Walking holidays in Scotland
Historic Glencoe & Lochaber
A well organised trip,from the meeting point on the first day to depositing us at the station on the last day!
We had excellent guide (Ron) who looked after us very well, and made all feel at home.
The accomodation was comfortable,with tasty,hearty meals tempting the most fastidious apetite! We will definitely be coming your way again!
Myra, 2007
The West Highland District of Lochaber, which includes Glen Coe and Fort William, is blessed with magnificent mountains, a deeply indented coastline, and a rich heritage. This holiday offers straight forward, easy walking to modest hiking, while still giving the opportunity to sample the best of the area’s mountain and sea views, as well as providing an insight into the area’s culture and sometimes bloody history.
Trip summary
Enclosed by its steep, notched, and twisting ridges, and surrounded by some of the Western Highland’s most rugged mountains, Glen Coe is justifiably famous for its exhilarating hiking, and mountaineering.
But the glen and the surrounding area of Lochaber have much to offer the visitor that can be seen and appreciated without the need to scale the heights. Think – 5000 year old Standing Stones, Stone Age vitrified forts, 2500 year old fortifications (Duns) and a 12c Viking stronghold - think Clan History and cattle rieving (rustling), Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Raising of the Standard for the 1745 Rebellion - think Clan MacDonald and the Massacre of Glen Coe – think Highland Clearances – and more up to date, - think cutting edge industry (1905 style!) producing the United Kingdom’s first mass produced aluminium.
Evidence of all of this is visible, set amid staggeringly beautiful scenery – deep sea lochs, soaring mountain ridges, and tumbling rivers and burns - and accessible to all those happy to expend a little energy getting there.
Tour Itinerary
Your trip includes 6 nights’ full board hotel accommodation in the Glen Coe area and 5 days’ guided walking. On each of our walking days we will be out in the fresh air for between 5 to 7 hours. We will mostly be following mountain tracks and paths, which can be rough and sometimes fairly steep and on occasions we will have to negotiate unpathed areas.
Day 1 (Sunday): Travel from Edinburgh to Glen Coe
We leave Edinburgh at 2.00 pm for the 2½-3 hour drive to Glen Coe. The final 12 miles of this trip is through Glen Coe itself and gives first time visitors an excellent introduction to the area we will be walking in this week. In the evening over dinner, we will have the opportunity to discuss more fully our plans for the week, and your guide will answer any questions you may have about our trip.
Day 2 (Monday): Glen Coe, the Hidden Valley , and more!
Today is a gentle start to the week - an introduction to Glen Coe, to some of its history, and to its varied landscapes. We will be walking up into the Hidden Valley, calling in to the National Trust for Scotland’s excellent Visitor Centre in Glen Coe, and taking an afternoon stroll around the Glen Coe Lochans.
 Many visitors passing through Glen Coe will gaze in wonder at the magnificent mountain scenery, but fail to walk into the hills – intimidated perhaps by the scale of their surroundings. But not far from the road - and a thousand miles from it, is the Hidden Valley, or Corrie Gabhail (Corrie of Capture, or Booty) as it is more properly called in Gaelic. A track and a footbridge give us access to the opposite side of the glen, where a rough path leads us up and through the narrow neck of our corrie, partially blocked by a collection of huge boulders and other debris which in the past has fallen down from the enclosing crags. Suddenly the hidden depths of the corrie come into view, and for first time visitors this is a real ‘wow!’ moment. The level floor stretches back a further ¾ kilometer, surrounded by 3000ft+ mountains. We will have time to wander, wonder and to soak up the atmosphere of this unique place. It is here that the clan MacDonald, in more uncertain times, chose to hide cattle – sometimes their own! You are now much more likely to spot deer, or perhaps an eagle. We return by the outward route.
The National Trust for Scotland Visitor Centre is extremely informative and we will spend an hour or two here before moving to the grounds of what was originally Glen Coe House and the home of Lord Strathcona, who landscaped the wooded grounds and the small lochs to remind his Native Canadian wife of home. A beautiful and untaxing stroll, in peaceful surroundings and with great views over Loch Leven.
4m/6 km, 330m/1090ft, 3-4 hrs
Day 3 (Tuesday): Devil’s Staircase
Our walk today starts at Alltnafeadh on the main Glen Coe road and takes us by a good track over the hills to Kinlochleven. In the aftermaths of the 1715 and 1745 Rebellions, General George Wade, then Major William Caulfield, was commissioned to build roads for the purpose of moving troops and supplies more easily and quickly throughout the Highlands, resulting in the ‘pacification’ of the troublesome and wayward clans. The legacy of all this work is a network of paths and tracks of great use to walkers. The ‘Devil’s Staircase’ is the zig-zag at the start of this track, constructed in 1751, and still in use as part of a long distance footpath, The West Highland Way.
Rising quite steeply at first, we are rewarded with excellent views back to Buachaille Etive Mor (Great Herdsman of Etive), surely Scotland’s most photographed mountain. From the crest of our hill it is a steady and straightforward descent towards Kinlochleven, site of the first commercial aluminium smelting operation in the United Kingdom. It was built here in the early 1900’s close to an ample supply of hydro-electricity. Though the smelter itself has gone now there remains signs of its infrastructure – the huge Blackwater Dam and the many culverts being the most obvious. In a panorama to the north is a great sweep of mountain ranges – the Mamores, the Grey Corries, and Ben Alder.
