Home>
Walks>
West Highland Way: Tyndrum to Inveroran
West Highland Way: Tyndrum to Inveroran
Recommended by
Our view
"Northwards along Caulfeild's military road"
Walk directions
A path from the station leads round to the northern edge of Tyndrum. Cross A82 to take an uphill lane. It becomes a track which is clear, broad and easy as it climbs past Tyndrum’s water treatment plant. At the top of the rise, Beinn Dorain comes into view ahead looking like every child’s picture of a mountain: an almost perfect cone, rising steep-flanked to a pointed summit. As with many similar hills, what you are seeing is the end of a ridge, but it is no less fine for that.
From the gate here the rough path slants on uphill, rather unnecessarily, before descending under the railway to a track below. This runs gently downhill to Auch Farm. Here you cross another track, and at once turn left over a stile onto the continuation of the Military Road.
The railway is recrossed and the smooth track followed to the station at Bridge of Orchy. Here trains pause for breath before starting the long climb across Rannoch Moor to the remote halt at Corrour in a journey every rail enthusiast should take. The hotel at Bridge of Orchy has a bunkhouse.
After walking down the road to cross the rushing Orchy by a fine old bridge, the next short section offers a choice of routes. The West Highland Way ahead is rough and often very muddy, and the road walk round to the Inveroran Hotel is not at all unpleasant, past the pines of Doire Darach and beside lovely Loch Tulla.
Immediately across the Bridge of Orchy, the proper WH Way path runs up in open woodland and through a gate, then briefly disappears into plantations. It emerges to zigzags up to a cairn on the hill shoulder of Mam Carraigh.
The reward of the hill path is now the fine panorama of the Blackmount Hills ahead, Stob Ghabhar (‘peak of goats’) prominent among them. Eastwards, above Loch Tulla, the vast expanse of Rannoch Moor stretches away to the horizon. The path, now smooth and good, slants down to the roadside at Inveroran Hotel.
Terrain
- Track, rough and quite steep path, 4 stiles
Landscape
- Wide glen, wood, plantation and heathery hillside
Dog friendliness
- On lead past Auch farm; close control or on leads if passing any livestock
Parking
- Tyndrum centre; Auch track end on A82; Bridge of Orchy; Inveroran
Toilets en route
- Tyndrum
About the walk
Finally at Bridge of Orchy the old Military Road carries the West Highland Way away from the A82 and the railway, and into the wilderness. The first high crossing since Conic Hill leads over to lovely Loch Tulla – where you gaze with nervous anticipation towards Rannoch Moor. From here onwards, the... path will be a true mountain route. Duncan Ban Macintyre One of the most famous poets writing in Gaelic, Duncan Ban Macintyre (1724–1812) lived in the Auch Gleann at the foot of Beinn Dorain, and later at Inveroran. His poems were written down by others, as Duncan himself was illiterate. One of them, over 1000 lines long, celebrates Beinn Dorain in its many moods and colours, and the excitement of hunting its deer. He fought on the Hanoverian side during the 1745 Rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie, but perhaps without enthusiasm. His later 'Oran don Bhriogais' or Ode to Trousers bemoans the banning of the kilt along with the bagpipes and the broadsword after the Battle of Culloden. West Highland Line The railway accompanies the West Highland Way as far as Auch Farm, where it takes a huge horseshoe swing to the right across two fine viaducts. A single, long viaduct would have been quicker for trains, but more expensive; the entire line with its bends and steep gradients was designed in acceptance of a maximum speed of around 30mph (50kph). This is good for admiring the mountains, but means it is comfortably outpaced by the Citylink coaches on the A82 alongside. Inveroran: user reviews Inveroran was a stance for drovers at the end of their crossing of Rannoch Moor, and there has been an inn here for over 300 years. William and Dorothy Wordsworth had breakfast here in 1803. Those who stop here today are most unlikely to be served, as they were, ‘butter not eatable, the barley cakes fusty, the oat bread so hard I could not chew it, and there were only four eggs in the house which they had boiled as hard as stones’, in Dorothy’s words. The poet Coleridge 'waited an hour and a half for a dish of tea – the most civil promises all the while'. Forty years later, Charles Dickens found the place full up with 'fifty highlanders, all drunk'. The present building dates from about 1830. The drovers stance was moved in 1844 to Bridge of Orchy on the insistence of Lord Breadalbane, who took his case all the way to the House of Lords, so that he could keep the land for stalking. In more recent years, Inveroran has become popular with walkers, climbers and anglers. It provides the last hostelry before you tackle the section over Rannoch Moor.
