Walking the East Highland Way

Q. After having walked the West Highland Way last year and the Great Glen Way this year, I will tackle the (unofficial) East Highland Way next year end of April.

The route goes from Fort William, through Corrour Station, Kinloch Laggan, Newtonmore up to Aviemore in the beautiful Cairngorms National Park.

Two questions please:

1) Accommodation: the area of Kinloch Laggan / Aberarder Lodge seems to be the hardest place on the route to find a no self catering accommodation, type B & B or hostel. There seems to be no public transport neither in order to get to an accommodation in Spean Bridge or Newtonmore?

2) Difficulties: Is this trekking comparable to the West Highland Way or is it more difficult? Is it more up and down? Are the paths in a good condition ? Many thanks in advance for any advice

Friendly regards from a Highlandlover from Belgium

Chris De Waele, Belgium

A. Is it waymarked on route dog friendly and places for camping?

Carol Creighton, Cambuslang

A. Hi Chris Julie, our dog Holly and myself recently walked the East Highland Way as research for our small walking holiday business. It is a great walk which takes you through some splendid scenery with interesting history and abundant wildlife.

Steve Higson, Falkirk

A. Hello Mike, many thanks so far for your excellent advice. 1) Our 1st stage goes from Fort William to our accommodation in the Corrour Station Bunkhouse and passes indeed the bothies of Meannanach and Staoineag. For the tricky river crossing : can you confirm that we should stay on the North shore of the river Abheinn Rath all the time ? 2) Our 2nd stage goes from Corrour Station to Tulloch Station via the North shore of Loch Ossian, Corrour Shooting Lodge.1 Km North of Strathossian House there are 2 possibilities to reach Tulloch Station : following the jeeptrack north-east up to Loch Laggan and then west via Laggan Dam to Tulloch. The 2nd possibility goes north-west via a shorter but much smaller path to Fersit and then north along the railway. Any comment on these two possibilities please ? 3) The Tulloch Station Lodge, which I'm now booking, was a very good tip from you, as I planned initially to take the train at Tulloch to Spean Bridge for accommodation !!!! 4) My 3th stage now ends at Kinloch Laggan where I take the Bus 39 to Laggan Bridge for accommodation in the Pottery Bunkhouse. That solves my accommodation problem at Kinloch Laggan ! So Mike, if you could just comment on my plans above, that would help me a lot. Many thanks on forehand for your well appreciated help !! Friendly regards from Belgium

Chris De Waele, Belgium

A. The nearest accomodation to Kinloch Laggan appears to be the Monadhliath Hotel on the A889 at Laggan. You can also camp in the churchyard by the hotel. Theres also an independant hostel half a mile along the road towards Dalwhinnie. There's possibly other B&Bs at Laggan. From the brief route description you gave, it would seem that the route would go up Glen Nevis and along the Thieves road to Corrour. This is quite wild and would be more difficult that the WHW with one potentially tricky river crossing. There are two bothies along the way. I'm not sure exactly how the route gets from Corrour to Laggan, but the obvious way goes along land rover tracks and, apart from the sheer distance, shouldnt be too rough. It may be possible to use the railway to get to and from accomodation. note that there's a bunkhouse at Tulloch on the railway. The rest of the route sounds fairly straightforward. I'd be carrying a tent!

Mike Knipe, Crook

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