Having done Hadrian's Wall a couple of years ago, we decided to walk the West Highland Way this year. In terms of length, at 96 miles it's pretty much the same as Hadrian's Wall, but the terrain is a lot tougher; only the first day is reasonably flat and a lot of it is very rocky and/or mountainous. The train itself is also frequently stony and quite hard on the feet (you can tell it's a rough path when you get to a gravelled section and find yourself thinking "oh, lovely soft gravel!").

Day 1 was just under 12 miles, from Milgavie to Drymen; a pleasant, flattish walk, a bit dull in places but with one lovely section past the edge of the Campsie Fells, and the first views of Loch Lomond to end the day. We also got to have lunch with unblinkered and infant at the pub at the half-way point (a morning's walking away from the start for us, 20 minutes' drive from home for them).

Day 2 felt like the real start of the walk; up over Conic Hill (seated bang on the Highland Fault Line) and down to the shores of Loch Lomond. I was glad of my walking poles, particularly for the very steep descent of Conic Hill and the undulating path through the woods along the side of the loch. We were tired and a bit achy when we reached our accommodation in Rowardennan.

Day 3, from Rowardennan along the northern half of Loch Lomond to Inverarnan, was probably the toughest day of the whole walk. The morning was more of the same undulating terrain as the previous afternoon, with lots of short climbs and descents; the final stretch of the lochside walk, after lunch, involved a lot of scrambling up and over rocks and ascending and descending very steep and rocky paths. The hardest section was only about two miles long but took us the best part of two hours to get through, despite our guidebook's claim that it should only take 50-60 minutes. (Coming back on the train down the other side of the loch, it was easy to see why it was so hard; at that point, the hills drop almost straight down into the water so we really were picking our way along what wasn't far off a sheer cliff, though that wasn't at all obvious from the path.) After that, the fairly steep climb away from the loch and descent into Glen Falloch where we were staying for the night felt almost easy, but we were very tired by the time we staggered into Beinglas Farm where we were staying the night and I was very glad that the on-site bar meant we didn't have to walk far to find dinner (in my case, the Scottish pub staple of macaroni cheese and chips, which was the perfect comfort food after a very tough day's walking).

Day 4, from Inverarnan to Tyndrum, was a shorter day (only just over 12 miles) and over much less tough terrain than the previous day, though there were a couple of steep climbs and a long undulating forest stretch. I was flagging rather by the time we got to the level ground of Strathfillan, and even though we only had a couple more miles to go I was very glad to stop at a charming artisan cafe for a cup of tea and some cake. (This was the point at which I realised the effects of dehydration, as I found myself drinking a whole half-litre bottle of water as soon as I sat down and realised that I had been moderating my water intake in an attempt to not need to go to the loo when there were no convenient stops shown on the map to such an extent that I hadn't had nearly enough.) Suitably fortified, we carried on to what turned out to be one of the nicest B&Bs of the week, about 10 minutes' walk from the centre of Tyndrum where there is an excellent fish and chip shop.

Day 5 was the day I'd been nervous about; 19.5 miles on paper, from Tyndrum to Kingshouse, though as the Kinghouse Hotel was closed for major renovations the tour company we'd booked with had arranged a shuttle transfer from the Glencoe Mountain Resort, a mile before Kingshouse, to a B&B in Glencoe village. The main problem was that the shuttle operated between 3pm and 5:30pm, and although we had contact numbers in case we'd be later than that we didn't expect to have a phone signal. To be sure of getting there in time we set off an hour earlier than normal, at 8am. It was a splendid day's walking, around Beinn Doran, down to Bridge of Orchy, over a small ridge to Inveroran and then across the wide expanse of Rannoch Moor; we were very fortunate with the weather and the scenery was stunning, though the path down from the summit of the moor to the mountain resort was steep and very stony and we were quite happy not to have to walk the final mile to Kingshouse. This also meant that we got to see Glencoe, which the trail doesn't go in to, and which is absolutely lovely.

Day 6 was a shorter day in terms of distance - just over 10 miles - but involved a steep climb up the "Devil's Staircase" (259m), a stony trek across the mountains and then a very steep and stony descent into Kinlochleven. The climbing wasn't actually that bad but the descent was really hard.

The final day was one of the longest; 15.8 miles from Kinlochleven to the end point in Fort William, with a steep climb almost as high as the Devil's Staircase to start the day and another steep climb a couple of miles before the end. It was also drizzling most of the day, which meant that the promised views of Ben Nevis were pretty much invisible (I find myself wondering if the urge to climb Ben Nevis is actually prompted by wondering if it even *has* a top, as it's not generally visible from elsewhere), but it wasn't too bad a day until the last couple of miles along the road into Fort William, which must be a dull slog at the best of times and weren't much fun at all when it had started to rain heavily. I'm also not sure that it was a good idea to move the end point of the Way from the roundabout at the end of the Glen Nevis road into the centre of Fort William, meaning that weary walkers have to negotiate the main shopping street of the town, full of people going about their normal business. Still, we made it to the end and immediately collapsed in the adjacent Wetherspoons for a rest before trudging the five minutes to our B&B, and after a hot shower and a change of clothes we were able to venture out again for a very good curry (a welcome change after a week of chips).

All in all, while I'm very glad we did it and it was a wonderful break and a chance to see some amazing scenery close up, it was a lot tougher than we'd expected and even though we'd done a lot of practice walking in Oxfordshire doesn't compare to walking in the Highlands. It was noticeable that the age profile of West Highland Way walkers was a lot younger than Hadrian's Wall, with lots more people 10-20 years younger than us than older people. I'd like to do more long-distance walks, and more walking in Scotland, but woud definitely need to think about the difficulty level as this was pretty much right at our limits.