Walking from Glasgow to Inverness

Fort William to Inverness: The Great Glen: 7-13 Sep 2014

Any map of Scotland, that part of the UK north of Hadrian’s wall, shows a southern undulating part up to a line joining Glasgow on the Clyde and Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth. The Forth River rises not too far from Loch Lomond and the combination marks the Highland line, beyond which the clan chiefs ruled their tribes until the nineteenth century, when the clearances began and southerners bought up huge tracts (50%+) as private estates. The highlands are cleft by a deep glaciated valley running northwest from Fort William, facing the Atlantic, in a straight line to Inverness on the North Sea. The Great Glen has been a communication channel for centuries, and is the line of Caledonian Canal that can take trawlers between the two seas safely and avoid the hazards of the long way round the north of Scotland.

The walk is classed as ’moderate’, which seemed to mean walking along the canal side on a hard road bed for miles or along forestry roads for the remainder. Boring! Things looked up on the third day, however, with a pleasant stroll along a disused railway embankment and a few side bits along the canal. But the fourth day, from Fort Augustus to Invermoriston gave us a choice of the high route, which climbs up above the tree line to moors

and mountains at about 1500 ft. This new track was exhilarating to walk and our newly acquired fitness meant we could walk up to the tops without stopping. We felt we could walk forever. The track wasn’t quite finished, but a long day was wonderful and we felt good when we reached Invermoriston. . The next day to Drumnadrochit also offered a high road – not quite as exhilerating, but a vast improvement on forest roads. The next two days split a long section and have also been enjoyable along the tops, though the land drops steadily from above Drum. The last section, into the suburbs of Inverness was along a forest path into the city centre, past the International Highland Games.

We learned that Scottish history has been fairly continuous strife since the Romans decided to build a wall to keep the out the Picts rather than try and conquer them. The Romans withdrew from Britain in the 5^th century, about the time the Scots, an Irish tribe, invaded Scotland accompanied by their missionary, Columba. Nevertheless, the 7^th century saw the golden age of Pictish culture, until the Norse came chasing land and resources in the 8^th century, forcing the unification of the Picts and the Scots under Kenneth McAlpine. Then, depending on the source, Scottish history became the Campbells against everyone else or the Macdonalds under the Lord of the Isles, against everyone else. While the Highlands became a single kingdom, it took another 500 years to break the power of the Norsemen, just in time for the Scots to defeat the English at Bannockburn in 1314. That led to an English recognition of an independent Scotland, until James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603. The Jacobite rebellions against the English in 1689, 1715 and 1745 led to brutal repression and forcible destruction of the clan structures. As described earlier, the final blow was the Clearances. The industrial revolutin was kind to lowland Scotland, but the depression hit Glasgow hard and 400,000 Scots emigrated between the wars.

We were sorry to finish our travels into wonderful country and a ferocious (and personal) history, meeting many wonderful people. We’ll be back!!

Walking from Glasgow to Inverness

Inveroran to Fort William and Millaig: 2-6 Sep 2014

From Inveroran, we climbed up to Rannoch Moor on a Buachaille Etive Mor (The Great Shepherd of Etive). One of my ancestors was postmaster at Bonawe on Loch Etive. The town was created to smelt iron with charcoal from the birch forests now gone and on eof its projects was to cast cannon balls for the Napoleonic wars. My ancestor had to run across the hills to Oban twice a week for the mail but gave it up when the penny post was introduced. He said it was too complicated for him. We have a painting on our wall at home of Loch Etive and Buachaille Etive Mor. It is by my great uncle, Duncan McGregor Whyte, who travelled to Canada and Australia to paint before returning to live at Oban. His work is in collections in Edinburgh University, Oban and in Western Australia.

drover’s road and then across it to Glencoe and the Kingshouse Inn. Loch Rannoch and Loch Tummel lie further to the east. Rannoch Moor, they were pleased to tell us, is so large that it could hold the whole of the Lake District. The Moor is a flattish amphitheatre sloping gently to the east, that used to underlie an ice cap 12,000 years ago, feeding glaciers down the valleys to the sea. Opposite Kingshouse is

From Kingshouse, one of those inns larger on the inside than out, walkers head off down the glen before climbing the Devil’s Staircase, a military road over the passes to Loch Leven. A long time after General Wade, in 1906, the British government decided they could create an artificial lake and channel the water down penstocks and header pipes to a power plant on Loch Leven to make aluminium, the new wonder metal – of which Eros in Piccadilly Circus is made. The new model town to house the workers was going to be called Aluminiumville before everyone came to their senses and called it Kinlochleven. Aluminium is now made much more cheaply elsewhere although the water still powers the generators. The main road now bypasses the town which is looking very sad. A very helpful B&B owner helped scan some documents we needed to sell a rental flat in New Zealand. We still had to find a solicitor willing to guarantee we were who we said we were.

