The West Highland Way - The Whole Story

[Music] i've done the west island way many times before but i've always had a limited amount of days to complete so this time i want to do things differently i'm going to absorb and take time out to enjoy the journey more than ever before [Music] i'll be while camping and carrying all my supplies with me to complete the trail in 10 days a distance of 96 miles with the guidebook from cicerone press i'm going to learn more about the way than ever before starting just north of glasgow in the town of molgai and heading to the shores of loch lomond then onto the highlands and the vast expanse of rana moore to my final destination fort william the outdoor capital of the uk this is going to be my west highland way journey now i know i've done this walk so many times but there's just something so appealing about it and i'm so excited just to get going i really like the way the west island way starts and that's basically through a country park murdoch country park and it just lets you get used to it you know just let you kind of get used to the back and get used to the sense that you're on really an incredible journey yeah you got a few joggers and cyclists and dog walkers and little children running around but you know there's plenty time to experience the wilderness that the west highland way has to offer [Music] yesterday when i arrived in glasgow it was really really raining and of course it's gonna rain it's the west coast of scotland but when you start a walk you just want to start in the dry it's pretty pretty human nature isn't it but i'm so pleased so pleased to be out here my plan today is really just to do a few miles just to just to get out of my guy find a little spot i know exactly where i'm gonna put my tent i've been there before i'm gonna get my tent up i'm gonna relax and in homage of my friend rob small i'm gonna have a tomato soup [Music] i just can't believe this weather unbelievably beautiful in fact i've always said that doing the west island way in november is always a good time you don't get midges you don't get hundreds and hundreds of tourists pretty much the weather's quite stable it's not too hot it's not too cold but what a fantastic way to start my journey with carl befloch behind me and mulgai is about three miles behind me close your eyes [Music] this is the beauty of carrying a guidebook with you on the west ireland you don't need it for the navigation it's well trail marks as we can see but it's the ability to know what things are you know just to be able to absorb some of the some of the culture and the history and this rock this memorial is to celebrate the cragalian fires which were a campaign from workers in glasgow who used to come out to the loch regallion lock and and socialize and talk and sing and dance and all kinds of merriment and it was a celebration for the great outdoors but i wouldn't have known that if it wasn't in the guidebook i think it's just really important that you can actually go and and take some of it in and just to get sort of a bit more familiarized with the things around you well the weather has turned it's a little bit misty a little bit drizzly but it is november but still nonetheless it is still perfect walking weather and actually it's not raining a little bit damp but it's not raining so i'm extremely extremely pleased to be heading north with mulgai about five or six miles behind me and about another 10 miles till i reach my campsite hopefully just before sunset looking forward to each and every step it is awesome to be on the trail again as the way headed north out of molgai i approached dumb coin an ancient volcanic plug situated at the edge of the kamsey fells significant landmark on my journey one thing i do like about the west island way is that it actually starts off quite easy really very few ups and downs and some people say that's a little bit mundane a little bit boring but i really like it and the reason why i like it is because it allows you to get your you know to find your footing so just get used to carrying the pack and just kind of relax into it now this section here is particularly flat and the reason why it's particularly flat and straight is because it's a dis use railway line so by default it's going to be flat and straight and i really like it actually and i know that in the not too distant future is a distillery but i fear at this time it's going to be closed but nonetheless if you did fancy a wii dram there is the dumbwine distillery ahead indeed the distillery was closed and as a rain headed my way my sights were set towards the 10 mile marker and the hamlet of gutness this is uh gartness gartness bridge and every time i come to gartness it seems to rain and today is no exception the weather has really changed since starting and it is what it is but gartnest bridge now what i find funny about gartnest bridge and only funny to me is it was opened three days after i was born on the 4th of august 1971 so i was born on the 1st of august so three days later this lovely bridge opened and no doubt on that fine august day it was probably raining as it is today but then of course this is gartness i remember this section very well from my previous ventures on the west highland way and the reason why i remember it well because this was a very very busy quarry quite sure what they were mining but i remember seeing a devastated landscape full of those massive dumper trucks and diggers a complete blot on the landscape on a positive note they have restored it and it's fascinating to see trees growing and wildlife returning to once was a devastated landscape i wish i could get the drone out and uh and get some some panorama shots but as you can see and appreciates raining so the drone will have to stay in its dry bag now this is quite a significant junction on the west highland way and the reason for that is because the road behind me if you can see is actually the route on the rob royway now rob roy was an infamous rebellious scot who gave the english hell and there's a fantastic walk that is definitely on my bucket list but for me it's north along the west highland way and i'm really tempted to camp early i'm not inspired by this heavy drizzle so we'll just see how we go but still the beautiful smell of the scots pine as i headed into the garbathan forest my sights were set on my first campsite on the approach of conic hill oh this is annoying the route is closed the route over conic hill is closed due to tree disease we have enough in the world at the moment without dealing with tree disease on top of everything else and i was really looking forward to showing you conic hill it's a beautiful part of the route um and also now that was my camping spot there was a little spot i was going to use just uh just on the approach to conic so that one is now gone so i'll have to be creative because this route now onto the road doesn't have a lot of wild camping spots because of this hardcore they used to make the path so let's see um let's see what this is going to bring problematic eh after finding a spot to camp in the dark my morning woke on a beautiful day just south of loch lomond oh my god what a wet night so wet i couldn't film putting the tents up which i wanted to do i did find a spot albeit in the dark and um it's not ideal it was hard ground very very very wet the diversion over conic hill really messed up my schedule today the plan is a shorter day today a lot of road marching today because of the diversion of iconic but my plan is just to get north of road dennen and i'm sure there'll be many explanations of that on the way but nonetheless let's de-pitch and make the most of this dry weather and if i look above me the sky is blue i'm not sure how long that will last but nonetheless let's get cracking [Applause] i'll take the high road and you'll take the low roads i love walking on an a road this is the alternate route the official alternate route but as you can hear