Ideas for good hill walks accessible by public transport
Not e book: smrnuke's notebook Cre at e d: 16/07/2014 19:53 Updat e d: 09/11/2014 20:31 A ut hor: Joseph Heffernan
There is a rail line called the West Highland Railway and it goes through some very interesting areas.
The UWS library has some Ordnance Survey Maps that you can borrow. The British Name for the maps that hill walkers use is “Ordnance Survey Maps” I have provided this information below.
Thinking about the stations along the West Highland Railway -
The first one of interest is Crianlarich.
There are quite a number of High Mountains around Crainlarich. Their names are and I have arranged them in groups that would normally be climbed together in a single day:
Ben More & Stob Binnein (quite close to the rail station in Crainlarich - about 3km to the start of the walk) Cruach Ardrain & Beinn Tulaichean (quite close to the rail station in Crainlarich - about 2km to the start of the walk) An Caisteel & Beinn a Chroin ( about 4 km walk from Crainlarich to get to where the trail starts)
For the Crainlarich Hills see the Ordnance Survey Map Sheet 50
There is a youth hostel in Crainlarich if you want to spend the night or 2 but book ahead.
The Journey time from Glasgow Queen Street staion to Crainlarich is around 1hr 30 minutes
The train will split in half at Crainlarich. Half goes to Oban which is where Falls of Cruchan station is located and the other half goes to Fort William where Corrour station is located.
The next station of interest is Falls of Cruachan. From here you could climb Ben Cruachan. To the best of my knowledge there isn’t any youth hostel nearby so you would need to either wild camp or get back to civilization after your walk. I have climbed this mountain and I enjoyed it.
For Ben Cruchan see the Ordnance Survey Map Sheet 50 From Corrour station it is an easy walk to do Beinn na Lap. For this hill see OS Sheet 41. Something interesting about Corrour is that there is no road into this area. The only easy way to get there is by train. There is a youth hotel nearby called Loch Ossian Youth Hostel. I have stayed at Loch Ossian Youth Hostel. I didn’t go up Beinn na Lap but from what I saw it didn’t look especially interesting.
If you asked me what I would recommend I would suggest the hills around Crainlarich. These are big hills, if the weather is good you will get some great views. There is more than 1 walk in this area so you could spend 2 or even 3 days there doing a different walk each day. There is also a youth hostel there which can provide cheap accommodation but be sure to book ahead.
Fort William is a town that you can reach either by train or bus. If you go to Fort William then you can climb the mountains in the Ben Nevis range. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain. – OS Sheet 41
If you have a car then you could think about Glen Coe. In Glen Coe some of the names of the mountains are
Stob Dearg (Buachaille Etive Mor) – OS Sheet 41 Bidean nam Bian – OS Sheet 41 Sgorr nam Fiannaidh and Meall Dearg are two Munros separated by a narrow rocky and exposed ridge known as the Aonach Eagagh (Notched ridge) on the side of Glen Coe. – OS Sheet 41
There are more Monros then this in Glen Coe.
Another place that isn’t too far from Paisley if you have a car is Killin. From Killan you can climb the hills around Ben Lawers – OS Sheet 51
If you want to find the routes up these mountains then visit the web site: http://www.munromagic.com/
This web site has a map section. Go to the search tab to find the maps. In the map section you will see a map of Scotland. You can zoom into this map to get the mountains in a specific area.
I hope this helps. Enjoy yourselves.
Joe