This 10-11km walk is a perfect introduction to the
West Highland Lines. Travelling by
ScotRail, get off at
Bridge of Orchy Station and walk south to
Tyndrum to encounter impressive railway architecture, stunning scenery and lots of opportunities for watching wildlife. You're on the West Highland Way the whole time so getting lost isn't likely to be an issue, but take a map anyway and enjoy learning the names of hills and rivers.
I recommend walking north to south so that you end in Tyndrum where there are several cafes and pubs to wait in until your
train comes. The
Real Food Cafe sounds particularly nice though I haven't yet been. If you do walk in the other direction you could try the
Bridge of Orchy Hotel which also runs a bunkhouse.
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| Bridge of Orchy, from THE Bridge of Orchy |
The
West Highland Way runs directly upslope of
Bridge of Orchy Station platform but it's worth having a stroll around the hamlet before you set off. Standing on the 1751 bridge over the River Orchy I looked down at a grey wagtail bobbing beside this typically rocky Highland river. Nearby were coal tits, great tits, a blackbird and siskins. Most exciting of all - crossbills - the orange red males and greenish mustard females.
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| watercolour sketch looking across the valley, 15x21cm |
After less than twenty minutes I stopped to make a quick watercolour
sketch looking south over the yellow and ochre valley. A gentle
stream trickling beside me provided water for my paints. Rising steeply
behind me was Beinn Dorain, 1076m high.
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| sketching spot near Bridge of Orchy |
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| Highland cow on the slopes of Beinn Dorain |
At grid ref 327 358 I found a beautiful spot where I sat on moss among birches by the river
Allt Kinglass.
A great spotted woodpecker flew into the nearby trees and right beside
me a treecreeper climbed. Goldcrests were in the branches above, five or
six or more. A dipper chittered its song from a triangle rock a little
upstream. A train came into sight, bound from west to east. I watched it
negotiate the viaducts of the Horseshoe Curve.
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| watercolour sketch from river Allt Kinglass, 15x21cm |
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| approaching the horseshoe curve, pencil, ink & watercolour on card, 25x35cm |
The Horseshoe Curve - rather than building a prohibitively expensive viaduct engineers created a half-loop that sweeps neatly round the inner slopes of three great hills-
Beinns Odhar,
a' Chaisteil, and
Dorain. Two substantial viaducts are still needed to carry the rails across the wide expanses between. I deviated slightly from the West Highland Way to stand under the more northerly of the two, where the river Allt Kinglass runs. I chatted here with a man from Cumbria who wore a bandana and a red jacket. He'd cycled in the morning from Tyndrum and left his bike here whilst he climbed the 886m of
Beinn a' Chaisteil. The OS map shows a spot marked
'Burial Ground' in italics just a couple of kilometres to the north-east.
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| the horseshoe curve & Beinn Dorain, pencil, ink & watercolour on card, 25x35cm |
Now, about 3km from Tyndrum, the path still follows the
Old Military Road, as it has done the whole way. I passed a gate with a sign with black lettering on white that read
"please close gate". There was no fence on either side, just this rusty old gate. The tinkling of little streams and burns keeps solo walkers company.
Finally, walking above a steep river gorge as I descended into Tyndrum. The smell of wood smoke was in the air as I passed tree stumps carved to form a perching owl, a fox and a squirrel, an eagle catching a fish. A sooty grey cat sat by the red door of a whitewashed slate-roofed cottage.
In Tyndrum you can take your pick of two stations -
Upper Tyndrum or
Tyndrum Lower. Less than a kilometre apart, trains from Fort William stop at Upper and trains from Oban at Lower. The coaches join together at
Crianlarich, one stop down the line.
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| below one of the horseshoe curve viaducts, Beinn a' Chaisteil above, I chatted with a man from Cumbria... |
