Great Glen Way - Spean Bridge to Fort William (★★★★★)

Despite doing quite a lot of walking around the rest of Britain, I haven't done any walking on any of the Scottish Trails. But being set to head up to Scotland to spend some time with friends on Loch Linnhe, I decided to head up early, and see what the walking was like north of the border.

Of the Scottish Trails, the ones that have most tempted me have been the Great Glen Way, the John Muir Way, the Speyside Way and the Three Locks Way (as well as some of the coastal sections).

And with only limited time (and no desire to get too muddy), the section of the Great Glen Way from Gairlochy to Fort William felt like it would fit nicely into this trip.

Before doing this walk I had to get up to Fort William, and my plan was to head up along the very pretty train route that comes up from Glasgow - and this train route is quite a special one, which people come from all over the world to ride. And so (and unusually) I will devote the first section of this writeup to that train journey.

The train to Fort William

So today we pick up the tale at the point where I have already made it up to Glasgow, and am about to set off on my final train on the day - which will take a bit under four hours to reach Fort William.

Whilst this is a long journey, it is clear that we must be very heading somewhere special - for many of the travelers have opted to bring all their worldly possessions along for the ride, and the level of luggage some have is truly crazy.

But since that is neither my problem - or in all honesty any of my business - I settle down, and try to pass the time as we make our way out of Glasgow.

Having made out way out as far as Dumbarton, the city is well behind - and what appears is quite unexpected given how close we remain to the city - for the stretch of river from Dumbarton towards the Firth of Clyde is remarkably scenic, with dramatic hills lying on both sides.

Beyond Helensburgh, we turn off the main estuary, and instead start to head up along the eastern side of Gare Loch - before then following the eastern side of Loch Long (after passing through Garelochhead).

View out across Loch Long

Getting a good photo though is not easy - as trees often break up the view - but the quality of views remains good, as you peer out through the trees.

By the time we reach Garelochhead we are still only one hour into our trip out from Glasgow - with the top of Loch Long reached twenty minutes later - and it is remarkable just how fast we have gone from city into exceptional countryside.

And for those wanting to do some accessible walking from Glasgow, the Three Lochs Way runs parallel to the train along this section - whilst the John Muir Way reached it's western end at Helensburgh.

On this journey I am sat on the left of the train - and so the views so far have all been on my side - but as we move up on the western side of Loch Lomond it is the turn of those on the right hand side of the train to ooh and aah, as the scenery passes by.

But before long we pass the point where the Three Lochs Way reaches its end point (at Inveruglas Isle - and from there you can ferry hop back to Balloch) - but by now we are running close by the West Highland Way (which is heading up the eastern side of Loch Lomond).

By the time we reach the top of Loch Lomond, we and the West Highland Way are passing through the same valley - and now we are looking out towards some very steep-sided mountains.

From here the route of the railway is very wiggly - as it seeks our a route through the Grampian Mountains - and whilst this makes the going very slow, here that is a good thing - as we continue to get treated to some incredible views.

Cutting through the Grampian Mountains

To me, the landscape here is highly unusual - since you have such large mountains appearing and disappearing over a relatively short distance (with very steep sides) - and then fairly flat land between.

The West Highland Way out the window, and quite a big hill

Up next we pass across Rannoch Moor - and here I get to feel most at home, because here we are essentially seeing the same scenery I have spent a lot of the last year staring at on my way across the best bits of the Pennines - with a very wet blanket bog covering this area.

From here we head further north than Fort William, as we make our way around Ben Nevis - before looping round and eventually reaching Fort William on the far side.

And finally - after a fairly quick four hours - we have made it round to our destination.

A photo by Loch Linnhe

Towards Ben Nevis

And here we have a bit of time to potter about, before getting some rest - ahead of an early start tomorrow, on the morning train.

The Great Glen Way

By the next day, I'm up in time to head down and join the (very busy) first train back towards Glasgow (after a spot of breakfast of course) - but this time we are only briefly on the train, and get off at Spean Bridge.

From here we are not yet on the Great Glen Way - but instead we have a spot from which it is about an hours walk until we reach Gairlochy, and the Great Glen Way. 

But I have researched the route in advance, and plan to follow the roads across to Gairlochy.

This means first following the A82 out of town - but this is no problem because we have a pavement all the way through until we reach the Commando Memorial.

