Walkers Welcome on Highlands' Central Line

By Mike Merchant

As the carriage door slams behind you, and your rucksack hits the platform, you experience a moment of complete freedom: nobody can reach you, and you’re not going anywhere except under your own steam. This is Corrour Station, at 1350 feet altitude the high point of the West Highland railway, and a gateway to some of the best mountain walking in Britain.

 

Corrour is at the centre of Scotland’s central highlands, between Rannoch Moor to the south, and the wilds of Lochaber to the north. No public roads reach here, but a wealth of tracks lead through the hills. To name just two of the bigger walks, you can follow the Road to the Isles to Fort William, or walk the 28 miles through to Dalwhinnie on the A9. Or you can base yourself here. This remotest of areas has places where visitors are welcome, and I’ve been lucky enough to use several of them.




Let’s start at the station itself, where one gusty May morning I arrived after 12 hours on the sleeper train from London. It was not exactly a gruelling start; I just had to cross the tracks to Station House and enjoy a full breakfast in Beth Campbell’s restaurant. Station House offers all-day meals and comfortable B&B rooms - though you’d be advised to book ahead. From there it was only a couple of hours’ walk to the top of Ben na Lap, the nearby 3070-foot hill overlooking Loch Ossian. I cowered beneath a bit of a storm, then took the long way down to lonely Strath Ossian, a high, empty bowl of land with big hills on all sides, at the heart of Corrour Estate’s 52,000 acres. Then a 7-mile tramp on estate roads, along the pine-fringed loch and back to Station House for evening meal and bed. It really was a lightning visit; the next morning train to Glasgow saw me in the city around noon. I met no-one else on the hill.



Another time I stayed just a mile from the station. On a patch of green at the end of Loch Ossian, the estate in days gone by kept a boathouse and jetty, from where a steam launch conveyed guests the three miles down the loch to the lodge. In the 1930s the Scottish Youth Hostels Association was allowed to use the boathouse, and the picturesque corrugated hut served them until very recent years, when it was rebuilt (and found to be held up mainly by force of habit).

The old hostel when I stayed there was complete with coal stove, bunks and army blankets, and not a lot else – there was no electric and no running water (though spotless toilets). My hillwalking that Autumn weekend was nil. The plan had been Ben na Lap, but stalking was in progress, so I walked round Loch Ossian instead. The distance is about 7 miles and though there’s not much height gained the walk is more demanding than you might think, and the south bank path is getting very wet these days. A book kept in the hostel recorded those who did the circuit in under the hour. I passed on that one. Today’s rebuilt 20-bed hostel has eco credentials including “wind and solar power, grey water, dry toilet systems and even bat friendly paint”.

Also rebuilt recently (after burning down in the war) is Corrour Lodge at the far end of the loch. A striking keep-like building by Boston architect Moshe Safdie, it too is available for visitors. But those of us who don’t pay 5-figure sums for a weekly let have a choice of the estate’s smaller houses, cottages and a bunkhouse, at reasonable rents. Rent one and you get to drive yourself in over about 10 miles of private forestry and estate roads. On site you can hire bikes and canoes, ride out on Icelandic horses, fish and buy Corrour venison.

We stayed at Sgor Choinnich, a former keeper’s house, one October week when the first snows came to Corrour. A chain of Munro (3000 foot) peaks rose almost from our front door; they stretch up the glen to the Bealach Dubh, the “Black Pass” that leads over to Loch Ericht, Dalwhinnie and the eastern side of Scotland.



So much snow! In the air and on the ground, it made map and compass essential above 2000 feet. The summit of Beinn Eibhinn was at the end of a wavering snow crest from where sweeping drops on all sides vanished into the murk. The plan had been to carry on to hill two, or even three. It was swiftly dropped. We were glad enough to get back down to the evening sun on the loch after only going astray once.

There are many other ways of exloring this spacious and remote district. I’ll just mention one: the next stop down the railway from Corrour is Tulloch, and it’s possible to catch a morning train there and walk back 10 miles or so over the hills; or why not stay at Tulloch’s Station Lodge bunkhouse, where Alan and Belinda will house, feed and water you? One word of warning: a lift is useful for the 3 miles by road from Tulloch to Fersit, where your walk back would start. 
   



Mike has spent thirty years as a journalist, writer, designer, publisher and editor, and has worked as a freelance since 1999.  He walks, climbs and skis regularly in Scotland and abroad and has been a ski instructor on snow and artificial slopes.  He also swims and surfs on British beaches and is a recreational cyclist. Along the way, he has developed considerable knowledge of environmental issues, particularly in relation to wild land and to Scotland. For more about Mike www.merchant.uk.net