it's by a road and in fact actually in spring you might find that conic hill is also closed because of lambing that takes place on conic hill so so for about two miles you're on an a road it's not too busy and there is a pavement but nonetheless it doesn't replace what would have been conic hill balmer has always been a significant point on the route it's quite popular with tourists in the summer cafes and whatnot but for me it marked the start of the beautiful section along the shores of loch lomond well this is balmahal this is allowing for filming taking about two hours which is exceptionally quick considering the route of a comic kill would have taken probably with filming about four hours so um welcome to balmer hearts very quiet here on a tuesday morning and this is tom weir one of scotland's favorite mountain men broadcaster poet and great lover of the outdoors and i'm sure he would have done the west highland way or certainly parts of it in his time and uh probably he would have done it in about three days knowing tom a man of the hills eh oh to be inspired but for me um not that far actually probably about another six miles um and it's not even lunch mind you the track crown lachlan and is a little bit more challenging so a little bit slower and lots of opportunities to film if the weather holds up hey tom should we get cracking all right let's get cracking it was great to be on the west highland way again it had been about five years since i last trod these paths and with weather like this it made it all the better make the most of it i love the section on loch lomonds when i first read the guidebook many many years ago when i first attempted it it always warned that the the loch lomond side is particularly arduous well it is a little bit but you're in woodland the sound of the leaves the sound of the water the sound of the lock it's very very tranquil it's very rewarding so i would say it's actually one of the best sections of the west highland way yeah it can be a little bit difficult underfoot there are some inclines it's a bit rocky there are some tree roots you need to watch out for but i would say take your time make the most of it and enjoy being out in nature and then you will get the full reward of loch lomond now i know it may look a bit daft had to take my cruisers off and just walk in my three-quarter fleece shorts it's so warm you know november used to be really cold but not anymore is it i mean look at the foliage around me i mean we're mid-november and it looks like sort of the end of september how i remember as a kid anyway but um the walking is lovely there's not a soul to be had the occasional car but that's it it's just the way i like it just the way i like it you could come here in um in the height of season but um you then get the midges and the tourists and i don't know sometimes what's worse political you know sometimes you got a point on your map and you think right come hello hi water i'm gonna i'm gonna get to that point and yet you know what the west highland way isn't about mile markers it's about experience and enjoying the moment and it's such a beautiful evening in contrast to yesterday i just thought you know what i'm gonna come here i'm gonna chill out i'm gonna have a tomato soup i'm gonna dry my tent i might get the drone out as the sun sets and just enjoy the experience okay tomorrow i've got to do a little bit more it's an adventure i think i better put my trousers on now i'm getting cold it's been a good day's walking um i do love home and something something almost spiritual about it and uh tomorrow i might have to do a little bit longer day because i was a little bit uh easy with today so i might have to clock in a few extra miles but um at least everything in the tent is dry it doesn't matter if the outside get wet that's what tents are for it was a good place to end the day tomorrow would bring an early start but i'll be heading towards two of my favorite places road denim and investment that was a glorious night's camping it is so peaceful on this bright wednesday morning on day three and of course i'm still by loch lomond this is a long section and um like i said i was camping last night now between the months of march and september you can't wildcamp how i just did you have to pre-register and that's partly to do with a problem they had in the past of just people treating loch lomond as some kind of dumping ground for their cheap tents they would leave behind and beer cans and rubbish terrible mess so anyway so now they're restricting it and you have to register online it's not a big deal but if you are going to come in the spring and summer months you do need to check out the rules by loch lomond but nonetheless you know respectful camping is so important absolutely leave no trace is the golden ticket but for me heading off to rodent and if the weather stays like this i am a lucky chappie that is for sure welcome to aurora denon this is quite a significant place on the route and several reasons for that firstly it's the home of ben lomond which is the highest mountain thus far north in the british isles it's also a point for the west highland way in which the road that we've kind of been following in many ways ends there is no vehicle access north of here except at inverse nade and even that is a dead end so there's not really much access from then on in also making use of my guidebook a little few facts and figures about loch lomond behind me loch lomond is the largest body of fresh water in the british isles not in the uk that's privy to northern ireland i believe but in the island of great britain which is where we are that is the largest body of fresh water and i'm going to be following it for about another one or two days i'll see how we get on the plan is now to head just north of inverse nade i have a feeling i'm not quite going to make that but nonetheless i shall give it a good go and we'll see how we get on so um enough jubi let's get walking as you leave road in and behind you you do feel that you've entered a new chapter no more roads for at least a couple of days and certainly less people so this is a welcome sign remember the camping restriction that i spoke about that applies loch lomond side from march to september well at this point north just north of roden the restrictions no longer apply and i guess primarily it was brought into force because back there you could drive a vehicle you could put up a large tent you could have a barbecue people will bring crates of beer and just leave their rubbish but generally walkers are much more respectful of their natural environment and so north of here respectful camping is always allowed so good for those of you that may be doing this in spring and summer you can camp north of here [Music] now there's a very famous song in scotland called i'll take the high road and you'll take the lord now i'm not going to attempt to sing it but never has that been such a relevant phrase or line for this particular section down there on the low road is a very very beautiful scenic trail and up there on the high road is pretty much this mundane hardcore track however i was told just yesterday that on this section there's been a lot of trees that have fallen down and there's been quite a few landslides in the past month so i've been advised especially as i'm by myself to take the high road so it's a bit of a conic hill story i'm afraid this low road is definitely much more scenic but i'm gonna take the high road anyway and the high road is quicker as well so but definitely if you are here another time try and check out the low road and this also accesses the bothy one of two bothers on the west highland way and the pronunciation slips my brain anyway it's one of two and it is on this low road section so um if you need that bother you have to take the low road even if you do get hit by a tree the bother's name that eluded me was roikosh now i've never stayed there personally but if the