Day 99 Fort William and the end of the West Highland Way

Today we woke to blue skies. We had breakfast in the hostel (a diy affair of oats and a rather chemical tasting blueberry muffin) before heading uphill to start our fifteen mile day.

The path wound steeply uphill through woods for the first mile or so. We passed a few walkers (I’m obviously fitter than I think) before the path plateaued and we found ourselves walking along a rather spectacular glen. We were again following the old military road which would take us over the Lairig Mor (the big pass) then along the base of Ben Nevis to Fort William.

It was a delightful day. The sky was blue and all we could see were the hills rising above us and the occasional ruined house or sheepfold. We could also see walkers ahead of us, tiny figures in the landscape, and the path, heading to the end of the glen where it vanished from view.

We met Simon, we’d seen him having dinner in the pub yesterday-Kinlochleven is a small place – and chatted to a group of three women who were doing a section of the way and were gratifyingly impressed at my walk. (We left them behind pretty rapidly once we’d finished chatting.)

The sun was now heating things up. You’ll notice from the photos that there wasn’t a lot of shade. As we rounded the end of the glen there was, according to the OS map, forest. At first there were a few trees but it became clear pretty rapidly that this was an ex-forest. There were tree stumps all around but no shade.

We could see trees ahead of us, but the path stubbornly seemed to avoid them whilst managing to throw in a few ups and downs for good measure.

By the time we did get into the forest, it was on a wide stony path so still very little shade and hard on the feet. However we were on the home strait now and apart from fantasising about ice cream vans (there weren’t any -there was a cafe but at this stage of the walk we knew we needed to keep going) and saying goodbye to Simon who did stop for a rest, there was nothing to do but put one foot after the other.

There are two ends to the WHW. The original end which is very obvious and on the way into town, and the new end which is in town but badly signposted

We got a little lost and had to follow another walker through town to find the new end of the walk. We sat there for a while until Simon arrived, chatted for a bit then made for our hotel.

The hotel was very close by so we checked in, showered then went out to have craft beer and pizza at the Black Isle bar which overlooked the end of the WHW.