From Kinlochleven, the track climbs up and over a pass where the victorious MacDonalds harried the Mcintoshes in the 14^th century. Once over the pass, a very rough drover’s road that was hard on ankles, wound down the high valley to an abandoned farm. And then to a surprising stop for tea provided by the volunteers who maintain the track. We were passed by a group of 13 Germans and another group of 18 Invernessians and numerous others as we approached Ben Nevis and the final descent into Fort William. Fort William was established by General Monck on Cromwell’s orders to be one of a chain of forts in the highlands, this one on the western sea. It was rebuilt and strengthened under King William and then again after the Jacobite rebellions. A nice town with a High Street suffering from a large supermarket nearby.

We had a day off to find some new boots. Both our pairs were leaking and therefore liable to produce blisters. Gordon was successful but Kerry failed to find her brand. And we also found a helpful solicitor to vouch for us. He was off to a shinty match – gaelic hockey with bent wood clubs instead of hockey sticks and very few rules. Fort William was also experiencing a convergence of healthy-looking people who wanted to run up Ben Nevis. About 1344m up with the record being about 90 minutes up and back. Daft idea, if you ask me. We, on the other hand, took a train to Mallaig passing Sheil water, Lochailort and Morar to the sea.
In the process going over the long, long Glenfinian viaduct made famous by Harry Potter. If we’d taken the steam train, we could have travelled in the same compartments with sliding doors as our heroes from Hogwarts. When we got to Mallaig, we had an ice cream and came back again past Brigadoon dreamscapes in slanting afternoon sunlight to a wonderful fish restaurant on a pier. Our ankles were very grateful for their day off.

Walking from Glasgow to Inverness

Glasgow to Inveroran: 28 Aug – 1 Sep 2014

We are half way through our walk and well into the glaciated valleys of the West Highlands of Scotland. From our lovely B&B at Glengarry, we walked a km into Tyndrum and a shop designed to separate any tourist from his money. I needed some new shoelaces. The expired laces had carried me over the Routeburn in NZ and along several short walks around Woodend and now into the Scottish Highlands.

The first day was through a a long park up out of Millingavie on the fringes of Glasgow, pronounced Mu(l)’ngai, and over a low pass into Rob Roy country. The Whytes are a sept of the McGregors, proscribed in 1603 for being a nuisance after their lands were gifted to the Campbells – Rob the Red had a Ned Kelly folkhero status in the early 18th century, supporting the poor and blackmailing the rich. My mother’s side are Macdonalds from Mull – another part of the clan that the Crown wished to exterminate in the 1692 massacre at Glencoe. The road we walked today was the military road constructed by General Wade after 1725 to tame the wild highland tribes and the Jacobite rebellions. In the early 19th century, sheep were more effective, and thousands of highlanders came to Australia and the other colonies or joined the highland regiments.  The last third of the trail from Millingavie into Drymen was along a disused railway embankment, hard under foot, but the B&B was opposite the oldest licensed pub in Scotland and was run by the retiring Chaplain to the British fleet. We had tired legs and sore feet.

The next day led up through a wind-felled forest to some conical hills, possible ancient volcanic plugs, and then down past day-trippers to the beginnings of the

Scottish theme park of Loch Lomond. Hard walking along the lake edge over the next two days brought us to the Drovers inn at Inverarnan. Loch Lomond was over-run by jet-skis and water skiers, power boats and day trippers on a glorious sunny day. Inversnaid Hotel along the way was Scottish baronial interpreted as a kitch destination for coach tours. Tartan carpet, average customer age 80+ and Polish waiters. Bizarre! The Drovers Inn was weird with the staff, local and imported, all in a mixture of off-the-shelf synthetic kilts in an ancient panelled bar lined with a job lot of stuffed animals and birds. Lots of Germans walking the trail, interspersed with an occasional American and a couple of Kiwis. Scots were using it as their backyard to train for cross-country marathons or just to enjoy walking – and they love their countryside. We were instantly identified as Kiwis or Oz by the crew of a naval helicopter that dropped in for lunch with us at the Bridge of Orchy.

By the next day, our legs and feet had developed some fitness so the walks to Tyndrum and to Inveroran were straightforward as we entered the steep glaciated glens and the inevitable bogs. The Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th & early 19th centuries was based on teaching all children to read. Many of them went on to the universities in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Glasgow and thence to populate the managerial levels of the professions and the army throughout the British Empire and its colonies with diligence and canniness. Those who didn’t get the education often toiled in the shipyards of the Clyde or went into the infantry regiments that controlled the empire. With the referendum on Scottish independence looming in a fortnight, the divide between the educated and the uneducated classes, and between the highlands and the lowlands seems pretty strong. There seems to be a general disillusionment with professional politicians and a genuine concern for a fair sharing of resources with those who are badly off. But those with knowledge and access to opportunity think the whole independence idea is daft. On the other hand the highlanders, the poor and deprived seem to have such a large chip about the English that they want to fight Bannockburn all over again. Blame Mel Gibson and Braveheart!!