the road to Loch Linnhe. Alois, exhausted by so much sunny Scotland, took the bus to Ballachulish. Alone, I cramponed back to the ridge in a breeze stiff enough to be alarming. I’d started at dawn, so nobody else was around. The morning sky was not just blue, but blue-green, with an intensity normally got by improper use of photographic filters. This was like the Alps, except that, as Alois has pointed out, the view had lochs in, and the sub-zero sun couldn’t turn the snow to midday slush. I took a long solitary pause on Mullach nan Coirean, simply being there. South across the Aonach Eagach, Bidean looked particularly splendid. But then, so did everything else.
There are various ways down Glen Nevis. The road is simply horrid, with spruce trees on the left and the dull side of Ben Nevis opposite. The forest track is slightly less horrid, no cars but even more spruce. I took the Third Way, on the wrong side of the river – and found Glen Nevis is a beautiful place. Backlit, you don’t notice the grim spruce. The river chuckles over golden stones just loudly enough to drown out the cars on the other side. Birches make twiggy lacework against the light. It’s all later in the book as Route 12.
I visited the Old Fort, but resisted the temptation to head onwards along the new Great Glen Way. It’d be a lot less Great than Ben Lui and the Buachaille Beag. After five days, I was fit for the Nevisport carbohydrate whammy – macaroni with chips – and their pictures of Alpine ridges failed to arouse the usual jealous stirrings.
Scotland’s weather is unpredictable. So often, it leaves plans stymied and unfulfilled. We’ll have to do that blizzard plod up the West Highland Way another year.
PART 1
THE HIGH ROAD AND THE LOW
Arriving at the summit Beinn a’ Chrulaiste (Route 11) with Buachaille Etive Mor behind
MILNGAVIE TO DRYMEN
The train out to Milngavie passes through groves of weedy sycamores, with an understorey of spike-topped fencing and ground cover of brambles and plastic litter. Shrieks of the electric railway combine with warnings on the loudspeakers: don’t forget your luggage, passenger safety notices are displayed within the carriage. All this makes it quite clear why one needs to get out of Glasgow, on foot, and head north among the mountains.
It also makes it clear why, however logically sensible, one doesn’t want to start from Glasgow city centre. The Kelvin and Allander walkways would make that project possible. But we don’t need 19km (12 miles) of litter-strewn urban cycleways to remind us why we want to get northwards towards Fort William. And the start at Milngavie is surprisingly satisfying (even if the Dumbarton start, in Route 17, is even more so.)
WH WAY: MILNGAVIE TO DRYMEN
| Distance | 20km (12½ miles) |
| Approximate time | 5hr |
| Not the WH Way | 1 Campsie Fells |
| 17 Dumbarton Start |
Milngavie is part of Glasgow. From the station you pass under a main road to cafés, and a chemist’s shop, and a pedestrian precinct for those who like their pedestrianism tarmacked and lined with retail outlets. But under the wrought iron arch and down the steps, branches of trees replace branches of Next and Topshop, and over the following 13km or so (8 miles) you’re going to cross just three metalled roads.
The paths through the Mugdock Country Park are helpfully signposted. Sometimes the WH Way runs with the river to its left, and sometimes up to the right of it past small outcrops of black basalt, and under birch and oak trees well draped with greybeard lichen – this showing how unpolluted the air is even so close to Glasgow.
WH Way walkers approach Dumgoyne
Halfway through the bluebells, you’d fork right for the diversion over the Campsie Fells below. On the main path you pass Carbeth Loch, a shanty-town from the inter-war years, head briefly to the left along a road then back right on the path, and enjoy the sudden view along Strath Blane.
The path dodges around wooded Dumgoyach, an abrupt volcanic plug, and joins an old railway. This runs along an old aqueduct: Loch Lomond is out of sight ahead, but its waters are heard inside the metal pipe beside you. The final miles to Drymen are along the minor road through Gartcosh: a bit to be walked over briskly.
1 Hill Option: the Campsie Fells
| Start | Milngavie |
| Finish | Drymen |
| Distance | 29km (18 miles) |
| Ascent | 850m (2900ft) |
| Approximate time | 9hr |
| Maximum altitude | 578m Earl’s Seat |
| Terrain | Grassy hill paths |
The Cuillin: peat bog and black rock, jagged ridges and swirling mist, and even your trusty compass conspires against you. The Cairngorms: huge gravel plateaux, jammed up against sky, and after six hours of boring walking you fall over an enormous crag. So what are the distinctive risks and difficulties of Scotland’s third C-named hill range? Well, in the Campsie Fells you might lie down in the squashy grass to admire the view of Loch Lomond, fall asleep, and be a little bit late for your tea…
Tea is the appropriate beverage. Tea served in an elegant cup, with a piece of buttery shortbread. For these are the couthie Campsies, the polite hills, the pleased-to-meet-you hills. In later days comes the struggle with the scree slope, the flog across the heather. Here on the edge of Glasgow is smooth suburban grass, a pretty picture of Loch Lomond, and a wee nip of whisky at the end of the day. Really, nothing could be nicer.
Including the Campsies makes for a long first day to Drymen. Instead you could take a 7km (4-mile) evening walk, and stop for the first night away from the hurly-burly of the West Highland Way at Strathblane village. Strathblane and nearby Blanefield have shops, pubs and a takeaway café. From there over the Campsies to Drymen is a moderate day of 22.5km and 750m (14 miles and 2500ft) – about 7 hours.
Couthie: snug, sociable, homely (Scots). From Milngavie walk the WH Way for 2.5km, to where Allander Water is beside the path, with a golf course opposite. As the path bends slightly right, uphill away from the stream, turn off right, more steeply uphill, on a path signed for Mugdock Castle.
The path heads uphill, then with open field on its left passes through an artistic wall snitch with poetic slogans. It continues as a timber walkway through hilltop bog. Keep ahead across two wider paths to pass immediately to left of Mugdock Castle (a ruin, open to wander in).
The path descends to cross open bog, then re-enters trees and forks to reach a crossing track. Here turn right, signed for East and South Lodge Car Parks. The wide path runs to left of Mugdock Loch (not the same as Mugdock Reservoir further south). At the next junction keep ahead for East Car Park. Reaching it, turn right along a road very briefly to the edge of Mugdock Country Park, then turn sharp left, signed for Strathblane.
Follow the minor road north into the edge of Strathblane. The road dips to pass a pond on the right. At the next junction, the road plunges steeply