Scotland
October 3-19, 2025
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| WHW-Saturday | WHW-Sunday | WHW-Monday | WHW-Tuesday | Fort William | Edinburgh |
Saturday – Tyndrum to Inveroran
9 miles / 14.5 km
The Tyndrum Lodge provided us a “cold breakfast”. This consisted of a brown paper bag with dry pastries, sweet yogurts and some other bits and bobs. To be honest, none of it looked really appetizing and I was fine with leaving most of it in the room. Instead, we had heard about a place called The Green Welly and were curious to check it out. Actually, we saw a brochure for it before we had even started the hike, so we were looking forward to finally getting there and seeing it in person.
Last night’s dinner location – highly recommended!
The Green Welly!
It was huge! A cafeteria-style restaurant, gift shop, and a full-service clothing and supply shop were all there, attached to a gas station and its associated gas-station type offerings. Petra had wrapped up her feet before leaving the Lodge, and she stocked up a bit more from the shop here.
The old military road continues
Low clouds
Fencepost flowers – I saw this often
It was shortly after leaving Tyndrum that Dan surged ahead and Petra lingered behind. We were once again walking at our own pace and enjoying the beauty of the Scottish landscape on our own terms. The trail was wide and easy to navigate. For a good portion of today and tomorrow, the West Highland Way followed the old military road, originally built by General Wade in the wake of the 1715 Jacobite uprising. Nothing like the threat of needing to crush some rebels to get a proper road built.
The trails were still wet
The landscape opened up considerably today, with views extending far down valleys and up hillsides. The trail surface was usually wet, but it was solid and easy walking. And, like all good military roads, the grades were gentle, even if long. This was the kind of walking that I truly enjoyed.
At the town of Bridge of Orchy I started to question if I had missed a trail marker for the West Highland Way. I crossed under the train tracks, skirting the quaint station, and then didn’t see any other way to go than to follow the paved street. Three men walking up the street confirmed that I was still on the path and I walked the rest of the way through town with more confidence. This was the only time on the entire trail that I questioned if I had missed a turn – not bad!
The Inn where some hikers stopped for the day, because the Inveroran Hotel was full
The Bridge of Orchy
And the River Orchy
While the name “Bridge of Orchy” brings amazing, romantic images to mind, I admit that I was a little disappointed. The bridge itself was beautiful, built by the British Army following the Battle of Culloden in 1746 (another rebel-squashing project!). The village itself only sprang up afterwards in 1751, and it appears that its sole reason for existing now is to cater to the hikers, fishers, and river rafting enthusiasts that come here.
Leaving Bridge of Orchy behind
The land beyond the Bridge of Orchy was not shy about rising up quickly from the valley lowlands. The trail started off in a comfortable forest, but that forest soon gave way to the rough scars of clearcuts. The footing became a bit more demanding, with large rocks littering the way. This meant that my appreciation of the views was split between staring at my feet and staring at the views across to Loch Tulla.
Loch Tulla
Looking back towards The Bridge of Orchy
Up until now, our destination had always been obvious. Or if not obvious, then I was with Dan and/or Petra, who had a pin set on their phone for our lodging. I hadn’t bothered with where I was going – I just knew to follow the trail. But now I was getting tired and was looking forward to reaching the end of the day. But just where was that? The view below me showed literally two buildings. Surely one of them would be the Inveroran Hotel, right? I certainly hoped so, because I didn’t want to walk any further than what I could see in the valley below me.
Someone taking a break under a lone tree
Inveroran Hotel – I hope so, at least
Yes!
Surprisingly, not only was the building in the distance the hotel, but I arrived quite early in the day, around 2:30. While it seemed too early to stop for the day, I was more than happy to put my feet up. Dan had arrived only about forty-five minutes before me and checked into our room. The hotel was absolutely charming and was easily the “Ideal” that I had in my head of what a small Inn in the Scottish Highlands should look like. While the inn originally opened in 1707, the building that we were in was built as a 19th century drovers inn. Over the years, famous guests include Samuel Coleridge, Dorothy Wordsworth and Charles Dickens – and now, me!
