Nordic Walking The West Highland Way: Day Four
Inverarnan to Auchtertyre
When: Wednesday 16th September 2026
Miles Walked: 10.29
Steps taken: 18,778
Moving time: 3:45:11
Elevation gain: 1553 ft
Todays walk should just be to Crianlarich (6 miles), but we have decided to push on a little further as the weather forecast for today is better than tomorrow!
Today we have woken up to clear skies and even a partly sunny day forecast, we don’t have to pack up the tent as we are staying at Beinglas campsite again tonight, so after a cooked breakfast and a leisurely get up we bid Steve farewell and will let him know if he needs to collect us from Crianlarich or Auchtertyre later. The path goes up through the middle of the campsite (we work it out eventually) on a broad gravelly track. For most of the first part of todays walk we are never that far from the A82 or the railway line, but also big hills on the other side of us!
The first part of the walk is mostly level, the sound of water is never very far away as we are either crossing small burns or passing waterfalls and we are following the course of the River Falloch, which features cascades, white water rapids and Falloch Falls (which we go to see later)
So far we have had no need for our raincoats this afternoon and the walking has been easy, this once was a Drovers route.
We pause for Isaac to put a blister plaster on his heel as he has a hot spot and wonder why this tree with its root in a small burn has died?
Waymarkers and the River Falloch keeping us on route. The walk through Glen Falloch is really quite beautiful even when it rains as it does now!
A train passes just before we descend under the track in a cattle creep, which means we have to virtually creep along crouching to pass, I dread to think how anyone with a rucksack much larger than mine would manage!
Shortly after the cattle creep we also cross under the A82, but this time in a full height corrugated tunnel. This brings us out onto an old military road which will lead us to Crianlarich. The Highlands are criss-crossed with old military roads and all of the ones used on the West Highland Way were supervised by Major William Caulfield who was responsible for overseeing over 800 miles of road!
We are going to call this stretch rainbow road as there were periods of brief showers leading to beautiful rainbows ahead of us! We are high above the Glen here and the views are gorgeous!
Some lovely stone walling along here too.
Through a gate and whoah-oh we’re halfway there!! This is the halfway point of the West Highland Way at a meeting of paths, left to continue, right to go to Crianlarich. Norbert has also finally found somewhere to perch - he has been along for the ride in my rucksack side pocket, but so far all the posts have been too pointy! Whilst we are contemplating stopping or continuing a trio of Dutch men catch us up (we passed them on a coffee stop earlier), I say hello in Dutch (which surprises them) and we have a nice chat about their journey on the West Highland Way, where they are stopping today and where they are from in the Netherlands. I message Steve to let him know to meet us further on in Auchtertyre and we turn left to continue. Here there has been a lot of felling and to start with a looks a little barren and bereft of character.
However the next section continues through a more densely forested area, which means the fungi are back! We have a great time spotting lots of these little red ones! Possibly Russula Emetica better known as The Sickener as it is poisonous making you vomit!
The path takes us across Herive burn and continues on a wider forest trail until it takes us right down underneath the railway bridge on the Oban branch line. Not long afterwards we have to cross the very busy A82 and turn left, where we promptly see Clara and Steve sail pass us- they don’t see us as we are lower than the road! We pass a Highland cow and she has a calf in a shed, but we can’t really see the calf.
Soon the Way has us cross a wide bridge over the river Fillan up towards Kirkton Farm, there are quite a lot of walkers milling around up here as there are several information boards about local history. there is a ruined Priory, probably from the 12th century, a monastic site dedicated to the memory of St Fillan, an Irish monk, son of Kentigerna. Robert the Bruce is said to have given the monastic settlement Priory status following his defeat at the battle of Dalrigh in 1306. Here is also Kirkton Burial Ground where amongst the gravestones four early medieval cross slabs which may date to the 7th or 8th century have been found.
There is a great deal of information about history, local flora and the hills to be found on boards along this stretch, mostly provided by the Hill & Mountain Research Centre. If it wasn’t chucking it down with rain again, we might spend more time perusing them! We walk onwards passing by Strathfillan Wigwams, which seems very closed! Turn left heading towards the main road again and see Clara in a lay-by! Woo-hoo! Stripping all our waterproofs off it is a relief to get in the dry! On our way back to Beinglas we stop off at the Falls of Falloch as we could hear them, but not see them from the West Highland Way. Well worth a visit and very accessible, they are mightily impressive! A scenic 30 foot drop waterfall! There is also a viewing platform/art installation featuring words from Dorothy Wordsworth (wife of William). Apparently the deep pool directly beneath the cascade is known as Rob Roy’s bathtub as he is said to have hidden here.