weather was bad it certainly could be a good refuge to aim for you know the cliche stuck between a rock and a hard place well i'm stuck between a rock and a rucksack and the reason for that is i'm making use of this rock to its full potential this last couple of miles it's been quite hard not necessarily physically hard more mentally hard there are benefits to do the west highland way by yourself the solitude the peace the ability to make decisions purely on your own needs but the downside of that is when you are finding it a little bit mentally or physically challenged you've got no one to give you that sort of morale boost and it is down to your own resilience to complete and there's always that temptation in me to think oh that's a beautiful camp spot there's a nice stream nice view let's put the tent up get a tomato soup it's way too early in the day for that way too early it's about two o'clock that would be sinful sinful to put that little weed tent up so anyway have a little break and get cracking that is the plan that is the plan [Music] this is where the low road joins the high road three miles of high road actually i must be honest the high road isn't as as boring as it i remember it to be i remember it to be a lot wider almost like a road for private vehicles but i would still nonetheless recommend taking the low road it is a lot more scenic but it is quite challenging there are some ladders to climb um it's quite steep in sections there's lots of routes so if you were pushed for time or weather was bad take the high road and it isn't as mundane as i thought but nonetheless three miles in it's beginning to rain beginning to get a little bit dark it's only two o'clock i'm losing my light a little bit so we'll have to see how far we'll get at least another two miles i reckon though and onward northwood up loch lomond [Music] okay west highland way status report i am about half a mile from inverse night no i could go past it but then it'd be too dark to film when i get there certainly too dark to get the drone out which would've been coming back in the morning and i ain't gonna do that i do love you but i ain't doing that so i'm gonna camp just shy of my goal it's not too bad it's not the best spot in the world views of like longmen are great some industrial digging going on over there sounds like a woodpecker i hope that's going to stop soon that's actually i stopped since i've done this recording if you hear some woodpecker can you hear that it isn't a woodpecker anyway enough of the woodpecker story plan is sort the ground out check there's no bracken or bits of wood tent tomato soup that's the plan and guess what i'm going to stick to it let's get the old tent up before the heavens open up that'd be a good idea and then tomorrow one of my favorite places in scotland inverse nade looking forward impersonate is a curious place besides on foot or by boat it's only accessible by road from the small village of aberfoill situated in the heart of the trossocs and even then inversonate is a dead end in summer it's bustling with tourists who just get out for a photo opportunity then jump back in their car and drive away but when i arrived there wasn't a single person in sight just the way i love it i'm a happy boy i'm a happy boy because i'm at imbersnade in the snaid has always held a special place in my heart i first came here when i was 18 with my granddad who was born in edinburgh and i went on a big coach trip the grand tour of scotland full of old age pensioners my granddad wanted to show me his homeland and inverse nade was one of those stops and ever since then it's almost been like a pilgrimage come into this place there are grander waterfalls to be had there are certainly grander waterfalls to be had in scotland but in the snade has a special place in my heart for the west island way this is a a unique spot it's about 35 miles in it's about just over a third of the way and it's a really is a magical place so i'm going to chill out here there's a hotel behind me but i'm not going in there for breakfast but i'm just going to spend a few minutes soaking in the atmosphere and reflecting on past loved ones and adventures to be had there really wasn't a soul in sight i must confess i felt the hotel and man-made surrounds had seen better times but for me inversely still has the magic [Music] this is going to be a little bit of an interesting squeeze as you will see between a tree between a tree and a rock okay [Music] will i go yes ah i guess it would be rude not to show you between the tree and the rock it's these little things that make this walk so much fun this is uh this is probably the gnarliest of sections um especially when you carry enough pack because of course it throws your sense of gravity off and sort of you get sort of interesting little bits like this let me uh let me kind of turn the camera around so you get sections like this which is you know nothing but when you got your pack on your back and when you're by yourself you need to be a little bit cautious so i shall try and film it whilst holding my dji osmo action it is an action cam after all and so i'm being slightly over cautious with my speed a because of this pack b because i'm filming c because i'm by myself although i do have a little distressed beacony on me and d because i don't like breaking bones so anyway that's going okay the most important thing is take your time a take your time and i did ironically i find extremely bizarre see a guy leaving the inverse nade on his mountain bike now i've met some serious mountain bikers in my career as an adventure filmmaker but bloody hell uh doing this on a mountain actually i don't think you could unless you're one of those elite elite red bull guys that could literally mountain bike down el capitan this is extreme if you were to do this on a mountain bike and i made it to the bottom so um yeah it's a little it's not difficult by any stretch of the imagination but you know when you've got a pack on it does shift your center of gravity significantly and uh when you're by yourself you know if you do injure yourself there's no one to no one to call for help eh but i made it down safely i do love this section though i find it very peaceful anyway onward and upward lock lumens has 23 islands and many with a historical connection none more so than illinois val with his castle built by the mcfarland chiefs in the 16th century so i've just been reading up whilst enjoying the beautiful views of loch lomond and just over there actually hidden amongst the rocks is rob roy mcgregor's cave who was rob roy well luckily there's a little bit of information in my guidebook basically the best way to describe rob roy mcgregor was he was a real scottish robin hood of course robin hood was a fictional character rob roy mcgregor basically was considered an outlaw in a period of known as a jacobite era with a lot of confliction as there always is in politics between england and scotland and he was just basically an outlaw who pretty much gave the authorities hell good on him and uh apparently he hid behind a rock there not quite sure how we know this i have checked it out in the past and to be honest it isn't it's called a cave but really it's just a little outcrop it is about a 200 meter detour and i'll let you into a secret it's not really worth it it's not okay anyway but still nonetheless this is definitely a rob roy mcgregor country and i think he'll inspire me to watch the film again with liam neeson when i get home good old rob roya get back to my wii book see what other delights are heading oh there's something to talk about the bothy but that is another few kilometers away so i'll tell you about that when i get there [Applause] i have stayed here once before i did the way about three years ago and it almost rained the whole entire way everything and i mean everything was soaked and this was such a welcome respite now bothers they are managed by a charity called the mba