Monday: Glencoe Mountain Resort to Kinlochleven

The night in the hobbit house was interesting, cosy once the heater had been on for a while but I got rather tangled up in my hired sleeping bag liner and woke several times hoping it would soon be over. Each time we got close to nodding off, something small, fast and presumably furry scuttled noisily under the decking or over the AstroTurf roof (orcs? Shelob?). By the time we packed and emerged for breakfast when the cafe opened at 9, the car park was already filling again with Monday morning skiers keen to get up to the snow. It was a beautiful crisp clear morning and I almost envied them, but it was great for walking too.

We headed down and across the busy A82 to Kingshouse, once the only accommodation in the area but now a building site, with just the shell of the old drovers’ inn remaining (or a rebuilt pastiche? Hard to tell). A 60-room hotel is being added on the back. The plans have met with much opposition, but from photos, the one that was pulled down wasn’t particularly scenic either, but just what everyone was used to.

I knew the next major feature was the Devil’s Staircase, but in spite of having read the notes and looked at the map, I had forgotten we had to do a couple of miles parallel to the road first. If you ignored the traffic, the views were amazing as we funnelled into the top of Glen Coe.

Finally we started the pull up to the Devil’s Staircase – just a steep stony track, zigzagging as it gained height. We took frequent pauses to admire the view, and get our breath back of course. At one point we could see two birds circling, quite possibly eagles, but by the time I’d extricated the binoculars from Ian’s backpack (he’d carried them over 70 miles for this very moment) they had soared out of view.

Over the top and the scenery changed again, with narrower valleys between the peaks. The old military road swung up and down along the side of a valley before heading downhill fairly steeply, through silver birch trees just coming into leaf. It took longer than I’d expected to finally reach Kinlochleven, and we were pleased to find our guesthouse on the way into town. At some point we must venture out again for food, but happy to relax in our own proper room for now.