West Highland Way

A few days back I’d never even heard of this trail, but now it’s at the top of my Bucket List. I can’t stop thinking about this trail that runs through the magical Scottish Highlands. And guess what? This might be my first ever solo trip.

Yes, this might be my first solo trip. I’ve never travelled on my own before, but honestly, this idea doesn’t sound that crazy. Ok, I would be on my own for more than a week, walking like 150km, but I would meet people as well. I’m not sure my parents would like the idea of me going on my own, but as far as I’ve read, this trail is really safe – of course you have to be careful, but I’m aware of that.

But that was my story, now let’s give you some more information of the West Highland Way.

What is the West Highland Way?

The West Highland Way is a hiking trail right through the Highlands of Scotland. The trail goes from Milngavie (a village just outside of Glasgow) to Fort William around a 154km (96 miles) further. While hiking the trail you will walk past Loch Lomond and you even come past the foot of the highest mountain of the United Kingdom: Ben Nevis.

The trail opened in 1980 and since then thousands of people hike this trail on a yearly basis.

The trail is quite challenging, but all across the internet people say literally everyone can walk it. There are young people, people with children and even some elderly people who manage to do it. The reason for this wide variety in age, is probably the luggage transfer service, but I’ll come to that later. And above all, you can make it as challenging as you want. You could walk it in 8 days or even less, but it’s also possible to take a few extra days or just walk half of it. It’s all up to you.

Route of the West Highland Way

Like I already told you, the route is 154km (96 miles) from Milngavie (just above Glasgow) to Fort William. Because of some copyright issues I can’t give you the official map, but I can give you the trail if you’re going to walk it in 8 days:

Day 1: if you come from Glasgow, you can take the train to Milngavie. Here the trail starts and on your first day you walk the first 19km (12 miles) to Drymen. Interesting fact: this is the only part of the West Highland Way that is part of the National Scottish Trail.

Day 2: from Drymen to Rowardennan, 22.5km (14 miles).

Day 3: from Rowardennan to Inverarnan, 22.5 km (14 miles).

Day 4: from Iverarnan to Tyndrum, 19.5km (12 miles).

Day 5: from Tyndrum to Inveroran, 14.5km (9 miles).

Day 6: from Inveroran to Kingshouse, 16km (10 miles).

Day 7: from Kingshouse to Kinlochleven, 14.5km (9 miles).

Day 8: from Kinlochleven to Fort William, 24km (16 miles).

Along the way there are plenty of hostels and campsites to stay the night. If you plan on going by hostel, they recommend on booking beforehand, because especially during the summer, there are thousands of people walking this trail.

Please don’t let my expression of ‘thousands of people’ scare you of. Yes, a lot of people walk this trail during the summer, but that doesn’t mean it’s overcrowded. As far as I’ve read it is also likely you’ll walk all by yourself for hours.

How much will it cost me?

This is really up to you.

If you have a low budget, they recommend camping. Staying at a campsite will cost you around the 5-10 pounds per night, but sometimes even more than that or less. Booking ahead is maybe also an option here. But keep in mind that if you want to camp, there are some additional expenses, which you don’t have while staying in a hostel.

In the sections what will follow I’ll give you some price indications, but please keep in mind that it are only indications. I did my research on this, but that doesn’t mean I’m right. It could be that you safe more money or even have to spend more than I’d told you. So in case you want to blame that on me, I’m just saying “please don’t” 😉

What will it cost me when I go camping?

If you’ve never camped before, you can have some additional costs. For example you need to buy cooking utilities (+/- 30 euros), a tent (+/- 40 euros), a sleeping bag (+/- 30 euros) and maybe there are even more things you might need. So when you still need to buy those for your trip, it’ll cost you another 100 euros (110 dollars). But once you have those things, you can really safe some money on your trip.

Campsites will cost you between the 5 and 10 pounds in Scotland. 10 pounds are considered to be the most expensive. So when you walk the trail in 8 days, you need to sleep 7 days on campsites. When we do the math and we take 7.5 pounds a night (just between 5 and 10), we can conclude that staying at campsites will cost you 52.5 pounds (+/- 60 euros, +/- 67 dollars).

But even if you want to safe those pounds, you can also camp in the wild. It’s permitted on the trail on several spots, so if you want to go for it, I would definitely cheer you on.

