Fort William; Friday, 04 May, 2012

I must have gotten some sleep as I slept through the stop at Carlisle to pick up breakfast and was only woken at about 4:30 by the rattle of the train coming through the Haymarket tunnels and across the points into Edinburgh. Over the next 20 minutes there were a series of bumps and bangs as the Inverness and Aberdeen portions detached and some heftier thumps as the lounge car and seated accommodation were attached to what had been the front of the train and an engine to what had been the back, and so, going in the opposite direction we rattled over the points and nosily through the Haymarket tunnels again, and after that I drifted off.

By the time I awoke again it was clearly light and we were heading for the highlands. I pulled up the blind, thankfully after getting dressed, to realise we were actually stopped on Garelochhead station (lucky I hadn’t decided to pull up the blind before putting some clothes on). After breakfast in my cabin I walked down to the lounge car just as the train was pulling into Ardlui station, and prepared for the interesting part of the journey across Rannoch moor and the highlands.

The two hours up from Crianlarich to Fort William are some of the most spectacular scenery in Britain, crossing the desolate Rannoch Moor, stopping in Currour, the highest and most isolated railway station in Britain (10Km from the nearest road) and then finally winding its way back down into Fort William on the junction of several lochs and the base of Fort William.

I wandered over to the hotel to drop my bags off and then had a walk around the town centre, taking in what remains of the Fort that put the Fort in Fort William, and the centre of town. I then headed over to the bus station to get the late morning bus up to the Nevis Range Arial Gondola.

The Gondola rises to almost the peak of Aonach Mòr and from here there are stunning views over the lochs and mountain ranges that surround Fort William. It’s also a very quick way to “Bag a Monro” without really expending any effort.

At the top there is also a very nice café where I had a filling lunch before it was time to head back down to catch the bus back into Fort William. Thanks to roadwork’s, by the time I got back into the town centre it was almost 5, so by the time I checked into the hotel and dropped my stuff in the room it was time to grab dinner and then have an early night to catch up on the missed sleep from the sleeper.