fort William, 96 miles further North. The original decision to undertake this adventure had been hatched around 18 months earlier in May 2017. For the last 17 years Chris's family have met up for a weekend of walking and this has now become a bit of a tradition. During the "The Family Walk" weekend and probably after a few beers Chris's Dad (Ken) told us that he had always fancied tackling The West Highland Way. Being the adventurers we are, we agreed straight away and Ken's cousin Alison needed little persuasion to join the team. This blog is the first part of our memories of the fantastic adventure which followed.
We decided early on that we would like to take 6 days to complete, some people take longer and some take much less time - there is even an ultra marathon run across the route, with the current record being set in 2017 by Rob Sinclair in a mind-blowing 13hr 41min 08sec. We wanted slightly more time to enjoy the scenery!
At this point we have to thank Ken for taking the time to plan our overnight stops and booking the accommodation along the route. We also enlisted help to transport our equipment between each stop. There are many baggage handlers available but we can wholehearted recommend Go Haggis, for a very reasonable fee they picked our equipment up each day and moved it to our next base finally giving us a ride back to the start from Fort William.
Our first base after the drive to Glasgow on Saturday 1st September was the Premier Inn at Paisley, recently refurbished we had a very comfortable nights sleep despite the nervous excitement. We all elected for an early night after dinner ready for our early morning. Day 1 began with a short drive to Milngavie railway station, the stations car park is free and without a time limit! CCTV made it the perfect place to leave our car for the week - although maybe keep this information to yourself as a sudden influx of walkers abandoning their cars here could see that change! It was in this car park that we had arranged to meet our baggage handler, he was there on time and in good humour - laughing at Chris's choice of wearing shorts and asking if he had heard of ticks? We had heard of them and the famous midges, we had come armed with tick removers and midge nets ready to deal with all manner of bugs!
After a few photos at the train station, we took the short walk to the start, picking up some lunch from Greggs on the way. Finding the official starting point Ken asked a blind man to take our photo - We assume he was at least short-sighted anyway as that can be the only excuse for the quality of the photograph he took.
At least we had a record of our start, it was time to start walking. The route leaves the main high street via a passageway and soon heads into woodland. Midway through the day, the scenery began to change and we started to see hills in the distance, we passed Drymen where many people walking the trail stop for their first night. We were both glad we had taken the decision to have our first night in Balmaha. Twenty miles was a big first day but Drymen seemed to come far too soon to stop. Just as our bellies began to rumble we found the perfect place to stop for lunch and we all perched on a fallen log. The afternoon saw us begin to climb and we eventually reached Conic Hill. The climb is steep in places although the detour to the 358m summit is short and well worth the extra footsteps. The view from here is stunning giving you the first real sight of Loch Lomond, the largest area of fresh water in the UK and which would be our companion for the following two days as we walked north along her eastern shoreline.
The summit was stunning but very windy, leading to some more rather unflattering photography. After admiring the view we started the descent into Balmaha and headed to our home for the night at The Oak Tree Inn. We checked in and were handed a map and some keys, our rooms were in a gorgeous little cottage overlooking the Loch. The bed was so comfy we both agreed we could've just climbed in and gone straight to sleep. Instead, it was time for a shower and back to the pub for dinner.
It was throwing it down as we walked back to the pub, but the dining room was incredibly cosy. Full of various antiques, we spent the first ten minutes looking around the room rather than at the menu! Alison, Ken & Chris all enjoyed a good fill of haggis and Emma had a gorgeous fish pie. This was all washed down with a couple of beers. We headed together through the rain and made the short walk back to our cottage. As we walked we discussed what the weather might have in store for us on day 2 and how grateful we were that the rain had held until the evening.
As we drifted off to sleep we felt relaxed knowing we had taken a big bite out of our challenge. Although Alison hadn't appreciated it as Chris had shouted out each mile as his Garmin ticked them off!
The next morning was absolutely stunning, the rain had gone and the clouds had cleared leaving us with the most amazing view across the loch. We walked back to the pub for our breakfast (more haggis) and some of what was apparently (according to Alison, Ken & Emma) the best porridge to be had along the way (Chris chose not to have any, this decision he will now regret forever).
At around 15 miles day 2 was a shorter distance to tackle, however, this part of the trail is fairly tricky with undulating paths and some rocky sections to scramble over. All the time accompanied by the stunning loch. The path is intersected by streams and crossing these could be tricky during wet weather, fortunately for us, the weather continued to be kind.
As we walked we talked about how well we had slept. Alison & Ken hadn't experienced the same quality of sleep, their beds had been upstairs in the cottage and they found it too warm for a decent nights sleep. It was at this point that Emma confessed to cranking up the heating in the hall before we had left for dinner!
After eating lunch at what would turn out to be my favourite picnic spot of the whole trip, we continued our walk towards Inversnaid.
Following the edge of the loch the path leads into Craigrostan Woods, the woods are a remnant of the vast ancient oak wood that once covered this area. Wild goat and pine marten both reside here although, unfortunately, we saw neither. The trail eventually arrived in Inversnaid, after taking some photos of Inversnaid Falls we made our way inside the Inversnaid Hotel for some refreshments.
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