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!!