A path from the station leads round to the northern edge of Tyndrum. Cross A82 to take an uphill lane. It becomes a track which is clear, broad and easy as it climbs past Tyndrum’s water treatment plant. At the top of the rise, Beinn Dorain comes into view ahead looking like every child’s picture of a mountain: an almost perfect cone, rising steep-flanked to a pointed summit. As with many similar hills, what you are seeing is the end of a ridge, but it is no less fine for that.
1 of 5
From the gate here the rough path slants on uphill, rather unnecessarily, before descending under the railway to a track below. This runs gently downhill to Auch Farm. Here you cross another track, and at once turn left over a stile onto the continuation of the Military Road.
2 of 5
The railway is recrossed and the smooth track followed to the station at Bridge of Orchy. Here trains pause for breath before starting the long climb across Rannoch Moor to the remote halt at Corrour in a journey every rail enthusiast should take. The hotel at Bridge of Orchy has a bunkhouse.
3 of 5
After walking down the road to cross the rushing Orchy by a fine old bridge, the next short section offers a choice of routes. The West Highland Way ahead is rough and often very muddy, and the road walk round to the Inveroran Hotel is not at all unpleasant, past the pines of Doire Darach and beside lovely Loch Tulla.
Immediately across the Bridge of Orchy, the proper WH Way path runs up in open woodland and through a gate, then briefly disappears into plantations. It emerges to zigzags up to a cairn on the hill shoulder of Mam Carraigh.
4 of 5
The reward of the hill path is now the fine panorama of the Blackmount Hills ahead, Stob Ghabhar (‘peak of goats’) prominent among them. Eastwards, above Loch Tulla, the vast expanse of Rannoch Moor stretches away to the horizon. The path, now smooth and good, slants down to the roadside at Inveroran Hotel.
Terrain
- Track, rough and quite steep path, 4 stiles
Landscape
- Wide glen, wood, plantation and heathery hillside
Dog friendliness
- On lead past Auch farm; close control or on leads if passing any livestock
Parking
- Tyndrum centre; Auch track end on A82; Bridge of Orchy; Inveroran
Toilets en route
- Tyndrum
About the walk
Finally at Bridge of Orchy the old Military Road carries the West Highland Way away from the A82 and the railway, and into the wilderness. The first high crossing since Conic Hill leads over to lovely Loch Tulla – where you gaze with nervous anticipation towards Rannoch Moor. From here onwards, the... path will be a true mountain route. Duncan Ban Macintyre One of the most famous poets writing in Gaelic, Duncan Ban Macintyre (1724–1812) lived in the Auch Gleann at the foot of Beinn Dorain, and later at Inveroran. His poems were written down by others, as Duncan himself was illiterate. One of them, over 1000 lines long, celebrates Beinn Dorain in its many moods and colours, and the excitement of hunting its deer. He fought on the Hanoverian side during the 1745 Rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie, but perhaps without enthusiasm. His later 'Oran don Bhriogais' or Ode to Trousers bemoans the banning of the kilt along with the bagpipes and the broadsword after the Battle of Culloden. West Highland Line The railway accompanies the West Highland Way as far as Auch Farm, where it takes a huge horseshoe swing to the right across two fine viaducts. A single, long viaduct would have been quicker for trains, but more expensive; the entire line with its bends and steep gradients was designed in acceptance of a maximum speed of around 30mph (50kph). This is good for admiring the mountains, but means it is comfortably outpaced by the Citylink coaches on the A82 alongside. Inveroran: user reviews Inveroran was a stance for drovers at the end of their crossing of Rannoch Moor, and there has been an inn here for over 300 years. William and Dorothy Wordsworth had breakfast here in 1803. Those who stop here today are most unlikely to be served, as they were, ‘butter not eatable, the barley cakes fusty, the oat bread so hard I could not chew it, and there were only four eggs in the house which they had boiled as hard as stones’, in Dorothy’s words. The poet Coleridge 'waited an hour and a half for a dish of tea – the most civil promises all the while'. Forty years later, Charles Dickens found the place full up with 'fifty highlanders, all drunk'. The present building dates from about 1830. The drovers stance was moved in 1844 to Bridge of Orchy on the insistence of Lord Breadalbane, who took his case all the way to the House of Lords, so that he could keep the land for stalking. In more recent years, Inveroran has become popular with walkers, climbers and anglers. It provides the last hostelry before you tackle the section over Rannoch Moor.
