‘WHAT, walk all the way from Milngavie to Fort William in just three days?” asked my concerned walking buddy John. “No,” I explained, “not the West Highland Way, the West Island Way on the Isle of Bute.”
It’s an easy mistake to make, but this 30-mile adventure proves to be far more than cheeky piggyback marketing. The West Island Way is no poor sibling. It thoroughly deserves its place as one of Scotland’s official Great Trails – the first one on an island – as we discover within half an hour of stepping off the CalMac ferry, after sailing over to Rothesay.
We leave the modern world behind and enter a world where you see more marine mammals, seabirds and deer than people. The sweeping sands of Kilchattan Bay are a suitably dramatic start, but the way soon turns rougher, scrambling over rocks on a wave-lashed coastline on the approach to postcard-pretty Rubh’ an Eun Lighthouse. I hear a splash thinking it’s another seal, but catch sight of an otter. It’s clear the waymarked way is no Sunday stroll on this first of the four sections, the Kilchattan Bay Circular, but all are unrelentingly beguiling. After reaching Bute’s southern shores, we wave goodbye to views of the nearby Cumbraes and distant Ailsa Craig, and eke north in search of St Blane’s Chapel. We picnic at this moody ruin with the ghosts of the monks and this celebrated saint. There are suggestions locally that further ruins here could even predate Iona – a tantalising thought.
Day’s end comes on Bute’s west coast after easing by the tiny airstrip and one of Bute’s famed golf courses. We’re staying just off the way at Scalpsie Farm. I meet Lisa Gast, legendary on Instagram as the “Scalpsie Shepherdess”. She shows us to one of her brace of plush glamping pods and says she’s a fan of the way: “A lot of people think of Bute as just Rothesay. The West Island Way really opens up lovely parts of the island that you’d just never see otherwise.”
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After settling in with a delicious curry kit from Bute butcher Macqueens and savouring a dram, watching the sun set over Arran across the water, I’m glad we’ve opened up this oasis that feels a million miles from Rothesay. The whisky tastes even better knowing you can only forge here on foot. Day two sweeps us from the shore at Scalpsie on to the Moor Road and Lord James’ Ride, the latter named after a member of the dynasty who still hold sway on Bute – he had it built so he could have a straight, fast route for running his horses. We avoid the temptation to pop down to Mount Stuart, perhaps Scotland’s grandest country house, built by the 3rd Marquess of Bute – at the time, the world’s richest man.
Instead, we follow the way, descending to swing around shimmering Loch Ascog and Loch Fad, which mark our crossing across the Highland Boundary Fault from the Lowlands into the Highlands. We flirt with the outskirts of “The Town” (Rothesay) and the world of traffic lights and pavements, then push on into the hills and moorland that take us to day’s end at Port Bannatyne.
The Bayview Hotel in Rothesay stress they welcome walkers and they do, setting us up the next morning with a glorious cooked breakfast as we watch a pod of dolphins flip around in Rothesay Bay. It turns out we need the calories – our last day is an epic.
We tackle the final two sections in one go. An arrow-straight old tramway vaults us off, before we break north, rising past farms in search of a brace of cleared villages. We find the stone walls echoing with ghosts, of lives stripped away to distant shores. These are harrowing sites; nowhere does Bute feel more Highland.
APPROACHING the north of Bute, we’re enveloped in thick forests straight out of the Brothers Grimm. As with much of this walk there isn’t a soul around, but we’re accompanied part of the way by an golden eagle soaring high on the thermals.
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With no stomach to take the Balnakailly Loop optional diversion to another cleared village, we turn tail in the hills above Rhubodach, retreating south. Finally breaking free of forestry, the famous Kyles of Bute unfurl like the curtain in a cinema – fitting, as filmmaker Richard Attenborough owned a house here.
The last section of the West Island Way drives us along an airy ridge with glorious views all around. Before journey’s end in Port Bannatyne, we divert to Bute’s highest point, 278m-high Windy Hill. From this lofty perch I count five other islands – I’ll let you come to discover for yourself what they are.
“Well, we’re definitely not in Fort William,” smiles John, admiring the view. “Mile for mile this has got to be the most varied walk in Scotland.”
Thinking back to three days alive with saintly ghosts, cleared villages, lighthouses, otters, big skies and fairy-tale forests, I cannot disagree.
For more information on the West Island Way and the places mentioned in this article please visit:
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