of which i'm a member they are not hostels they are not hotels they are not party venues or anything like that they are refuges for people like me and like you to get a little bit of respite you can spend one night leave it as you find it leave it clean leave a token of your hospitality perhaps some matches or a mars bar or something for the next visitor and enjoy them i'm going to try and show you around it might be a bit dark but um let's give it a go hey let's have a look dunbothy so it's a little bit dark and there's an echo but when there's a storm or you've just had enough and you want to get out and have that respite an incredible place and there's about it's about 150 dotted around the uk don't quote me on that but uh mostly in scotland and um they're just incredible places there isn't anything quite like them in any other country because they're not you know they're not managed as as guest houses or anything like that they really are a unique feature of the british but mostly scottish landscape and they tended to be sort of farmers refugees perhaps they were even sort of you know those that worked the land would just use them as kind of temporary shelters perhaps even put their animals in some of them were extremely luxurious and some of them are extremely basic and this is probably about mid-range i mean this things that being left for people to use tables and chairs sleeping areas i'm not going to use it tonight i'm gonna head on hopefully to a campsite ben glass campsite not sure if it's open if not i will wildcamp and be happy happy boy anyway but anyway doom bothy so please enjoy your stay and please look after this unique treasure of our heritage the weather was good and boy did i need a wash so there was only one thing for it ah oh that's good ah ah whoosh [Applause] wash some of the bits that need that need washing eh oh i'm not gonna film washing all those parts that need washing but that was fun oh [Music] that's enough of that watch the bits that you're not going to see being washed that was refreshing and i can hear sirens on the coast on the a82 running the other side of loch lomond it's either someone's called the police there's a nutter in the water in november but that was really good and fun i enjoyed that i really did need a little wash ah now gonna get dry that's okay i'll dry quickly air dry air dry [Applause] ah what a difference a couple of hours can make incredible weather most of the day and now it started raining in fact it hasn't started raining it started this very fine drizzle that you don't realize how wet you're actually getting until you realize how soaked you are so i quickly put the tent up and just started inside it's a bit too early again i think it's about 3 30 i was hoping to get to being glass campsite and it's closed and i don't know why it's so closed how early in the season it's november it's not like it's january um their website says it's open which makes it all the more frustrating um but it is what it is i just have to make up the miles because you know what the west highland way doesn't respect your schedule you know you've just got to take each mile or each kilometer as you find it and make the most enjoy it because if you're on a schedule unless you're prepared to walk through the night with a head torch you can forget your schedules so just embrace it and enjoy it oh joy of the simple things in life a nice wooden shelter this rain is really annoying actually it's not heavy rain it's more this persistent drizzle that just gets everything soaked everything so filming is becoming a real challenge at the moment um my nikon z5 will not like me filming in this intensity of rain persistent lane and certainly my little drone my dji um mini 2 um won't like that either so filming is going to be quite sparse today so apologies apologies for that but um this is bean glass campsite i've stayed here a few times before it certainly has grown when i first came here it was just you know a field and a portaloo and now it's this whole industry it's just a shame that it's closed this time of year i mean november isn't exactly sort of yes end of the season but it's still for me very much the season and i'm sure for many other walkers as well so i don't know why they can't remain open but anyway it is what it is but i'm certainly making use of this little wooden shelter i might have a something to eat and then head out into the drizzle i will try my best to get a few shots of the campsite but it's not easy today so you just have to use a little bit of your imagination but just be sure when the sun is out it does look beautiful trust me i'm uh hearing a massive torrent of water and that means that i must be approaching the falls of falloff now with this amount of rain it is certainly going to be in spate so it's going to be very dramatic no doubt let's get a little bit closer and uh the temptation to go for a swim it's not going to happen today oh my god i wish i could have got the drone out ah this is too much rain let's check this out check this out i want to get my drone out i want to get my drone out uh [Music] you can't you can't do um can't do this justice on an action cam i want to get my drone they'll die within seconds oh well i'm trying my best folks i'm trying my best we shall see tomorrow will always be a better day and what a great man who said that people from the uk will know who i'm talking about tomorrow would always be a better day so captain i'm tom up the bridge is literally is gone and i remember this diversion last time and it was a pain in the butt i thought by now they would have fixed the bridge and um probably if it had been dry for a week you could probably cross the river a little bit foolish by yourself but not today i was really hoping that uh they would have fixed the bridge by now because i know it's a long slog up a hill just to get round there's nothing i can do about it so frustrating so frustrating and it's still fogging up ah not a fun day on the west island way never mind foggy buggy someone once called scotland it's not bogilandia it's beautiful landia but he was dutch so i forgive him ah but there's a bit of a breeze coming up which is really good and i haven't got my radio mic plugged in so i hope you can hear this anyway up and through the box we go when they stop we will not know i just got massive lens fog on both of my dji osmo action cameras and i can't clear it you cannot clear it it needs a warm room this is not good as you can see you can't see my face now some of you will say well this is a great bonus but um this is really annoying because um i don't really want to get my dslr or my slr out um i don't really want to get that wet um it can take a bit of rain but these things are supposed to be waterproof obviously now all i've got is a blurry face no matter what i do it's inside yeah look if i frame it slightly to the side you can see me sorry about that i'll have to see what i can do because this is not um not my intention i have to work out why it's doing this um anyway i'm back on track the bridge has been found the diversion has been done so now uh now back down to where we should be so that's all good annoyed about this fogging though [Music] as i approached the halfway point of crayon larry my frustration with my action cameras were growing there was a solution to fix this however but it wasn't one that i would take lightly [Music] a bit of a turn up for the box i'm having to record this on my iphone and um both of my dji osmo action vlogging cameras uh are not happy um they're completely fogged up which means i'm just really down to um [Music] to my nikon z5 so um i'm not really set up to record on this device because uh sound will be an issue so i'm only using this as a temporary thing so the plan is is uh to head down into chronology check into our hotel for the night and try and see if i can fix the cameras because if i can't fix the cameras it's going to be really challenging to film