The West Highland Way - A Walker's Guide
The West Highland Way
Price
£10.00
Balmaha to Rowardennan
Distance: 12km (7½ miles)
Ascent: 200m (655 feet)
Walkers staying overnight in Balmaha should seriously consider taking a trip to Inchcailloch, one of five islands managed as a national nature reserve along with Clairinsh, Torrinch, Creinch and Aber Isle and the mouth of the River Endrick. You can make arrangements in Balmaha to be ferried out to the island (and brought back!). Visitors fewer than 10 in number do not need permission to visit the island; for more than that number permits may be obtained (in advance) from Scottish Natural Heritage (see Useful Addresses).
You may be forgiven for thinking the section of the Way from Balmaha to Rowardennan, never far from the great loch, is a gentle riparian ramble. If you do think that, you are in for a shock, for this delightful section of the route squirms its way ‘up hill and down dale’ as if determined to wring every last ounce of pleasure from the experience. Fresh legs from Balmaha will experience no difficulty; those that have already marched in from Drymen may find some sections a little wearying towards the end of the day.
On a clear day, photographers will be deliriously happy with the opportunities the walk up Loch Lomond provides to take endless pictures; natural historians will encounter a surfeit of reasons to dally, all valid, of course, while those who delight in the simple pleasure of quality walking may just feel disposed to turn round and do it again – well, perhaps not!
Meaning the village by the water, Balmaha is an immensely popular place with those who find their recreation in boats, and during the summer months especially the village is well populated.
There is evidence that man inhabited the loch islands as long ago as 5000BC, and certainly the tiny island called The Kitchen to the east of Clairinsh is the remains of a crannog, an Iron Age man-made island built about 2000 years ago.
Inchcailloch is a fascinating place, and on it you will find a burial ground associated with a groups of nuns who lived and worshipped on the island following the death in 734 of the female Irish missionary, Saint Kentigerna; she was also mother of Saint Fillan. A church dedicated to the saint was built in the early thirteenth century and this served the area as the parish church until 1621, when worship was transferred to the mainland.
Much of the woodland on Inchcailloch is oak, planted during the early nineteenth century by the Montrose Estate to produce bark for tanning leather. Trees are also a dominant feature of the walk up Loch Lomond, and much of the timber produced was used for shipbuilding, houses and churches, and in the seventeenth century as fuel for smelting iron ore. Alder was used to clog soles and to produce charcoal for gun powder.
The inescapable feature of this section of the walk is, however, the loch itself, Loch Lomond, formerly known as Loch Leven, into which river it flows. The loch was formed by the grinding action of glaciers which chiselled a deep valley and eroded the hill tops. It is 30km (18½ miles) long, 7km (4½ miles) wide at its widest point and covers 71 square km (27½ square miles). Just north of Inversnaid it descends to a depth of 190m (623 feet), while the more southerly section is only about 24m (80 feet) deep.
There are 23 named islands in the loch, though some are very small, and only four of these lie further north than Luss. The loch contains some 16 species of fish, including the almost unique powan, a sea fish which adapted to freshwater life when Loch Lomond was cut off from the sea as the land rose at the end of the Ice Age.
Considering the prominence of this vast sheet of water, the poets have had little to say about it. Wordsworth made a token contribution, and Sir Walter Scott made a few references to the loch and its place in history; but overall its impact on the poetic mind has been singularly unimpressive, with one notable exception, the song Loch Lomond. Far from being the ‘love’ song it might easily be supposed to be, Loch Lomond is in fact a Jacobite song, and focuses on the Celtic belief that when a man dies in a foreign land his spirit returns home by the ‘low road’. The passion that imbues the song is that of a man yearning for his native land. But one perceptive observation on this topic came from the pen of Maurice Lindsay who, in The Lowlands of Scotland, wrote ‘One reason for this dearth of written poetry is that the loch and the mountains that close in upon its northern reaches are themselves a kind of poetry: a poetry which alters subtly in form and texture with every wind that swirls around those mist-steamed Highland bens, and varies with every fresh sweep of the sun’. So let’s discover the poetry of Loch Lomond for ourselves.
