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Notes from the West Highland Way July 22nd, 2013

After a good week of reading in the National Library of Scotland, I find myself on the western edge of Rannoch Moor on the West Highland Way.  I’ve been walking with my brother Mike for three days, having set out from the charming village of Drymen before skirting the eastern shores of Loch Lomond, and then heading northward to my present location at the Kingshouse Hotel, Glencoe, an establishment visited by William and Dorothy Wordsworth in 1803 (and of which Dorothy, in her journal, commented “Never did I see such a miserable, such a wretched place”!).  Today we struck off the Way onto an old Drover’s trail on the heather-covered slopes of Meall a’ Bhuiridh, from which we ascended to the summit of Creag Dhubh.  What a view.  Tomorrow we’ll ascend the Devil’s Staircase on the old military road that leads to Kinlochleven.  Life is good in the Highlands.