And here we find a beauty spot that sometimes has great views of surrounding mountains. But today is not one of those days, with heavy cloud cover obscuring all the hills - but all the same there is a coach party loyally taking many photos, before getting back on their coach (presumably to the next beauty spot with a car park).

But the memorial itself is in dedication to a group of men who definitely didn't just sit on the bus all day taking photos - and it is dedicated to the men who trained for the Commandos in this area during World War II.

With it being so busy, I'm soon past - and for now following a path that runs parallel to the road to Gairlochy.

Following the path parallel to the road

Eventually this path heads off to the left, but here I can turn to the right and join the B-road to Gairlochy - which is mostly a single track road, that is no bother to walk along. And from here we (in theory) get great views towards Ben Nevis.

The view of Ben Nevis

Continuing along here we do eventually get round to Gairlochy - where we pass a small hydro electric power station - and then we head along to meet up with the Caledonia Canal.

On the way to the canal

At the bridge over the river we have met up with the Great Glen Way - with one part of this trail crossing the bridge and then heading up towards Inverness - whilst our route turns left to follow the Caledonian Canal to Fort William. 

The Caledonian Canal itself was built in the early nineteenth century by one of the famous canal builders of this age, Thomas Telford - and whilst being a 60 mile canal in total, only 20 miles are proper canals, with the other forty being pre-existing lochs.

The purpose of the canal was to make it possible to take a boat from the sea at Oban, up Loch Linnhe, before hopping between the four lochs that lie between Fort William and Inverness, and then out into the sea on the far side.

This provided a moderately convenient route between the North West of England (or indeed the west of Scotland) and the Baltics or Scandinavian countries - and saved boats having to go the full way round the tip of Scotland.

In doing so, this took advantage of a geological fault that had created a fairly straight cut through the landscape - with only twenty nine locks needed to complete the canal, despite the hilly nature of this part of the world.

And the Great Glen Way takes advantage of the same fault to provide an easier-than-expected route across from here to Inverness.

The first of the four lochs that feature within the full length of the Caledonian Canal is Loch Lochy - and that lies a bit to the north of us, with our path today being along a man-made section of canal, that will take us down to the edge of Loch Linnhe.

Meeting up with the canal

If I'm honest, the first stretch of the canal is slightly underwhelming, given the nature of the scenery heading down from Spean Bridge (which was great) - but whilst this low key start continues at first, it is not long before we start seeing our first proper hills beside the canal.

Looking across the river on the slighly underwhelming stretch

But it's not long before we are looking across the canal towards proper hills

Today the weather is not perfect for either views or photographs (with the higher ground obscured by low lying cloud) - but on the far side of the canal we have Beinn Bhan and Druim Fada hidden in those mists - whilst on our side of the canal (and also ahead on our route) sits the mountain range around Ben Nevis.

But all the same, as we continue on down the canal, we are now heading through a series of great views - and we have soon made our way past Beinn Bhan, and made our way past a kink in the canal near Errocht.

Just past the kink in the canal

From here we start getting views of Meall Bhanbhaidh - a smaller hill (at 327 meters) to the south east of Druim Fada - and with this being small enough to sit beneath the cloud line, it becomes the focal point for the next section of our route along this canal.

Looking towards Meall Bhanbhaidh

Further along the canal

And now just beneath Meall Bhanbhaidh

In many ways this is identical to your usual canal walk - the towpath is excellent (and very suitable for cycling or walking), and there aren't too many people about - but you also happen to have some incredible hills surrounding you.

And having got further down (and with the cloud starting to lift a bit), we can also start to get our first hints of Ben Nevis, but with the best views coming as we look towards the hills that sit just beyond the top of Loch Linnhe (at the end of the canal).

Hills beyond the end of the canal come into view

And get clearer as we continue along

By this point on the walk we would get some great views out towards Ben Nevis if it were a clear day (past the gaps in the trees), but we have to make the best of what we can get as we start to close in on Neptune's Staircase.

View towards Ben Nevis (although we can only see Carn Dearg - and not the mound behind)

Arriving at Neptune's Staircase - with Stob Coire a' Chearcaill behind

Working out which hill is which isn't the easiest today - as you cannot quite work out which hills are the ones visible, and which are the ones hidden - but I think I have got them all correct, and these hills are particularly good as we drop down past Neptune's Staircase.

