Paul Lydon: West Highland Way - Kingshouse Hotel to Kinlochleven

We were up at 07:30 for a “Full Scottish Breakfast” (bacon, sausage, egg, mushrooms and a piece of oatcake) at 08:00 in Kingshouse Hotel, where we had slept last night. Afterwards we packed our gear, dropped off the “travelling bag” at its pick-up point and settled the bill and were away by 09:30 just in time for the first of many rain showers to begin.

The route ran in a loop from the hotel beneath the Buachaille, passing the hut known as Jacksonville, which belongs to the famous Creagh Dhu Climbing Club from Glasgow, then near Altnafeadh, the route looped back to the road through Glen Coe for a short distance, before striking off towards The Devil's Staircase.

We paused to remove our fleece jacket or top as we would be walking uphill. Meanwhile a small group of Americans, who we had seen at the Kingshouse, came past with a couple wearing ridiculous knee-length cheap plastic ponchos.

We continued making our way up the Devils Staircase which was just a gentle path with zig-zags and didn't live up to its name. Maybe it was more of a challenge in the past?

Soon we had risen about 325 metres in height over a distance of about 1 kilometre in a straight line and there were nice views across Glen Coe between heavy rain showers.

The Americans and some others were posing for photos on the cairn at the top of the Devil's Staircase and after we had taken a couple of shots of the views, we continued onwards.

The rough path dropped gradually downwards with excellent views of the peaks opposite and above Kinlochleven, plus a lake to the East or North-East. We had been using an excellent Harvey's strip map of the West Highland Way (as we had also used a similar map on the Dales Way last year) which had great detail with the route clearly marked all the way from Milngavie to Fort William graduated in both miles and kilometres and quite a lot of useful information as well. The best thing was it is printed on polythene and was therefore 100% water proof and tough – just as well given the weather we were experiencing! The only disadvantage is that as a strip map, it didn't include any details in the distance.

After 6 miles, the path began dropping more steeply, again zigzagging, with today's destination, Kinlochleven, beginning to appear in the distance.

The time was approaching midday and we found a spot on the leeward side of the slope we were on to shelter from the wind and ate our packed lunch looking at the surrounding mountains and valleys.

Soon it began to rain yet again , so I pulled out my bothy bag and we sheltered from the rain and finished our lunch without having to worry about the rain.

Half an hour later the rain had stopped and we continued on our way. The path passed a water treatment plant at the intake for six large steel pipes dropping down to the hydro-electric plant below in Kinlochleven.

The path joined a wide vehicle track which continued downwards past a series of bends and past a small dam and stream.This would have supplied a hydroelectric plant supplying electricity to the aluminium smelting plant which used to be in Kinlochleven but has since closed down.

This track continued for about 2 kilometres and really wasn't welcome for tired feet, but after crossing a bridge over the River Leven with the Ice Factor Climbing Wall Centre below in some of the old aluminium smelting works, we followed a short track through woods and discovered we had arrived very close to our Bed and Breakfast for the night: “Forest View”, where we arrived at 14:30.

We dropped our stuff off in our room and after having showers, changed into our “fresh” clothes and had a wander around Kinlochleven, which didn't take long! We had a look In the Ice Factor Climbing Wall centre and had a coffee and cake in the café.

The Ice Factor is a very interesting place. It's and old building which used to be part of the Aluminium smelting works which closed down in 1996. One side of the building has three large sections. Two of these had the usual climbing walls with bolt on holds on three walls and were quite high, maybe 20 metres or more. The third section was enclosed with large glass windows and a door and was basically a large freezer. Its walls were of rough, thick ice just like a domestic freezer long past due for a defrosting. The walls were about 15 metres high and is an ice climbing wall for practising ice climbing with ice axes, crampons and the other gear normally used in winter climbing.

The other half of the building, lengthwise, was a large seating area with a coffee bar and also a gear shop with a bar on the floor above.

We sat and had our coffee and cake for a while, then had a wander around the shop then returned to the Bed and Breakfast for a while. Later we walked to the local pub, The Tailrace Inn, and had an evening meal, We also saw the Glaswegian Trio from the Kingshouse yesterday in the pub.