The Way continues to the left of a low wall. When this ends, ignore the main road that climbs steeply on the right, but go ahead past a white cottage along a tarmac lane. Soon, at a waymark, you leave the lane and climb a flight of steps into trees. Above the trees the path climbs through bracken banks to reach a horizontal path and a splendid viewpoint, known as Craigie Fort, embracing Loch Lomond and, to the right, Conic Hill, where the line of the Highland Boundary Fault is now particularly noticeable.
Move on by diving into nearby shrubbery to follow a precarious descent on wet rock and over tree roots, eventually reaching the water’s edge. When you arrive at an open grassy field (No Camping sign), keep left along its bottom edge to a footbridge in a dip, rising to another field beyond. Much pleasant if circuitous meandering through woodland close to the shoreline leads on round Arrochymore Point and eventually brings you to the shingle beach and car park at Milarrochy.
Keep on between trees along the shingle with fine views across the loch of its islands and the Luss Hills beyond. A short stretch along the road follows before you leave it for a footpath on the right-hand side just a few steps away and running parallel with it. The path emerges back on to the road at Blair Bridge but soon leaves it on the left for a western fringe section of the vast Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.
Queen Elizabeth Forest Park reaches from Loch Lomond eastwards through the Trossachs, an enormous area acquired during the 1920s mainly from the Montrose estates. It now provides a splendid range of recreational opportunities including walking, cycling and fishing; the flora and fauna, too, is especially notable.
The path is never far from the road, but wanders pleasantly along, eventually crossing a stream before rising a little to a waymark sending you left and immediately right up steps into mixed woodland. A broad trail rises through the forest, formed around a small upthrust called Cnoc Buidhe, and becoming a mature woodland of pine where storm-collapsed and moss-covered trees give the place an eerie feel, the gloom penetrated only by the occasional shaft of sunlight. Pine needles crunch underfoot as you descend an elongated flight of steps, while the shadowy depths and bright interludes are food for an imaginative mind.
Before long the forest trail emerges to rejoin the road near Cashel Farm. Just beyond the Cashel camp site, leave the road and ascend a few stone steps into woodland for a brief diversion that re-emerges onto the road near an old quarry a short distance on. Another brief woodland loop follows immediately before you rejoin the road. Now cross the road to the loch shoreline and set off along a pathway beside a low drystone wall.
Eventually you are forced back on to the road near Sallochy, beyond which, at a waymark, you can ascend, left, into open oak woodland. This woodland is pleasant and leads you down to the loch once more, but a short way on it begins a punishing little climb, including rocky steps, before you cross its highest point. Thankfully, the descent is far less demanding and much more agreeable. This happy interlude continues for some distance, never far from the shores of the loch, and in due course descends to an area to which vehicles have access. When you reach the edge of this, keep ahead on a surfaced track until you can cross a footbridge spanning an inflowing burn.
Beyond the burn the Way pushes on along the shore, passing a university boathouse and field study centre, before moving steeply into Ross Wood. The descending path comes down to a waymark that directs you left along a needle-strewn pathway, finally to burst out into a felled area with a fine view of the mountains across the loch. The Way passes behind a building and reaches the shoreline again, passing a cottage and crossing a burn by a footbridge.
The on-going footpath leads through more woodland to a second footbridge and then goes through a gap in a wall. At the top a splendid view of Ben Lomond and Ptarmigan awaits. With a sense of relief, because there is another steep wooded hill ahead, the path finally drops to the road.
Do not go to the road, but turn left into a cleared area to a waymark at the far side, down stone steps and through tall bracken, almost touching the road again, but leaving it, left, down more steps to pass round a small inlet within sight of the road. Turn left along a broad forest trail (signposted) to continue the shoreline woodland way.
Finally, between rhododendron bushes, a flight of stone steps briefly rollercoasts up and down until finally, almost unbelievably, you come within site of Rowardennan Pier, being deflected by a fence up to the road. Go left along the road, which leads past the Rowardennan Hotel and the car park used by walkers bound for Ben Lomond, to peter out at the entrance to the youth hostel.
Ben Lomond (974m/3195 feet) is the most southerly of the 276 Munros and is an excellent walk that is worth breaking your journey to tackle. It should require little more than half a day, but its value as a viewpoint is enormous.
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