Scotland 2025
October 3-19, 2025

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Monday – Kingshouse to Kinlochleven
9 miles / 14.5 km
16km 5 hours, Devil’s Staircase

Today was going to be a killer, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. The day would start easy: up the valley just off the main road through Glencoe and then? The Devil’s Staircase. The name alone hurt. The numbers that went with the name just meant that I wasn’t going to be very happy this morning.

We split up early today. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with Dan, but I didn’t want to dally with Petra. I would be slow enough once I hit the bottom of this section!

Despite being near the road it was far enough away that it did not detract from the day. I could hear the deer in the hills – the autumn rut was in full swing and the bucks were establishing their dominance. They were too far away to see with any certainty. They were just darker blobs that could have been rocks. Or bushes. Or deer.

There was a sign at the base of the Devil’s Staircase, which stated (in part) the source of the name. I found some more information online:

“Initially given its name by the soldiers who were part of the road building programme of General Wade. The carrying of building materials up that stretch of the road was not popular! The name was perpetuated when some of the workers building the Blackwater Dam chose to travel to the nearest pub after their wages had been paid out. For the workers at Kinlochleven the journey to the Kingshouse Hotel proved to be more difficult than many realised. The journey back was even worse as unsteady legs meant that many were unable to manage the return trip and, on a cold winter’s night, the devil often ”claimed his own“.”

I started up on my own, and I reached the top on my own. As I gained elevation (550m), I lost visibility: the clouds were low and I had reached them. So much for “amazing views from the top!” The hike really wasn’t terrible. I would have denied saying that at the time, but hindsight does wonders in my sense of achievement.

As I gained the top of the pass, Dan poked his head out of the cloud and greeted me enthusiastically. I panted a greeting back to him, and happily realized that the hardest part of the hike was done. Ok, maybe not the hardest part of the hike, but one section that I had not been looking forward to.

Shortly after this the Dutch couple joined us, and then Petra materialized out of the clouds as well. We celebrated our morning’s achievement, took some photos, and then Dan left us once again.

I left Petra behind as well, as it was still quite a trek to our destination for the night, Kinlochleven, and I wanted to keep up a steady pace. This turned out to be one of my favorite sections of the trail: the surface was good but not boring, the trail was gentle in elevation changes, and the scenery was more varied than previously. I felt like I could walk for hours – and a good thing, too, as I still had hours to go.

Eventually the trail joined up with a forest service road, and that eventually led into the town. I had since passed the Dutch couple, but they had caught up to me and we finished the walk into town together. Dan was waiting at the corner pub and waved to us. The Dutch had been having trouble with their lodging plans for the evening, so they declined to stick around and instead wanted to ensure that they had a room for the night. I can’t say that I blame them. I, on the other hand, had a secure room for the night so I joined Dan to wait for Petra to come down the mountain as well.

Our B&B, the Edencoille Guest House, was on the outskirts of town, meaning that we still had some more walking to do. After a light snack at the Highland restaurant we found our lodgings – and quite the lodgings they were! It was literally someone’s house with each room rented out, and the owner of the house had a serious dedication to the collection of figurines. It was a little…disturbing, really. But our room was nice and tastefully decorated, had some really thoughtful touches, and the shower was perfect.

Despite our tour company’s indication that there were many choices for dinner, we found that this really wasn’t the case. We walked back to the Highland and enjoyed a wonderful dinner by the river.

Tuesday