Fort William; Saturday, 05 May, 2012

As the room hadn’t included Breakfast I’d grabbed some breakfast things from the Tesco’s near the hotel the previous evening and picked up a cup of coffee from a café near the station and so at 8:30 on a Saturday morning I found myself on board the train heading further north, and west.

The West Highland line from Helensburgh through Crianlarich and Fort William to Mallaig regularly features in the top 10 world’s best railway journeys, and on the leg from Crianlarich to Fort William it’s easy to see why. However, the final leg is regularly highlighted as even more stunning, and the guidebooks aren’t wrong. From the journey along the edge of Loch Eli with Ben Nevis looming behind you, up into the mountains and then across the stunning Glenfinnan viaduct (or Harry Potter viaduct as it’s now usually referred to as) before diving back down to the coast at Arisaig and then Mallaig.

I had a quick wander around Mallaig and then headed over to the CalMac office to get tickets for the ferry across to Skye. On arrival in Skye I wandered the short distance to the Clan Donnald visitors centre based around the ruins of the castle and set in acres of gardens and wooded land that you can wander around.

I spent so long wandering around that in the end I needed to pick up the pace a bit to make it back to the ferry in time to catch it back over to Mallaig.

In Mallaig I had a look in the local museum before it was time to head back to the station and make the stunning return back to Fort William.

Back in Fort William I dropped my bag back into the hotel and then headed out for dinner, before having another early evening.