Devil’s Staircase to grocery shopping

Devil’s Staircase to grocery shopping

 

In Kingshouse we ended our West Highland Way walk – at least with carrying our luggage. The tiny village consists only of a hotel, a bunkhouse, and the Glencoe Mountain ski centre and campsite – which is quite ugly. But they have cozy microlodges, so we stayed there for three nights to give our feet some much needed rest. Well, not quite. The campsite had no onsite-shop, only an overprized cafe with uninspiring food. The next shops were in Kinlochleven, which is also the next stop on the West Highland Way, around 15 kilometers away. So we decided to go on a grocery-shopping-hike the day after our arrival. We grabbed a backpack with some snacks we had left, some water, and off we went around noon. Luckily it was dry most of the time, but it wasn’t exactly nice weather. Grey and foggy. Occasionally some drizzle, that didn’t quite qualify as rain.

This part of the way is notoriously feared by most walkers, since you have to cross the so-called Devil’s Staircase, a steep ascent up the ridge between Kingshouse and Kinlochleven. However, it was not at all that bad. And after we had climbed it the path descended much of the remaining way.  It was still quite exhausting, and the long descent got me thinking about our way back… Once in Kinlochleven we decided to take the bus back, via Glen Coe. All in all, it took us a whole day just to go grocery-shopping, but it was arguably the most scenic shopping trip we’ve done so far.

The Route:

 

Some pics:

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