the way that i want to film this journey because doing all the walking by shots and all the vlogging bits it's a challenge with my um with my z5 and also i don't have enough batteries to do all of that i've only got four and one and a half are used so let's see what the hotel can fix let's see what the hotel can fix and see if i can get them in the warm and the dryer i certainly don't mind drying out a little bit i wouldn't normally do this because i do like a wilderness experience but at the end of the day i came on this journey to document it if i can't document it or i'm really limited to it i gotta rethink the game so anyway so next uh next check-in will be in the hotel but my god it is wet [Laughter] anyway let's just see how we go i'm back on track yesterday when i made that entry on my iphone i really thought the game was over both of my dji action cameras had really bad lens vlog lens vlog lens fog to the point in which just couldn't film and from that point in i thought game over there's no way i'm going to be able to clear the lens in this kind of environment and so i checked into a hotel which was not in my game plan i have this policy of when i'm on a wilderness experience i try to stick to that wilderness experience but you know needs must the plan for today is a couple miles down on the west island way is the town of tundra and then bridge of orky so we'll see where the road takes us or where we get to tonight but i really thought yesterday it was game over really thought it was game over i was like i don't believe this i'm two cameras down how am i gonna yeah what's the point of continuing if i can't film it i've done this wall so many times and um in the end things worked out okay it's not raining so let's um let's get going eh i'd really come to my wit's end yesterday you know i mean if you um if you uh plan to film something you plan to film something and then um when that doesn't quite happen you then become really disappointed that you end up didn't film it so and then you get beautiful views like this that would have all been missed stunningly [Music] [Music] the ruined priory of saint phillins was a monstery built by the scottish king robert the bruce it was to say thank you for saint phillin's help at the infamous battle of bannock barn where the scots walloped the english in 1314 also next the ruins of saint finns is the curtain burial ground the cemetery was in use from the 18th century to 1922 and buried within are some of the men who gave their life in the great war of 1914 even the earthen mound at the heart of the cemetery dates back to the bronze age living history is almost found on every step of the west island way so this is funny i saw this uh lovely little stone bench by this beautiful burn so i'll have a little rest a wee rest and then inscribed on the stone bench is battle of that eye 1306. i got out my guidebook and it said there's a famous battle here with robert the bruce and mcgregor's robert the bruce is the iconic figurehead of sort of scottish history popularized in of course the film braveheart and immortalized on the ramparts of edinburgh castle with a stone statue overseeing his land i don't know enough about the bruce to to talk about it on camera factually but he certainly was an iconic king future king of scotland who gave the english hell i love figures of history that gave the english hell i may sound english but um my grandfather was from edinburgh so my ties to this land more than just for its beauty my scottish blood runs through me as well as a few single malts of whiskey but that's another story anyway so it's just funny yeah plonk your wee behind on on a stone bench and before you know it you're sitting in a moment of history and literally in the field behind me was one of the most bloodiest battles in scottish history a strange place to camp just a ps to that last piece to camera it was the clan mcdougall not mcgregor so i don't want mcgregor's leaving comments saying it wasn't me it was the macdougals the clan with dougal this is helps when you have a director with a script who's checking your facts a client that googles your cheeky buggers just around the corner is another historical site the lochen of the lost sword now according to legend robert the bruce king of scotland discarded his sword into the small lochen and is still hidden today now that's a treasure worth finding as you continue north you find yourself in a strange clearing a place where the land has been left poisoned through years of lead or extraction in the 18th century the lead was mined in the hills around tindrum and was taken here to be processed and its legacy is that even today nothing but nothing grows where the factory once stood tindrum is a small village with two unique features it boasts two separate railway stations and one of the largest gold mines in europe but way more importantly than that it boasts the real food cafe a great place to eat locally sourced produce and they do awesome coffee and homemade cakes it's also a place you can pick up some supplies and get hold of some scooby snacks [Music] for a glorious day compared to yesterday and this is one of my favorite favorite sections of the west highland way a because the landscapes are vast and as you head north they just open up into bigger and bigger vistas and also psychologically it's a place where you can actually regain your mileage because loch lomond's side you'll be lucky to achieve it it's very psychologically wearing whereas here six miles eight miles is completely a different ball game it's completely manageable so you can really regain some of that lost distance that you lose by loch lomond and ironically it's also this point that you have the rail link between fort william and the south and it's probably on this real network that i'll be coming back to glasgow to get myself back to london ironically that journey will only take three hours and yet it would have taken me best part of over a week to achieve the same kind of distance but then at the end of the day that's a train and i have little legs yesterday i quoted an icon of our country so captain tom and i said using his quote tomorrow will always be a better day and when i think of yesterday marching around in bog and heavy drizzle and blah blah blah and cameras not working and stuff like that and i look at today and i look at the sunset on the horizon as i approach glencoe i think you know what so captain you're right mate because it's always about outlook isn't it doesn't have to be a better day but it's what you perceive it to be but today has certainly been a better day this section has always been an uplifting experience for me although you still have a long way to go the way suddenly feels achievable now i'm about an hour away from the bridge of orky um not sure if it will be light when i get there so we'll see how the filming goes but um there's a little hotel there there's a train station there and just past the hotel is a bit of land that you can wild camp on so that's what i'm aiming for if i get there and it's light i'll film it if i get then it's dark i can't film it and i'll film it tomorrow so that's the plan [Music] but what a awesome awesome day absolutely incredible and also as my concluding statement the furthest i've traveled by the time i would have reached my campsite i would have done a guesstimate between 13 and 15 miles so over 20 kilometers this is not bad just goes to show you how you really can pick up your speed when on this section versus the arbitrary slog although it be beautiful a long glock moment so that's something to consider with your own planning when playing this adventure of your own the bridge of orky was built like many historical sites along the way to pacify and manage the scots by the british army in the 18th century but for me it was a beautiful place to camp and i looked forward to really good night's rest i must confess i was really excited to reach the bridge of orky last