The staff at the hotel was amazing – it was obvious that they truly cared about their job here, and seemed simultaneously excited and sad that tomorrow they would close for the season. Yes – as soon as we left after breakfast the staff would clean up and lock the doors, not coming back until March. When I asked about the winters in this area, one guy said that the roads are often closed due to snow and that it wasn’t easy to get in supplies. I admit that it sounded nice to just stock up for the winter and enjoy the solitude.
A comfortable sitting room (although it was a bit chilly)
This cow wasn’t so cuddly
The dining room
From a framed page on the wall:
“Inveroran Hotel was founded circa 1707, the year of the Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England. At that time the trade in cattle between the two countries was just beginning to grow and Inveroran became a watering place for the thousands of cattle which were driven each year from the West Highlands and Islands to the great markets at Falkirk and Crieff and from there onwards to England and the Continent.
With the cattle herds came drovers and throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries Inveroran provided a welcome shelter after the wilds of Rannoch Moor. The original hotel was a thatched cottage similar to other cottages nearby and was only distinguished by its size from the homes of the local inhabitants. Remains of these houses can be seen about half a mile to the North at the clachan of Druim Liaghart, notable as the birthplace of the Gaelic poet Duncan Bàn MacIntyre or Donnchadh Bàn Nan Orain (Fair Duncan of the Songs) and there is a memorial to him there…
A(nother) more famous poet who has a connection with the hotel is William Wordsworth who visited the hotel with his sister Dorothy in the early 19th century. In her diary Dorothy Wordsworth described Inveroran as a “Jewel in the desert” and she described the happiness of the scene she found in the kitchen where drovers and their dogs sat round an open fire eating their porridge.
The droving trade gradually came to an end around the mid 19th century and the hotel, which was rebuilt on its present site around that time, found new customers in the visitors who came to take part in the fishing and stalking in the famous Blackmount Deer Forest.”
And a bit of history:
“UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
….I shall never forget the gentle pleasure with which we greeted the lake at Inveroran and its few grey cottages…. When we arrived at the huts, one of them proved to be the inn, a thatched house without a sign-board. We were kindly received, had a fire lighted in the parlour, and were in such good humour that we seemed to have a thousand comforts about us; but we had need of a little patience in addition to this good humour before breakfast was brought, and at last it proved a disappointment: the butter not eatable, the barley cakes fusty, the oat-bread so hard I could not chew it, and there were only four eggs in the house, which they had boiled as hard as stones.
……There being no bell in the parlour, I had occasion to go several times and ask for what we wanted in the kitchen, and I would willingly have given twenty pounds to have been able to take a lively picture of it. About seven or eight travellers, probably drovers, with as many dogs, were sitting in a complete circle round a large peat-fire in the middle of the floor, each with a mess of porridge, in a wooden vessel, upon his knee; a pot, suspended from one of the black beams, was boiling on the fire; two or three women pursuing their household business on the outside of the circle, children happy, busy, or vacant faces, all looked pleasant; and even the smoky air, being a sort of natural indoor atmosphere of Scotland, served only to give a softening, I may say harmony, to the whole
We departed immediately after breakfast; our road leading us near the lake-side and through the grove of firs, which extended backward much further than we had imagined. After we had left it we came again among bare moorish wastes, as before, under the mountains, so that Inveroran still lives in our recollection as a favoured place, a flower in the desert.”
Extracted from “Recollections of a tour made in Scotland” Dorothy Wordsworth, 1803″
Fortunately the food served now was a massive improvement to what Dorothy was given, and after a great dinner in the small dining room, we retired to our cozy bedroom and prepared for another long day of walking. One employee had said that the next two days’ route was her absolute favorite of the entire hike. That sounds promising!
