West Highland Way: Bridge of Orchy to Kings House Hotel

Bridge of Orchy

Bridge of Orchy is a tiny settlement that has developed around the point where the old military road to Fort William crossed the River Orchy. This was first built in 1751 by Major Caulfield. There is a hotel beside the main road, a railway station on the line to Fort William and fine views towards the surrounding hills.

Inveroran and Loch Tulla

Inveroran consists of little more than a hotel and a couple of houses at the western end of Loch Tulla. The loch is two and a half miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide, and is famed for its trout and salmon fishing. The hotel is situated on an old military road that led across the Black Mount towards Glen Coe; this road was later improved by Telford but the opening of a new road in the 1930s led to the hotel being bypassed.

Rannoch Moor

Rannoch Moor is a vast area of flat, boggy ground to the southeast of Fort William. It is one of Britain's last wildernesses, and is a wild and unforgiving place for travellers. It is also Britain's highest moor, with an average height of 1,000 feet above sea level.

During the last ice age the moor was a vast reservoir of ice from glaciers that flowed down from the surrounding hills. When the ice retreated it left behind it a generally flat area strewn with large boulders called glacial erratics. The flat nature of the land led to poor drainage and the area eventually became a blanket bog.

It has always been a hard area to cross. General Wade picked a route for his military road that climbed up the flanks of the hills to the west; Telford's improvements to that road took a very similar route. The remoteness can be seen by the fact that the shortest route by road from Rannoch station on the northeastern corner of the moor and Kingshouse on the northwestern - a distance of barely ten miles as the crow flies - is over 100 miles.

Access to the moor improved when the West Highland Railway was opened across the moor in the 1894. The poor ground that had prevented roads from being built across the moor still existed, so the railway line was 'floated' across the moor on a combination of brushwood and turf.

In the 1930s improvements in technology made a new road across the western fringes of the moor feasible. This is the route that now takes traffic along the A82(T) towards Fort William.

The Black Mount and Ba Bridge

The Black Mount is an area of hills that stretches between Glen Coe and Glen Orchy. It includes the area of ground that slopes down to meet the western edge of Rannoch Moor, and is often known as the Black Mount Deer Forest for reasons that may become obvious to the clear-sighted as they walk across it.

The main road to Glen Coe used to cross the periphery of the mount; the improved road by Telford more or less follows the route of Caulfield's earlier military road. A new main road was opened in the 1930s but the old route remained open as a drove road for the local estates. It now carries the West Highland Way and grants walkers superb views over the mountains to the west and across Rannoch Moor to the east. This stretch of track is one of the highlights of the trail.

Ba Bridge is located where the track crosses the River Ba, which rises a couple of miles to the west on the flanks of Aonach Mor. It is truly a superb spot, with white water running through angled, craggy rocks in front of a magnificent vista of high mountains.

Glencoe Mountain Resort

The Glencoe ski resort is situated on the slopes of Meall a' Bhuiridh immediately to the south of Kingshouse in Glen Coe. Seven lift stretch up the hillside; several of these operate during the summer months to give tourists access to the high hills.

Glen Coe and the massacre

Glen Coe is a wonderful valley that runs east to west towards the sea. High mountains bound the valley to the north and south, making the main road that runs through the valley one of the most magnificent road journeys in Britain. It is undoubtedly one of the premier areas for walkers in Britain.

It should be famed for its scenery, but unfortunately there are black events in its history. The area was traditionally 'owned' by the MacLain branch of the MacDonald clan. They were often in conflict with the neighbouring clans, especially the Campbells to the north.

In 1692 King William I ordered all of the Scottish clan leaders to swear an oath of allegiance to him. In December 1691 the MacLain chief left his home in Glen Coe to travel to Fort William to sign the oath. When he got there he was told that he would have to get it witnessed by a sheriff, which involved another long journey to Inverary. Unfortunately Inverary was well within Campbell territory, and he was detained by Cambell's men for a day.

This meant that he signed his oath a day late. A legal team in Edinburgh refused to accept this late oath and an order was sent out for all MacDonald's under seventy years of age to be put to the sword. Many of the soldiers dispatched were from the Campbell clan, the MacDonald's sworn enemies. Soldiers arrived and were greeted as friends according to the hospitality code that was common in the area. They lived together for twelve nights until there was a blizzard on the 13th of February.

That night 38 men were murdered; other men, women and children fled into the surrounding hills, many succumbing to exposure over the coming hours. The massacre rightly became a cause celebre in Scotland; the abuse of hospitality adding further insult to the murders. There can be little doubt that the death toll would have been greater had not several soldiers warned some of the villagers.

Some parts of this story are disputed; in particular the form of the orders sent to the soldiers. Nonetheless it is worth sparing a thought for the MacDonalds as you stroll through this wonderful landscape.

Kings House Hotel

The King's House Hotel is set in the remote heart of Glen Coe. It is the only accommodation between Inveroran and Kinlochleven, and is therefore popular with walkers on the West Highland Way.

The first buildings on the site were built in the 17th Century; it is situated right beside the old drove road between Skye and the cattle markets of Central Scotland. A military road was later built through Glen Coe and the inn was used as a barracks for the troops of King George III after Culloden. This use led to it being named the 'King's House' - a place where the King's men could stop for the night.

It is a place of amazing solitude, even with the main road to Fort William passing a short distance away. When the Blackwater Reservoir was built in the early 1900s the men would come down to the inn to drink before returning into the hills the next night.