night albeit in the dark and then my heart sunk because basically this little bit of land we were allowed to wild camp had been overtaken by car campers basically people driving in their car and just camping and you know a full-size family tent with three guys in it and i thought hello this is going to be no sleep tonight and i was lucky that i was able to put my little tin right by the river which is a big river lots of river noise but still at 4 30 in the morning three grown drunk men were playing hide and seek at 4 30 in the morning and the rubbish they've left behind this is why there are the restrictions around loch lomond in the summer it's not because of hikers people like yourself and i that enjoy the outdoors it's people treating the great outdoors as some kind of drunken playground where they can party all night make fires and just leave their rubbish so um yeah i'm a bit was a bit peeved off it's a fantastic day yesterday and um to arrive to that was like oh god so you know i've said my piece i won't go on you get my point and i'm sure you agree respect nature and respect others and you can't go much wrong anyway let's go hiking [Music] beautiful in varroa and down the path took a right and then we go over the military road pass barbridge and towards king's house see how we go today not getting too dizzy walking around this can just enjoying a 360 view of my homeland my kindred homeland would love a coffee i love this section i remember doing it once in winter walking into the night with hard snow underfoot and only lit by a clear sky and a full moon it's these memories that make this walk so special and that's why i've returned so many times this is a nice wee spot just by we burn at inver raw ran in not to be confused with invareran which is the head of loch lomond um with the bean glass campsite is this is a strange little hamlet this i always found it quite interesting there's there's not a lot here there's a hotel and that's pretty much it but it it's a really picturesque little little village it's a a junction point because another couple of miles of one mile we actually start the military road and into the most wildest wildest part of the trek so i'm really looking forward to that approaching the end of the 18th century the military roads built by general wade to suppress the uprisings in the highlands were falling into disrepair so one of britain's greatest civil engineers thomas telford was commissioned to address a situation known as the parliamentary roads act however this road in 1933 was replaced by the modern road the a82 nonetheless for the west highland way this is one of the most significant sections and i actually remember once camping at this old ruins site you kind of reminisce about the people that perhaps once lived here and the lifestyle that they had on the land i'd guess probably about 200 years ago give or take different times then challenging times who's to say happier times we'll never know but nonetheless this is a nice spot and if the day was not so early i would definitely be putting my tent up there is a calling with the word tent in my head and the answer is no this has arguably got to be one of the most remotest sections on the west highland way i'm just north of bar bridge and probably there isn't anything or anyone probably in about three hours in that direction and about three hours in that direction on foot so this is really it's a bit of a cliche bit for overuse but it's in the middle of nowhere not quite that but you get the point it is definitely the most remotest and inspirational parts of the journey and i was quite lucky because it absolutely peed down and i was able to get my tent up really really quickly and then it stopped raining so i thought i'll come out and do a short piece to camera i'm gonna have my dinner um shortly which i'm really looking forward to and actually um i just wanted to mention about dinners because i haven't spoken about food and i just want to give a little mention to these guys they didn't give me anything free it's just a natural sort of honest feeling about this kind of food so this is um from a company called tent meals and it's basically a one woman startup their range is completely vegetarian which suits me because i'm a veggie this one is moroccan a moroccan main meal 800 calories um it's got things like couscous nuts cashews these kind of things full of yumminess the only downside to be honest is that you know you have to cook it in something which will inevitably mean cooking in your cooking pot which will mean you have to go and wash it up in a stream um you know so there is that downside but then just an option because definitely food is a big part of the west island way i'm not sure how many calories you would burn it probably be in the region i reckon i reckon give or take 15 to 20 000 calories to do this journey so it's a good way to lose a few a few pounds on the old belly and then you know you end up camping in a place like this this environment is stunning all 330 square kilometers of it although finding a camping spot can be tricky lots of coarse grasses and stumpy heather relic more has been protected as a site of special scientific interest due to its ecology but it didn't always look like this six thousand years ago the whole area in fact the whole of scotland apart from a few rocky outcrops would have been forested [Music] and over the millennia scotland has lost much of our native forests what a glorious morning what a glorious night's sleep i do love this part of glencoe to the head of me i have the bukol etif more and i have ranik moore spreading out around me and i'm heading towards the hamlet of glencoe and just in the distance i can see the king's house public inn which will be no doubt closed but i'm not going in anyway and then ahead looming in the clouds is the infamous devil's staircase it's not that bad and just as i speak a rainbow has appeared i'm wondering if you can catch this on the action cam if not i'll try and get it on the on the other camera rainbow in the land of rainbows and whiskey couldn't be a better place this is what the west highland way is about eh this is these are the rewards for the muddy puddles and the locked gates and the tricky routes of loch lomond shaw this is what it's about views like this bucalettif more a massive granite looming just inspirational this is why i love scotland i remember i came here for the first time i mentioned it before with my grandad when i was 18. and it was the first time that i'd been here and i couldn't believe that mountains of this nature were in my country the uk or being in scotland i couldn't believe it and i've been drawn drawn to them ever since ever since this is like 100 times i've been to scotland and i've said this before my accent is english but my heart is scottish my grandfather was from edinburgh [Music] i can't believe what a beautiful country i am proud to be part of but that's what the west highland way brings you it brings you to places on foot that you whizz by in a car and you don't have a chance to breathe and taste and smell and the reward is also much greater when you've done it on foot when you know that every little step has brought you to a place like this and actually i think this should be the end of the west island way but it's not that lies two days ahead into the town of fort william [Music] but nonetheless if the weather holds i'm one happy bunny just look at this [Applause] welcome to the devil's staircase [Music] there's no devils but it certainly is a climb and it certainly helps to have walking poles and uh this is definitely the highest ascent on the entire journey surpassing conic hill which we unfortunately couldn't go over due to closure but it certainly is the highest descent so looking forward to catching the views when i get to the top the devil's staircase is a 550 meter ascent and although it's not difficult certainly in winter you're definitely entering a mountain