A February afternoon on the West Highland Line.
Rudy visited Crianlarich as part of a little winter holiday break with family & friends in February 2020. Taking the train from Glasgow Queen Street to Fort William is a beautiful journey but at almost four hours we decided to break it into two parts. Setting off mid-morning with no rush to arrive we were able to plan a two hour break of journey in Crianlarich to stretch everyone’s legs!
Crianlarich station is two hours from Glasgow and is where the West Highland Line separates into two branches, train services often start from Glasgow together with the train uncoupling here to split into an Oban service and the other heading towards Fort William and eventually Mallaig.
Crianlarich village is also halfway along the West Highland Way walking route and surrounded by Munro mountains – ideal for hillwalking or photography! The weather was bright & chilly when we arrived, heading straight to the Community Woodland a very short walk down from the train station. There are two marked walking trails but we stuck to the shorter one for a half hour explore around wonderful viewpoints before the February weather changed to drizzle and threatened worse!
Crianlarich Community Woodland Path View from Crianlarich Community Woodland
As a base for hillwalkers Crianlarich has a number of options for refreshments and shelter out of the weather but in off season February not all are open full-time. We made our way to the The Crianlarich Hotel bar and discovered a warm nook next to a cosy radiator for Rudy – the staff were very friendly to us all and discovering the hotel is dog friendly we were soon daydreaming about overnight stays here in future.
