Fort William to Gairlochy

By The Hungry Traveller -


Day one of the Great Glen Way. After a hearty Premier Inn breakfast we make ourselves on the Great Glen) way, which conventiently was right behind the hotel's car park. Before we left the hotel ground we caught a glimps of a middle-aged gentleman making off with our suitcases. Excellent! This was the Sherpa Van Man, who would transport our luggage to the next overnight stop.
The first stage of our walk took us out of Fort William, past the old Inverlochie Castle (I mean literally past it, in a sneaky kind of way, so we didn't even catch a glimps of it) and to the start of the Caledonian Canal.
From then onwards the route followed the canal towpath until we arrived at Gairlochy. Along the way we passed the renowned Neptunes Staircase, a series of 8 locks which rather decoratively overcome a hight difference of 20 meter. I would say that aforementioned staircase was the highlight of the first stage, the rest of the walk being a pleasant, but not very spectacular walk along the canal's towpath, with lovely views of the surrounding hills and mountains and the occasional wave to passing pleasure boats.
Fresh at the start Almost fresh at the finish

You can find some more pictures of our walk by clicking here.

After arriving at Gairlochy we had to walk another 3.5 kilometers to our accomodation for the night, a place called The Old Pines. Where the actual stage had been pan flat today, the walk to our final resting place (for the day, not eternity), was mostly uphill. An interesting change of pace which made finally arriving at The Old Pines even more of a relieve.


The B&B is in a beautiful wooden purpose build building, with comfortable rooms, a warm welcome and a wonderful dining room serving delicous food. The Old Pines also appears to be home to 2 goats, 3 grumpy gard-geese, who honk and hiss at unsuspecting visitors, some ducks and an impressive flock of chickens.
Around the buildings are some beautiful gardens which had sprouted an interesting variety of mushrooms.

Check out our pictures of the place here.

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