environment the staircase was given its ominous name by the men who built it back in the road building program initiated by general wade to suppress those uprisings in the highlands indeed in the early 1900s the staircase lived up to its name claiming the lives of the men involved in the construction of the blackwater dam in kinloch levin the men would often use it as a shortcut in those dark winter nights as a way to get back from the pub at king's house nonetheless on a fine day like today the views from the top definitely warrant the climb i just survived the devil and his staircase and then i forgot there's another ascent up to the saddle it's not over so do not think that when you get on top of the staircase you are home and dry you are not that's not too bad i'm playing it up for the camera it's called false jeopardy certain tv channels that we shall name anonymous that i have worked for love it when we would set something up just so it looked hard when actually 100 meters off of camera there was a bridge or uh or an easy way around but no our presenter would have to go the hard way pretending it was ten times harder because it looked good on camera on the west island way there is no fall jeopardy it's either easy or hard this is somewhere in between should we go and do it come on the camera doesn't want to move come on you have to go camera you're fixed to my arm come on okay we'll go that's all good let's get going let's get going let's go none of this none of this silliness it's not a holiday this is a serious mountain trek come on certainly the way down off the staircase into the town of kinoklaven seems to take forever like me if your intentions are to wildcamp then you're better off finding a spot before you reach the town otherwise you may struggle to find places to discreetly put your tent i made it just about one mile short of kin loch leven which i will do tomorrow bright and early again i quite like that bright and early i can't believe i'm saying that anyway found a nice little spot by a wee bird and a river not sure the name of the river could be quinlan river anyway i'm gonna put the scent up i feel a little bit of drizzle in the air and i met some walkers on the way and they told me tomorrow's gonna be a very wet day so let's get the tent up nice and quick and then tomato soup that's the plan same as always for the last seven days eight days time has disappeared into the into the under i have no idea i think it's about seven days time had certainly disappeared but then that's the beauty of being alone on the way you only have your thoughts sights and sounds of the world around you to occupy your mind the last major push until my end goal for william some 16 17 miles away so my aim is to go through the town a little bit of climbing then head out in the hills find a place to camp and then tomorrow just do the last little push into fort william the weather well the weather is what the weather is it's a little bit drizzly it was predicted to be quite heavy rain but i'm more than happy with this if this is the worst that it gets to and looking forward to completing my last few stages so um i think i better get right i think i better get going let's go kinloch leven is the penultimate destination along the way and of course if needed it has most facilities that you can imagine from a large village kinnocleaven was established in the early 1900s as the site of the black water dam dam's purpose was to generate hydro electricity for the massive aluminium smelting site the plus side of all this hydro electricity was kind of cleveland became the first community in the world to be fully connected to the electrical grid but for me leaving all this behind my sights were set upon the high alaric pass the um ascent out of kinloch leaven onto the larry pass is probably if memory serves thus far the last big climb it's through woodland as you can see it's quite nice but it does have this effect of will it ever end simply because you can't see your end goal but i know that on a normal sunny day the rewards at the top are worth it so let's just see um how much further it is they certainly have improved the track since last i was here at least 10 years ago so just seems to be a little bit easier than i remember not so bouldery but anyway it's still in the scent nonetheless let's keep on going again like much of the west highland way malaric pass owns its legacy to the military roads with its main purpose to connect glencoe to fort william pass does feel remote and takes you up to an altitude of over 350 meters it's also peppered with the remains of the past none more so than the ruins of larrick moore the weather certainly has come in it's uh obviously quite wet windy and actually quite cold the coldest day i've had so far actually and um still heading towards fort william probably about another 5k three or four miles to go before i strike camp somewhere and uh these ruined settlements along the way and this is the first and there's a second one about a mile down the track remind us that people used to hark out a living um in these parts and and how tough life might have been mind you this was the main communal road between keynote leave and and fort williams so it probably was a quite a bustling community but not anymore they're left to the elements of the sounds of time i'm not quite sure at this moment why they were left i'm sure it's in my guidebook i'll have a little look later it's a bit wet to get my guidebook out but i'm sure it was either the clearances that drove people or just a change of lifestyle i'm not quite sure but i'm sure i'll uh i'll read up on it later but nonetheless it's uh still a beautiful environment to be in it's a shame i can't get the drone out and show you more of the vistas but nonetheless you certainly get an appreciation of what today is bringing and i'm still loving it even in this weather [Music] ah we've finally come down off of the high pass and this kind of the weather's giving a little bit of respite for the next i don't know five minutes so i thought i'll quickly get the vlogging camera out and update you i'm 10 miles out of fort william at this point and i'm looking for a suitable campsite in which to pitch um and i'm hoping please i'm hoping that when in times comes to put that tent up it's not raining and then i can at least put the tent up in the drive i don't care when i'm in it but anyway we shall see but uh heaven's beginning to rain again i can feel drizzle on my bald head my early detection system having no hair and um we'll see how we go anyway let's uh let's plan for dryness that's all i can say [Music] five miles or so short of my ends goal in fort william and for me although this sounds like a closing statement because it will because of course it isn't still another five miles to go there's something special about doing the west highland way just being able to be in contact with nature journeying forward journeying north is something that is very very rewarding to me and it's something that i will keep on coming back to returning to my ancestral home in scotland and just being out in the great outdoors is such an invigorating and uplifting experience i guess when i reach for william it'll be mixed emotions glad that it's finished but sad that my time on its path has come to an end this isn't a closing statement that will be tomorrow in fort william but until i reach that goal this feels good this feels like a good place to be [Music] an early start on the last day of my journey along the west highland way to fort william and i just wanted to highlight an important junction point really i guess because at this point here there is the ability to access a public road so if you were having problems or you really had run out of time you could possibly arrange a taxi or something at this junction point for me my route will continue along the official west highland way route through some foresty areas through some ups and downs and