Kinlochleven to Fort William

12 May 2012 - Kinlochleven to Fort William

Distance - 14.9 miles

Weather - Cool, mostly dry but a few showers

We stayed at - Distillery Guest House, North Road, Fort William, PH33 6LR   Cost £92.00

Looking back to Kinlochleven

The first mile of this section was a nasty bit of uphill, going up 250m over the space of 750m. The views made up for it though. The tops of the hills still had snow, which made them look even more mountainous than they would normally at this time of the year.

We finally met the motorbikes we'd been threatened with for the past few days. There were loads of them! Every minute or two we had to step off the track to let another pair of bikes past. For the uphill section at the start, you had to use your ears to get any warning of when they would arrive, as the way flattened out at the top, you could see them coming for miles.

You could also see the walkers for miles - loads of them.

View down Loch Leven

The only other part of the WHW where you can see three or four

View along the glen

miles of track ahead is Rannoch Moor, but you don't see many folk on that because they've all stayed at different places and reach the moor at different times. Conversely, almost everyone stays at Kinlochleven, and leaves within a couple hours of each other, so consequently you can see them all marching, ant-like, along the floor of the glen that forms the majority of today's walk.

Logging near WHW

At about the halfway mark of the day, is, on the map, some two miles

First view of Ben Nevis

of forest track. Sadly the forest has been logged and seems abandoned. There has been no replanting, and the few trees left, give the impression they escaped because they were not worth the bother to cut down. Although one advantage of the missing forest is that we see Ben Nevis earlier than we would have previously and are able to take some, normally unavailable, photos.

Snow capped Ben Nevis & friend

The whole of the glen walk is a series of ups and down, nothing strenuous and pleasant scenery. Then we get to Nevis Forest, which, after a mile, takes us down to sea level. It used to be a really steep, knee wrangling descent, but is now a proper forest track, winding down more gently.

The last mile of the WHW is a bit of a let down. It's flat, along a road. It's only saving grace is that you have Ben Nevis as a companion - it's snow capped top saying, 'come again another day' (i.e. when it's sunny and there is less snow-capping going on).

Photo call at end of WHW

So - hooray! - we get to the 'old official end' of the West Highland
Way and have our photos taken by a nice Australian couple we've bumped into a few times along the Way. This is at a sign put up outside the Visitor's Centre on the outskirts of Fort William. I don't think it ever was the real 'official' end, just that the shop said it was.

Now there is an official, official end somewhere at the other end of the town outside a different commercial establishment. We didn't bother to find out, as a) we had no "passport" to get stamped, b) our guest house was nearby and c) the rain was coming on.