How hard is the West Highland Way?
It’s as hard (or as easy) as you want to make it.
Unlike other long hiking trails, which might require that you carry all of your equipment and food for a multi-day trek, the West Highland Way passes through a number of small towns and villages.
Here you will find plenty of shops to stock up on food, and ample accomodation if camping isn’t your jam, so you needn’t carry (unless you want to):
- A tent, sleeping bag, roll mat etc…
- Five jars of your favourite pasta sauce
- Ten litres of water
There are also multiple baggage delivery services who will drive your heavy rucksacks from point to point, if you are unable to or don’t fancy carrying them with you each day.
Daily Distances
Again, daily distances are something which can be tailored to suit your desired difficulty.
This depends more on how long you have available for your walk.
The whole route is 96 miles, so if you have 10 days to do it then you’ll need to average 9.6 miles (or 15.4 km) per day.
If you want to do it in 7 days this increases to 13.7 miles, or 22 km.
With 5 days it’s 19.2 miles, or 30.9 km (starting to get pretty tough).
Now, these distances are just the averages, so depending on where you’re staying you’d be doing shorter distances some days and longer distances on others. For example, the standard 7 day route has a 19 mile day followed by a 9 mile day.
Another thing to consider is the daily elevation. It’s no use planning an itinerary with perfect distance splits but 1000m elevation one day and 0m the next. You might be alright with it, but the days won’t be evenly matched at all.
And what about the terrain?
Is it accessible and easy to hike?
For the most part, absolutely yes.
Along the banks of Loch Lomond, from Rowardennan to Inverarnan, there are a lot of undulating ups and downs, with some more technical parts to deal with when going downhill.
But in general, the paths are very clearly laid out and easy to follow, on gravel, stone or grass.
The old military road on the way to Kingshouse is quite spiky, and it might get a bit sore on the old feet, but there should be no difficulties in terms of scrambled ascents or scree-filled descents.
If the weather has been wet, then there will be more mud and bog to make your way through, which you should be aware of too.
With all this in mind, how should you do this?
I’d start by answering the following questions, which should give you a good idea of your level.
- How experienced a hiker are you? Are you regularly walking distances in excess of 10 miles?
- Do you have experience of hike-trekking — walking distances in excess of 10 miles with a big heavy bag on your back? And would you be comortable doing this for a week straight?
- How are you planning on spending the nights? Camping, BnBs, hostels? A mixture. Basically — what kit will you need.
- How challenging do you want this walk to be? Do you want to take it easy, enjoying the scenery and cultivating a generally relaxed air as you take it all in? Or will you relish making a physical challenge of it?
- How long do you have to do this? Perhaps the most important question, as it will inform your answers to the others. If you only have 5 days then the recommendation will be different compared to those who have 10.
If you are planning on camping, and have plenty of experience carrying a rucksack with your tent in, then a 7 day expedition could be the one for you, provided you do still fancy a bit of a challenge.
If you don’t have this experience, but still fancy giving it a go then I’d recommend a practice hike, with all your gear.
Walking a distance equivalent to the longest day of your planned route. If you struggle with that then you might want to look into getting your luggage carried.
If you want to luxuriate in the sights and sounds of the Scottish Highlands, worrying not about whether your shoulders are going to be sore in the mornings, then the luggage carriers have you sorted. Just pick your favourite and fill in the places you’re going to be staying at.
A good thing to add here is that you can book yourself onto a luggage carriage partway through the walk, if you find that you’ve been struggling more than you thought you would.
My girlfriend did this ahead of two 19 mile days we had scheduled, and it was a lifesaver. We used Baggage Freedom, who had a helpful WhatsApp service, which made it all very easy.
If you want to really challenge yourself, then you could try the five day, carry everything option. A warning though, as told by a man working at a campsite in Tyndrum, and who had done the Way 25 times himself,
‘I’ve seen squaddies crawling through here on their knees. This walk breaks people’
One would presume that said squaddies were doing a compressed itinerary, with very heavy packs. Either that or my storyteller was being fanciful.
Final Recommendation
Ultimately I can’t decide how you should do this walk, but I can reiterate that it is open to people of all abilities.
I have seen young children and older people doing it. Its all about how difficult a walk you think you can handle (and want to handle).
Ask yourself the questions in the section above, and you’ll be in the perfect position to decide. Now there’s no excuse not to.