hopefully hopefully if the weather allows the glimpse of the majestic ben nevis the highest point in the uk the highest point in scotland at one thousand three hundred and forty four meters or four hundred and four four hundred four thousand four hundred and six feet asked too early for mass in the morning so anyway nearly at the end nearly at the end hopefully the weather's going to hold out and it's going to be a majestic way to end a fantastic 10 days on the west highland way as fort william slowly ebbed forward i really enjoyed the extra time that this trip had allowed obviously we all have commitments and time is always a valuable commodity but by having the 10 days and using my guidebook this journey had allowed me to really immerse myself something that i can only but recommend as i walked along the track i noticed this little upright stone with some rocks surrounding it many people just walk by and just perhaps not understand its consequence but um i have a feeling of course i could be wrong that it could be the remains of someone's ashes a lot of people find a lot of natural spirituality in the highlands perhaps because they were scottish or perhaps because they felt like me this is their home and i know when my grandfather passed away who was from edinburgh i too left a small monument in the hills of the trossocs on a peak called ben anne so i have a feeling that um this is a little uh a little monument to a love soul and the good thing about it is it blends in with the natural landscape and hopefully no one will touch it and it will remain here for all eternity so just something i just noticed as i walked by and i know for myself without sounding too morbid i would also like to be remembered like this somewhere in the scottish highlands and i joke to people on the top of ben nevis so people can come and visit me in the middle of winter a good place to be [Music] it is a real shame i just caught a glimpse of ben nevis and she has snow just on the top and the clouds have come in just over there is ben nevis ah i wish there was no rain and no cloud we'd got some stunning drone stuff and some beautiful shots i can't show you what he looks like i wish i could i thought william isn't that far now nearly home and dry well not literally but anyway not so far and it is feeling cold it's definitely feeling cold which explains the dusting of snow on the top it was apparent that the problems i've had earlier with my dji action cameras had returned but in fairness it wasn't the camera's fault i realized i was to blame by using nd filters to control my shutter speed moisture had got in oh well lessons learnt do i look foggy i can't see if i look foggy hang on [Music] no i think it's just the way i look but on the horizon the weather did look better so perhaps there was time for one last drone shot and as i look ahead i can see the approaches of fort william spreading out into the town of corpus ah finally my journey is coming to that close i have to plan the next one soon thereafter i feel get out there again on the hills but this time i might bring my old mate rob rob small hawaii cycled real ice and with just a few weeks ago but that will be another adventure let's check out this view over here let's see what we can see let's see what the horizon brings bring me that horizon mate in the distance is the ben nevis massif at 1 345 meters it's the highest point in the uk although its height doesn't compete with the alps or other great ranges it shouldn't be underestimated but for me the rewards of seeing it for the first time as your near your own journey feels like a real achievement and an appropriate destination for the west highland way it's also one reason why i've always preferred walking the route south to north it just seems right behind me that is the ben nevis massive part of an ancient volcanic plug and i wish i had the energy but i ain't going up there i've been up there many times and i'm running out of time tomorrow i need to head back to edinburgh but uh ah i'm gonna say i've made it but that final final made it is just in a high street next to a man-made plaque but for me this is the end of the west island way with the mighty bend behind me but still that little bit further for the brass bands and the ticker tape that will await me this is the west highland way just off the trail is the iron age site of dundeedale with over 2 500 years of history the site has been occupied by both the celts and the pigs now i've never been and i was hoping to go on this trip but i needed to get my train back to edinburgh so the hilford will definitely have to wait but not too long as it's something i want to do for my channel later on in this year i'm on the road again the road from glen nevis into fort william it's a wee long trek on tarmac but it's the end give or take cars people double yellow lines for parking restrictions it's all back to normality nearly there nearly there there is a vegan cafe that i love in the heart of fort william does awesome coffees and cakes and stuff like that i hope they are still open and if they are my belly is calling well here's something about the west highland way you think it's over and there's always something to see something to surprise something to question something to look up and this lump massive lump of rock is locally named the wishing stone now i don't know this for a fact but i'm guessing with my limited knowledge of geology that this is basically really what's called an erratic or a nomadic boulder and it was basically dumped here at the end of the last or one of the last ice ages because this whole glen nevis valley is a glacial valley and these massive pieces of rock were picked up by the ice by the glaciers and shifted hundreds of kilometers some of them and if i touch the boulder it is very smooth and it would appear that it has been eroded by ice so the locals back in the day were kind of a bit curious how this massive lump of rock kind of ended up quite away from any uh mountain top even to roll down and probably thought it had magical powers and therefore hence the name the wishing stone i like the magical powers version let's stick to that one this used to be the official end mile 94 the official end was moved i guess in about 10 years ago and i feel it's in a much better place it's at the end of the high street so it drives you through the heart of fort william rather than just ending at a mini roundabout so it's probably about another one and a half two miles to go through the city center through the the heart of fort william and then we've reached our official end but this is mile 94. i love the town of fort william i think it's a fitting end for an incredible walk it is of course the outdoor capital of the uk not only for ben nevis but you can also use fort william as a stepping off point for some other great long distance hikes from the great glen way the east thailand way and one of the hardest hikes in europe the infamously named cape wrath trail all of which will be new adventures and films for my youtube channel so make sure you subscribe my stream like many has had many challenges in recent years but i definitely feel it's bouncing back especially with the new cinema but now my end destination was in sight i am smiling and the reason why i'm smiling is because i've reached the end of the west highland way i can't believe it [Music] 96 miles and i'm walking the walking is over it has been an awesome awesome 10-day adventure and i hope you've enjoyed following me on this journey so if you've liked this film don't forget to give it a like give it a share and please please subscribe to my channel and let's get planning for the next big adventure wherever that may be

Channel: Kevin Augello : New Earth Films

Views: 3,882

Keywords: west highland way, WHW, milingavie, Fort William, hiking, backpacking, hillwalking, glen coe

Id: PHv3A_QUaWQ

Length: 96min 25sec (5785 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 16 2022