Long distance walking and camping
Hiking and wild Camping in Scotland
Walking the West Highland Way
Great Glen way holidays
Southern Upland Way trips

The West Highland Way

Our Walk of The West Highland Way, Carn Mor Dearg Arete & Ben Nevis Summit Camp

Map of West Highland Way

In August-September of 2005, we hiked the West Highland Way, a 95 mile walk from Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow to Fort William. However, we elected to do it in proper style, unsupported, carrying all of our own supplies for the 8 day hike, and camping at all available wild campsites. We topped off the journey with an ascent of Ben Nevis via the Carn Mor Dearg arete, and an overnight camp on the summit of the Ben itself! What follows is our own account of the trip.

  1. Milngavie to Drymen
  2. Drymen to Ardess
  3. Ardess to Inverarnan
  4. Inverarnan to Tyndrum
  5. Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy
  6. Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse
  7. Kingshouse to Kinlochleven
  8. Kinlochleven to Glen Nevis
  9. End of West Highland Way
  10. Carn Mor Dearg Arete & Ben Nevis Summit Camp

Wednesday 31st August:
Milngavie to Drymen (12 miles/19.5 Kilometres)


preparation preparation
Oscar surveys preparation day moodily from the comfort of a bin bag. Preparation day usually takes us well into the night. Ideal rucksack weight is one fifth of body weight which can take practise to attain, especially with 10 days' worth of food and fuel.

We left on the 9:15am train from Edinburgh Waverly station to Glasgow Queen Street. Alan had spent the entire night finishing off work and doing remaining packing, and had not slept, which is fairly typical for trips like this! Our rucksacks feel surprisingly heavy, considering our ultra lightweight gear, but within recommended limits at 16.6Kg (Jo) and 15.5Kg (Alan) including 2 litres of water each, though we are carrying 10 days' worth of food, which, as we discovered, no other campers would be doing along the West Highland Way!

start of the West Highland Way Dumgoyach Dumgoyach
A large ScotRail sign proclaims the start, but some have it that the official beginning is marked by an obelisk in Milngavie high main street, a few hundred metres on. Approaching Dumgoyach, a highlight of the first day. Dumgoyach is a large densely-forrested hillock.

We stopped at the large Scotrail "Welcome to West Highland Way" sign on doorstep of Milngavie (pronounced "Mull-guy") station, though the official start of it is actually marked by a stone obelisk in Milngavie high street. The friendly guard on the train to Milngavie, accustomed to seeing groups departing on the Way every day, asked if we were doing it in 6 days (which according to a group we met later, is very tough). We will in fact aim to do it in just over 8 days, but we will be doing the Way in proper style, aiming to be "unsupported" by carrying all of our food and fuel with us, and by camping for the whole trip, always in wild campsites where available. Camping, for good reason, is prohibited throughout the WHW, except in either commercial sites or designated "wild" campsites. We continue on through Milngavie and turn off the main street onto the start of walk which is initially beside a river with a large introduction to WHW sign. This continues onwards and up towards a country path. We almost immediately met another group who were doing WHW over 8 days - one was camping but the others were actually carrying her camping gear between them. They sprayed us with "Avon Skin So Soft", a moisturiser which also happens to have an anti midge effect, and is reportedly even used by the Army. They eventually left us behind, though, we passed again later, as is typical along the Way - repeatedly passing and being passed by the same groups over and over again. The path remains through forest and is mostly fairly beautiful. Early on a small reservoir appears and we stop to apply blister plasters in response to hot spots before any blisters actually appear! The highlight of the day is the walk is past Dumgoyach - a thickly forested rounded conical hillock set in the unusual sloping valley of the Campsie Fells. The barren, bald head of Dumgoyne rears up further on and to the right. We round Dumgoyach and head up and over to an old railway line, passing another couple, one of very few. The railway track is markedly long and laborious. The packs do feel heavy, despite being well within recommended limits, and we realise could have been much lighter with less food, and repeated stock-ups at shops along route! However, it's a valid test of walking 10 days independently and will be handy experience for more isolated expeditions. We actually go on to find that over the next four days we actually "acclimatise" to the packs and almost forget we're wearing them. Dumgoyach and Dumgoyne slowly became distant behind us. We stop frequently for water as we re-familiarise with the need to keep hydrated to beat fatigue.

v-style nallo 3 photo
The infamous "V-style" gate. The first part of the Way boasts numerous gate styles, but more than any, this style perplexed us - seemingly put there simply as a novel and interesting style of gate. A sudden and genuinely torrential rainstorm, teaches us that we do need to invest in some decent modern waterproof clothing, and sees us putting camp at the "Milk Bar", an ultra-basic camp site at Drymen, instead of the first wild campsite (which to the best of our determination had been felled!) in the forest before Conic Hill. The next morning is dry and blustery and our wet clothes are dry within 20 minutes! We can't find the campsite owners to pay them, but it's just a patch of grass anyway!

Approaching Drymen later on, Loch Lomond appears suddenly to our left with its islands. Conic Hill lies in front with our target, Garadhban Forest, in the foreground of that, 3 miles beyond Drymen. The plan was to continue to this to camp, though just before Drymen we are caught in torrential rain, at first masquerading as drizzle. We try to shelter under trees in full waterproofs then, when the storm does not break we instead head for a basic campsite just by Drymen. No owner can be found but we camp anyway and are given tea by a caravanning couple from Devon, the only other occupants of the site. We pitch our tent taught with guys to prevent inner /outer from contact, in anticipation of further rain.

photo Drymen Campsite
Awww! - how cute - quiet but tough and complete with animal cap! Our Hilleberg Nallo 3 tent gets its first expedition outing (having been on several test campouts before this). We're surprised at the poor wind tolerance of this tent, but space to weight ratio is supposedly outstanding.

During the evening repeated distant, near-silent flashes of lightening illuminate the green walls of the tent. We enjoy a superb meal of spaghetti, smoked sausage, and cheese with carrot and coriander soup followed by hot chocolate - very gratefully received! The day had also been notable for the numerous "styles" of gates along the WHW: Handles up, handles up and down, opening from one or other side, pulley-and-weight-closure, and the infamous V-Gate, something we haven't seen before, and which seems to confer no benefit apart from being a new and interesting gate style! Near to dawn, extremely heavy rain lashes the tent and wakes us up. We have a good night's sleep overall though.