WALK THE LINE The West Highland Railway

WA LK TH E LI N E Th e West Highla n d Railway
FOR LOCH OSSIAN
T
HE GREAT MOOR of Rannoch is
one of Britain’s last lonely places.
Just whisper the name and you can
feel its wild promise prickle at your neck
– over 50 square miles of peat bog and
lochan, burn and boulder, barely touched
by building or Tarmac. In fact, the only
way to access its remote interior is on the
railway or on foot.
The moor proved quite the headache for
builders of the West Highland Line: the
first group of railway engineers that
walked out to scout the land in 1889 got
lost in the mist and had to be rescued. You
might be reassured that the initial mile of
your linear route from the tumbleweed
platform at Rannoch to Corrour Station is
on a lane, a short stroll along the only
metalled road that ventures onto the moor.
By the wobbling shoreline of Loch
Eigheach, a left turn takes you onto a
stony track known as the Road to the Isles
– or Rathad nan Eilean. Thousands of feet
and hooves have travelled this way over
the centuries, as it was a primary drovers’
route from the Highlands to the livestock
markets of Crieff and Falkirk, lined with
stances where the cattle and sheep would
be rested and watered. Ironically, it
was the railway, known as the
Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean or the
Iron Road to the Isles, that helped
put the drovers and this trail out of
regular business. u
p LONELY
BEAUT Y
Sunrise over Loch
Ossian at the heart
of Rannoch Moor,
over nine miles from
the nearest road.
34 COUNTRY WALKING AUGUST 2014
PHOTO: TOM BAILEY
WA LK TH E LI N E Th e West Highla n d Railway
The ancient track climbs gently across
the flank of Sron Leachd a’ Chaorainn,
ever further from road and from rail. Look
out across Rannoch’s deserted miles and
you can imagine it in years past; crushed
beneath the last great ice-sheet of
Scotland and later carpeted by the vast
Wood of Caledon.
A few shreds of that Caledonian forest
remain – like the Black Wood of Rannoch
away on the southern shore of Loch
Rannoch, once home to the last wild wolf
of Scotland – but Rannoch now tends to
heather tussocks, spiked by the
occasional spatter of pines and smoothed
by many lochans.
If the rain starts – and it is an infamously
frequent visitor – then the peat on this
section soon starts to purée under your
boots, eliciting sympathy for the navvies
trying to build a railway over bogs that sink
up to 20ft deep. Eventually, they had to
float the line across the moor on a bed of
brushwood and tree-root, and the carriages
can still give a tell-tale quiver today.
Firmer ground fringes the moor, its
acres of peat circled by some of Scotland’s
most famous mountains: the perfect
upturned Cornetto of Schiehallion; the
cumulus-bumping summit of Ben Nevis;
the snaggle-tooth arête of the Aonach
Eagach above Glencoe.
The path continues across the Corrour
Estate, bought by Sir John Stirling
Maxwell in 1891 to create a ‘gentleman’s
paradise’ for hunting and deer-stalking.
He granted the West Highland Railway
Company permission to build across his
land on the proviso they built a station for
his guests. You’ll pass the stone remnants
of a grand shooting lodge – Corrour Old
Lodge – which it’s said was later used as an
isolation hospital. After the railway was
completed, a new lodge was built at the
eastern end of Loch Ossian, and the threemile ribbon of water soon comes into view.
It’s one of the highest lochs in Scotland,
its mirror-still surface almost 400m
above sea-level and tucked in a huddle of
Munros – Carn Dearg, Beinn na Lap, Sgor
Gaibhre. Ossian’s tree-crowned island is
man-made – an Iron Age crannog – and its
silent shores see red deer and roe, and
shyer creatures like pine marten and red
squirrel. You might even see a golden
q WILD WATERS
u ECO - HOSTEL
Spot otters in Loch
Ossian, red squirrels
in the woods, red
deer on the moor,
and eagles above.
Loch Ossian is an
eco-friendly spot:
power from a wind
turbine, compost
loos, and cold loch
water for a fridge.
eagle, circling high above the moor.
The lake’s western tip is home to Loch
Ossian Youth Hostel, whose greencorrugated walls have been sheltering
walkers since 1931, its friendly kitchen
and common area warmed by a log-burner.
It’s a wonderful place to stay – for the
silence of the night, for the inky skies
dusted with bright stars, and for a second
chance at good weather the next day.
Walk here on a dreich afternoon and you
may agree with Robert Louis Stevenson’s
description of Rannoch in Kidnapped,
“A wearier looking desert a man never
saw.” Wake to a bright dawn, though, and
you might just let the early train rumble
past and stay an extra few hours to watch
the sober moor sparkle to russet and
purple, before walking the mile out to
Corrour – Britain’s highest and remotest
mainline railway station.
p TR AINSPOTTING
Film fans will recognise Corrour Station from
Trainspotting, when Renton, Spud, Sickboy
and Tommy leave Edinburgh to go for a walk.
WALK HERE: Turn to Walk 25 in this issue for
a guide and map for your 11-mile linear walk
from Rannoch to Corrour Station.
STAY HERE: Bed down at the remote and
beautiful Loch Ossian Youth Hostel (01397
732207, syha.org.uk), with its cosy fire, fully
equipped kitchen and incredible views.
Dorms only, from £14pp/pn.
uNEXT STOP: TULLOCH
p RING OF ROCK
Rannoch Moor is surrounded
by Scottish giants like Ben
Nevis, their high crags hanging
on to the last of winter’s snow.
AUGUST 2014 COUNTRY WALKING 37