And of course one also needs to eat. You can buy food along the way, but it’s also possible for you to cook your own meals. Having dinner every night in a restaurant will probably cost you around the 15-20 pounds a day, while if you make it yourself, it will cost a lot less.

So let’s keep in mind that even while camping you can make it as expensive as you want. If you are an experienced backpacker, you can make this trip absolutely low-budget and if not, it’s still less than staying at hostels.

What will it cost me when I stay in hostels?

I’ve looked at this option a few days back and I came to the conclusion that hostels are quite expensive. When you really want a room all for yourself, it will probably cost you between the 50 and 80 pounds a day, so if we take 65 pounds for a night, it’ll cost you around the 455 pounds for the whole trip. For some this might still be an option, but for others, like me, who are on low-budget and camping is not their first interest, it’s quite expensive.

So I looked a bit further and I stumbled across some hostels where they have shared bedrooms and these prices here vary between the 20 and 30 pounds a day, which will be a total of 175. Honestly, this sounds way better.

Of course here you need meals at well. When you stay at hostels, it’s not that easy to cook your own dinner, so count another 15 pounds a day for food and you will have a total of 105 (if you are lucky).

So here it’s also completely up to you. You can stay in the more luxurious hostels for let’s say a total of 600 pounds (you need to keep in mind you also need food for on the way and maybe you have some additional costs I didn’t think of) or you can have a total of 300 pounds.

And what if I use the luggage transfer service?

Honestly, this service sounds really great. It means that you can walk the trail without your large backpack, but at the end of the day you still have all the things you need, for example your tent.

I’ve looked at multiple services and they all offer this for 45 pounds per bag for the whole trail. Personally I don’t think that’s really expensive, especially because it’ll safe you a lot of trouble.

Do keep in mind that this service runs only between March and October, so if you decide to hike the trail during the winter, you have no other option but to carry all of your stuff by yourself.

Down at the bottom of the page I’ve put some links with information to luggage transfer services.

What to expect

Yeah, what to expect… I think there’s a lot to expect.

First you need to keep in mind that you’ll get really exhausted and that it will be both mentally and physically a challenge.

Mentally I mean that you will get tired from walking and this will have the effect that you might think at one point that you don’t want anymore. You might even think this is the worst idea you’ve ever had, you might literally hate your companions (if you have some) and maybe you even want to quit. But it’s really important that you continue, because in the end, it’ll all be worth it.

Your physical pain will mainly come from blisters, sour legs, a painful back and so on. It’s important to take your rest and look at it day by day. I’m sure you can make it. 🙂

I might sound utterly dramatic, but honestly, I have no idea what to expect. I’ve read a lot of experiences and some say the trail is ok, while others really had difficulty to reach the end. It just differs from person to person, so I can’t really tell you what to expect.

Also just some practical information, yesterday I read somewhere that at a certain point there aren’t any supermarkets for like two days. Now this might not be a problem, but you have to keep in mind you always have enough food with you. Unfortunately I can’t find that post anymore, but when I look at the map and the route, I think it’s around Loch Lomond.

Some additional ideas

When I looked at the route, I saw that for example, you hike right past the highest mountain of the United Kingdom. So if I would be the one walking this trail, I would definitely go to the top of Ben Nevis. OK, Ben Nevis is at the end of the trail, but I think I would feel really bad if I just saw Ben Nevis and didn’t even go up.

If you’re not in a hurry and you fully want to experience Loch Lomond, you can also take a two hour cruise on the lake. It isn’t even that long, so you can maybe incorporate the cruise in your hike. Besides, it isn’t even that expensive: only 20 pounds per adult.

My own experience

I wished I could fill this space in with the awesome story of my own hike, but unfortunately, as I’ve told you, I haven’t hiked the trail yet. But it’s definitely on my Bucket List, so I hope I can put the link to that story here one day!

Links

Official website of the West Highland Way, where you can also find the official map of the trail: https://www.westhighlandway.org/

Website of the luggage transfer service AMS: https://amsscotland.co.uk/

Website of the luggage transfer service Travel-Lite: http://travel-lite-uk.com

Website of Sweeney’s Cruise on Loch Lomond: https://www.sweeneyscruiseco.com/loch-lomond/

If you’re interested in Ben Nevis: https://bennevis.co.uk/

Credits

Featured image is by Mimihitam – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28891420