At Kinlochleven, the smelter site is now occupied by a few industrial units, one of them the home of the Atlas Brewery – one of a growing number of micro breweries in Scotland, and we will have the opportunity to sample this first class ‘Taste of Scotland’ before returning to our Glen Coe base.
6m/10km, 305m/1025ft, 5-6hrs
Day 4 (Wednesday): Isle of Lismore
 The Isle of Lismore is situated in Loch Linnhe, a long arm of the sea which reaches as far inland as Fort William. Transport to the island from Port Appin on the mainland is by a small,12 passenger ferry and is an entertaining start to the day! From the pier at the north end of this 10 mile long island we follow the coast on some rough, often pathless ground, to Port Ramsay. The island has major outcrops of limestone – unusual in Scotland – and it was from Port Ramsay that the products of the now defunct lime kilns were exported in the 1800’s. A variety of rough trackless ground and some paths lead us to the remains of the 12c Castle Coeffin, whose eerie outline, reminiscent of a blackened hollow tooth, stands on a rocky knoll at the edge of the sea cliffs. This is a good lunch spot, and very relaxing with long sea views to the mainland and to the Isle of Mull.
On the opposite side of the island, 1½ miles away, awaits another ancient fortification, this time around 2500 years old, the Broch at Tirefour. Brochs - circular, drystone, double skinned towers - are found all around Scotland’s west coast, in the islands, as well as in Ireland. This one is well enough preserved to give a real feeling of how the structure would have looked, and to give a feel for the scale of the undertaking, and the skill required to build it 2 or 3 thousand years ago. We return to the pier by a quiet country road.
9m/15km, 100m/325ft around 6½ hrs
Day 5 (Thursday): Loch Eilde Mor (Great Loch of the Hinds)
Leaving our transport at Kinlochleven, we use a short section of the West Highland Way to gain height quickly (steeply!), bringing us to a vantage point at 760ft (230 metres) overlooking Loch Leven. Beyond the loch we can see the famous Aonach Eagach (Notched Ridge) which encloses the northern side of Glen Coe. We head east on a good track past the Mamore Lodge Hotel - built originally as a private hunting lodge it provided hospitality and sport to the rich and famous of the time, including King Edward VII. The track climbs steadily through heather clad hills to Loch Eilde Mor where we can stop for lunch, a paddle in the loch, or for the hardy – a swim!
A poorer path, sometimes wet, follows the course of a culvert built in the 1920’s by German POWs to carry water from the loch to swell the Blackwater Reservoir. This leads us to a point high above the River Leven providing us with a view contained by the surrounding hills, west towards Kinlochleven, and along Loch Leven itself. A rough, steep path then takes us down to the river where a more even path weaves its way in the dappled shade of the native birches and oaks, back to our starting point.
9.5m/16km, 500m/1650ft, around 7 hrs
Day 6 (Friday): Dun Deardial, in the shadow of Ben Nevis.
Our start point today is at the deserted village of Blar a’ Chaorain (Plain, or Field, of the Rowan), situated on the line of the old Military Road connecting Fort William and Glen Coe. Our path is a good one, well maintained as part of the West Highland Way – and likely to be busier today with walkers completing their week long, 95 mile (150 km) walk from Glasgow.
We cross high pasture land before entering commercial forest, while in front of us the huge bulk of Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain at 4406'/1344 metres, grows ever larger. We climb steadily towards the ridge which encloses the south side of Glen Nevis, then branch right, off the main path, and up to a small knoll on which sits the remains of Dun Deardial, a vitrified fort. With commanding views back down the route of our approach and both up and down the length of Glen Nevis, it is easy to understand why this easily defended location was picked by our Iron Age ancestors to build their Dun, or fort. The outline of the defenses are still very visible on the ground, and it takes only a little imagination to picture how this all might have looked millennia ago. This also makes an ideal spot – if an exposed one! – to stop for lunch.
A good track angles gently down into the glen and picks up the road into Fort William, where we will have an hour or so for any last minute purchases before we return to Glen Coe.
7.5m/12km, 290m/960ft, around 6 hrs
Day 7 (Saturday) - Travel to Edinburgh
We leave Glen Coe to the weekend climbers and walkers, aiming to be on the road by 9.00am. We will be in Edinburgh by 12.00/12.30pm, and we will be happy to drop guests off at Edinburgh Airport, or in the City Centre.
Accommodation and Meals
Accommodation is on a full board basis in one of the area’s many welcoming and comfortable small family run hotels , with a mixture of rooms available from singles, doubles and twin. Vegetarians will always be catered for and other specific dietary requirements can normally be catered for if we know in advance.
Grading Description
The walking throughout this tour we class as “easy” – suitable for all recreational walkers. Walks each day are around 6 hrs (with one longer day at 7 hrs) and are taken at a gentle pace, with plenty of time to stop and admire the scenery and to enjoy the different features of the landscape. Distances each day are between 4-10 miles (6-16km), with daily ascents of between 100-500 metres (325-1090ft). You should be in good health and fit enough to enjoy the occasional weekend hillwalk or hiking trip to enjoy this grade of holiday. Terrain is generally pathed, but there will be and you should expect some rough ground. Please refer also to our Gradings page - our walking holidays always involve some exertion and you should still expect a reasonable amount of ascent and descent each day.
You can book your trip online now! If you need more information, please do contact us.
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