Here we find eight of the twenty nine locks that feature on the Caledonian Canal - and the locks are in use today, with many tourists out and about filming the boats being moved up from the loch below.

The locks here are a 'staircase lock' - and this means that the middle six lock gates act as both lower and upper gates for the pools on either side - where a more typical lock flight would have two lock gates per lock, and a pool between.

These staircase locks are fairly rare - and here we have the longest such flight in Britain (although with longer 'flights' of locks being found elsewhere).

As part of this staircase the lock gates involved are pretty impressive, and each weight 22 tons - with a team of lock keepers moving the boats through this staircase, supported by the the boat owners.

The key factor behind the decision to use this type of lock, was the ambition to limit any loss of water from the Highland regions - whilst also being able to accommodate some very large boats moving from one ocean to another.

But it isn't too long before we reach the base of the staircase, where we cross over a busy road - before reaching the final stretch of the canal, as it heads down to flow into the loch.

The final stretch of canal

Ahead of reaching the loch, the Great Glen Way turns off (before the canal comes to an end) - but here it is important to keep going, because the views from the end of the canal are quite wonderful - with the view back towards Ben Nevis across the loch being particularly good.

Looking towards Ben Nevis (but again only seeing Meall an t-Suidhe)

Looking out across the loch (from a bench at the end of the canal)

Here I have a bit of a rest, before turning back to return to the route of the Great Glen Way - where we start following a path along the very edge of the loch. And here we get some lovely views down along the length of Loch Linnhe - which is a sea loch that runs from here down to the Firth of Lorn, just beyond Oban.

This gives the area has a very Norwegian feel (or maybe Norway has a Scottish feel), but the homes behind us are very typically Scottish, in their simple style (I will leave you to judge if this is a good or bad thing when/if you visit).

Looking down Loch Linnhe

And heading towards Ben Nevis, but again only really seeing Meall an t-Suidhe

Eventually our trip along the edge of the loch comes to an end - and instead we cut up to follow a road round to the train bridge across the river - but the road has a nice wide pavement, and a separated section of path as we make our way round.

And then having made it to the bridge, we drop down onto it, cross over the river - and take in the views across to Ben Nevis and down the river along the way.

Bridge over the river

View down the river

Just after crossing the river, a steam train heads out on it's way to Mallaig (it will pas over the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct along the way - and presumable reach Hogwarts at some point).

Steam train heading off to Mallaig (driven by space aliens apparently)

The run along the river

But moving away from the railway, this stretch heading round past Inverlochy to Fort William is a very pretty one - albeit with a bit of a litter problem (that isn't helped by a lack of bins, which hinder anyone picking up some bits, as they do their bit to tidy it up).

Now looking across the loch

But this section provides an excellent end of the day - although at this point I wish I had also come down here on the previous evening when the skies were clear, as I would have then got some wonderful views out towards Ben Nevis (I will remember to do this if I stay over again on a clear day).

The final stretch of the path is spent following a cycle path that gets increasingly urban, and then runs past the back of Fort William Premier Inn (handy for those staying there), and then on to finish just by the train station, Morrison's, and a very busy McDonalds.

Here we are passing very close by the original site of the fort that eventually gave this town it's name - and this was a fort built in the middle of the seventeenth century - and named after William of Orange, who built it as part of his attempts to gain control over the Scottish clans (one hundred years before the time of the Jacobite Rising, or the time depicted in the Outlander TV series).

Illustration of Fort William in late eighteenth century, Source: National Galleries

Originally the fort was the main event on this site, but over time a settlement built up around the fort - originally called Maryburgh, then Gordonsburgh, then Duncasnburgh - before finally taking the name Fort William.

The fort itself was decommissioned in 1864, and these days what is left is a pretty core of the town, some houses surrounding the town - and a selection of shops that are much more focused on the visiting hiker or tourist than upon the local inhabitant. 

But it is a very convenient stopping point for walking - and I'll probably be back and using it again at some point. But for now our trip along the Great Glen Way is over, and we now stand on the furthest end of the Great Glen Way.

Total Distance: 14.3 miles (10.6 miles on the Great Glen Way)

Total Ascent: 482 feet (197 feet on the Great Glen Way)

Enjoyment Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 41 OS Landranger map - while there is also a Great Glen Way guidebook which includes OS mapping (links redirect to Amazon). The route is easy to follow and  fairly well way-marked