I have just returned from an adventurous trip across Scotland, including the West Highland Way, a 96 mile / 154 km hiking trail that leads from the north of Glasgow to Fort William in the Highlands. It took me 9 days to finish it, but I would’ve loved to do it slower. I’ll talk about this in the following posts. I extended my stay by hiking Ben Nevis after two rest days and then travelling around for another two weeks. It was my third time visiting Scotland and my most intense so far.

I did extensive planning and shopping for half a year beforehand. I am an average hiker who had’t done any long distance hiking before, mostly day hikes. Hiking, especially steep ascend or descend, does not come easy for me most of the time, but I still enjoy it very much.

The idea to do the West Highland Way was born out of curiosity. I had read a lot about this trail on blogs and it sounded fairly doable. Furthermore it allows you to experience Scottish nature fully but casually by gradually moving into more difficult terrain in the Highlands. At least so I thought 😉

I booked a few campsites in advance and did some wild camping. It was my first time camping in the wild and also my first time carrying all my gear with me in my backpack all day every day.

The whole trip has been amazing, but also challenging. I now feel that most of the travel guides and blogs lack an accurate description of the trail and rather give you a rough estimate. This is why I felt the need to write about my own experience. That is to say, I still agree that the WHW is a good choice if you want to get into long distance hiking.

I have to add that my experience is in regard to very summery conditions. I went from May 26 to June 16 and got very lucky with the weather. During the nine days of the WHW (May 26 to June 3rd) we had constant sunshine and blue skies with temperatures between 20° and 27° C by day and 14° to approx. 3° C by night and during the whole three week trip there was only one cloudy and one partly rainy day. While walking the WHW I was puzzled how people who were wild camping like me would be able to do some of the sections in typical Scottish conditions, e.g. rain, fog or even snow. The last two times I spent in Scotland I got a very good impression of how the weather changes quickly and spent hours in pouring rain soaking me through and through, so I know what Scottish weather is actually like. Kudos to those of you who have finished the WHW in such conditions. I am glad I didn’t have to though.

I have split up my hike into different sections:

• Day hikes vs. long distance hiking
• Camping and Wild Camping
• Preparation (incl. navigation)
• Gear and clothing
• Day 1: Milngavie to Drymen
• Day 2: Drymen to Rowardennan
• Day 3: Rowardennan to Inverarnan
• Day 4: (Involuntary) Rest day
• Day 5: Inverarnan to Auchtertyre/Tyndrum
• Day 6: Auchtertyre to Bridge of Orchy
• Day 7: Bridge of Orchy to Glencoe Mountain Resort/Kingshouse
• Day 8: Glencoe Mountain Resort/Kingshouse to Kinlochleven
• Day 9: Kinlochleven to Fort William
• What I would do differently if I had the choice
• Observations on the WHW marketing and actual conditions
• Food on the West Highland Way
• Travelling to the UK by public transport with Eurostar

I hope I can give you a little insight into the trail and help you with your preparations. I searched a lot of websites and forums beforehand and had to collect all the necessary information, so maybe my posts will save you a bit of time.

If you have any specific questions or would like to share your experience you can leave me a comment under this post. For now I have disabled the commentary function for most of the site though, as it takes a lot of time to check those 😉

Cheers, Christiane