Ben Nevis and Glen Coe. Ronald Turnbull
best of walking is ridge walking. Swoop downwards from the peak, level off along a rocky crest, then rise again to another summit; and then do the same thing again, four or five or even eight times over. Let the ridge sides drop steeply 900m to a green valley where a river gleams among the alder trees; and beyond the valley another steep ridge, and another, and the sea reaching silver-grey into the furthest west. For added interest let the ridge top be composed of three different sorts of stone. And you’ve started to understand why the area from Ben Nevis southwards to Glen Coe is some of the finest mountain walking there is in the UK.
I put ‘some of’ so as not to annoy the lovers of Snowdonia, or the English Lakes, or Skye, or Torridon. There’s a lot more of Lochaber than there is of Snowdonia; it’s one and a half times as large as Lakeland. It’s a whole lot easier to get to than Skye. Still not convinced? In that case…
Follow me first onto one of the less celebrated summits, Ben Starav at the bottom of Glen Etive. Its long ridge (Route 73) is stony with moss, and leads into an easy scramble over blobby boulders of grey granite. But now drop into the green valley on the left and enjoy another aspect of it all. Steep grass and granite slabs shut out the sky. Below the path a gloomy ravine, with the flash of a waterfall. And at the valley foot, under green birch and dark pine, the cuckoo calls, and white water slides over granite that mysteriously is now coloured pink.
Next, let’s visit Bidean nam Bian. The rocks now are volcanic, grey-blue andesite and pinky-grey rhyolite, all of it great to climb on if you’re a rock climber. Enter Bidean up one of its three ravines, each with some of that great climbing rock hanging impressively overhead. It’s steep, and it’s gloomy, and it gets steeper, until all at once you emerge onto Bidean’s ridge, with bright sky around you.
Bidean nam Bian (Section 7), seen across Loch Leven
Granite and volcanic rock; the third rock is called quartzite. It’s flat but cracked, like a city pavement after earthquakes. Follow it along the Grey Corries, where its sharp edges will slash your boots, but its flat slabs give almost-easy walking above the precipices.
By now you’re getting tired. So take a break; and come back in February or March. The eroded path along the Mamores is gone, and instead a snow edge swoops like a breaking wave, the snow crisp and crunchy for your crampons. In the clear cold air of a classic winter day, views are southwards over half a dozen ranges to the dome of Ben Lomond.
At the bottom of every steep-sided ridge there’s a steep-walled valley. Some of those valleys contain the A82 (alas, how even lovelier would be Glen Coe without its busy road). But the others offer long through routes, with rugged paths and smooth Landrover tracks. A comfortable track leads between the jaws of the Lairig Leacach, and down past small waterfalls while looking up at Ben Nevis and the Mamores. Then it’s down a river whose alder-shaded bank has green levels for the tent. An even lonelier glen – but still with a good footpath – leads you to a lochan and bothy that are completely out of it. And however bleak the Blackwater, the last 4 miles, through a deep, steep glen of beautiful birchwoods, will leave you at Kinlochleven longing for the next really long walk with the big rucksack. Just as soon as your feet and shoulders have recovered from the first one.
Clockwise from left: dwarf cornel, golden saxifrage, dwarf azalea
Getting there, getting about, food and shelter
The Nevis Glencoe area is perhaps Scotland’s best for real walks reached without the use of a car.
Travellers from afar should aim for Glasgow Airport, which has direct bus links by Citylink coach to Glencoe village and Fort William. From within the UK, aim for Glasgow rail or bus station. The Citylink coach is particularly useful, a lovely run past Loch Lomond to serve Bridge of Orchy (for Inveroran Hotel), Kings House, Glencoe village, Fort William, and Spean Bridge on its way towards the Isle of Skye. The West Highland Railway is even more beautiful, its crossing of Rannoch Moor featuring in various Harry Potter films.
Accommodation is widely available, from cosy old inns to both SYHA and independent hostels, bunkhouses and camp sites. There is also a right of responsible wild camping anywhere in the countryside.
Buachaille Etive Mor (Route 55)
For those visiting without the benefit of a nasty tin box on wheels, I commend Kinlochleven. Reasonably easily reached by bus, and with useful facilities such as shops, it has a wide range of good walks, from riverside to mountaintop, right from the village edge. From there a short bus ride lets you relocate to Fort William or Glen Coe.
The alternative, for those with strong shoulders, is to arrive somewhere in the south (Dalmally, Bridge of Orchy) and trek north along the valleys – stopping off at Kinlochleven for a hot bar meal and a night in a bed – then onwards for Spean Bridge or Fort William. Such adventurers will note the quite frequent bothies, marked on the overview maps with a small hut symbol.
Details of local food, transport and information are in Appendix C.
Oh, Sir Hugh Munro
An oddity of hillwalking in Scotland is that it takes place almost entirely above the 900m contour line. Sir Hugh Munro in 1892 listed the hills above 3000ft (914.4m) – after revisions there are currently 282 of them, of which 44 are in the area of this guidebook. Many hillwalkers are engaged in visiting these 282, and they are indeed worthwhile hills to visit. But the consequence is that the well-trodden ways and rebuilt paths are on these, rather high, hills. The heights of 914.3m and below are largely pathless, and their lesser altitude usually means denser and tougher vegetation. Accordingly, the lower hills are interesting, and unfrequented; but they are not easy. The less difficult of them, and the most interesting, are included here.
The ‘standard routes’ up the Munros are detailed in several existing guidebooks, including Steve Kew’s Walking the Munros Vol 1 (Cicerone). So, while I have described them here briefly, I have also sought out the interesting ways around the back, the unfrequented corries, the more demanding rugged ridgelines from the less convenient car parks.
But on the finest of them all I’ve left the choice to you. Bidean is a hill to visit many times by many different routes; and so, in the south, is Ben Cruachan. The Mamores is one great ridge of many mountains: where you go up and come down depends on how much of it you want to do on a given day. The Black Mount’s great complex sprawl also deserves to be explored in detail.
For more serious scrambling, the area is inspiringly described in Noel Williams’ Scrambles in Lochaber. My own copy is now extremely battered! Here I have included various tough walking routes involving rock, but just two of the easiest and most spectacular scrambles: the magnificent Ledge Route on Ben Nevis, and the Zigzags onto Bidean nam Bian (Routes 9 and 63). Here is also the harder, but unmissable, scramble of the Aonach Eagach ridge above Glen Coe (Route 52). If you like them as much as I do, get hold of Noel’s book and take an extra fortnight off.
Easy rocks above the Zigzags of Gearr Aonach, Bidean nam Bian (Route 63), one of three scrambles that sweet-talked their way into this walking guide
Walking conditions
For low-level walking, Scotland used to offer only the plod through the bog or the smooth and stultifying forest road through the spruce. The south of the area is still like that. However, Kinlochleven has an excellent little network of scenic paths; Glen Nevis has a more variable selection. Some are waymarked and signposted, some not; it’s a good idea to carry a compass and keep a general idea of which way is the road and which way is vast and pathless wilderness.
Walking