Lessons from hiking across the wilderness of the West Highland Way

I recently had the great pleasure and privilege of hiking the West Highland Way in Scotland with my wife and 2 of my best friends as a 50th birthday celebration.

The West Highland Way is a 96 mile trail from Milngavie (just north of Glasgow) to Fort William, by the base of the largest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis. ?The path uses many ancient roads, including ancient drovers' roads, military roads dating to the Jacobite uprisings and old coaching routes. It has a complete mixture of terrain and scenery, from walking along the entirety of Loch Lomond through forest paths over 2 days, to the wilderness and open spaces of Glencoe to skirting the Mamore mountains into the valley of Glen Nevis.

I have done quite a bit of hiking in my time, but the trails hiked have always been circular – i.e. I inevitably hike back to where I started, so I was really excited and intrigued by the idea of walking somewhere new every day. ?Walking is how Homo Sapiens spread from Africa across the planet – it is one of our most primal activities. Remember how important during Covid that daily 1 hour of walking became critical to our well being?

36,000 people complete the West Highland Way each year, so I was equally interested about ?meeting the same likeminded people every day doing the same walk, almost like a pilgrimage. I’d heard from others who had done the trail previously that there was an almost spiritual quality to walk, I was curious to see what I might learn from this experience that I could apply to my life. And the walk did not disappoint!

Lesson 1: “Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” - Buddha

Ok, so what’s the relevance of this quote? I’d heard this quote on a podcast a couple of months ago, and it stayed with me as a positive, life affirming statement. I didn’t expect it to rear its head on the West Highland Way!

It captures exactly what each morning felt like. What I’d hiked the day before, no matter how challenging it was, no matter how exciting or exhilarating it was no longer mattered the following day – all that was important was that day’s hike. Where we were walking to. Being present in that day’s activity. Enjoying and appreciating that moment. It felt liberating.

Lesson 2: Don’t be fooled by the size of the climb – consistent application beats short sharp bursts in terms physical and mental impact on you.

I completely misunderstood which days would be toughest when looking at the elevation of the trail. Days 2 and 3 (Drymen – Rowardennan – Inverarnen) on paper looked quite easy – walking along Loch Lomond, predominantly through woodland, lots of small, jagged climbs on the elevation map. Compared to days 4+ (Inverarnen – Tyndrum – Inverornan – Kingshouse – Kinlochleven - Fort William) with their much longer, higher climbs, I thought this would be a nice, easy few days of the hike.

How wrong was I – days 2 and 3 were unquestionably the toughest days of the West Highland Way. Numerous short spurts of elevation and descent were far more punishing than smaller numbers of longer, consistent climbs – I think this is as true in life.

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Lesson 3: ?Immersing yourself in nature really helps with mental well-being and humility.

I love mountains. Give me a mountain over a beach any day. My family are from the Appennini mountains in Emilia in Italy. I spent most of my summers as a child there. There is something magical about mountains, their scale & size, the fact that they are created over 10s of millions of years. You can’t help but feel so small, awestruck, and humble in their presence. Even though the Scottish Highland mountains are relatively small compared to other mountain ranges, they still inspire those same feelings. I found myself asking whether people who live in valleys and on mountains were inherently more humble than people who live in built up areas as a result. Who could you not be when faced daily with such awe and wonder?

Lesson 4: Perspective is everything – look back to see how far you’ve come.

During coaching sessions I often work with my clients to look at things from different perspectives – perhaps from the point of view of someone else, or getting them to move physically in the room to see what thoughts appear.

During my hike of the West Highland Way, particularly in the latter more mountainous phases, I made a conscious effort to stop every now and again to look at how far I’d walked that day. It was only when looking back that I gained the perspective of just how far I had come.

Lesson 5: Seeing and appreciating wonder is enough.

The highlight of the walk for me, the moment I will treasure for ever came on day 6 walking to Glencoe across the ageless Rannoch Moor. I took a slight detour off the path to climb up to see a memorial cairn in honour of Peter Fleming, the brother of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. If you’ve seen Skyfall, you’ll recognise the incredible surroundings here. As I got to the top, and stood by the cairn and turned around, I could see both the path I had walked already, and the path I was still to walk. The vastness of the scene, the wildness of it all, the peace and serenity took my breath away and left me with a feeling of immense gratitude that I was there at that moment to see that expanse.

It reminded me of a line from Doctor Who, when the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) says to his archnemesis the Master (John Simm) about travelling together:

“You don't need to own the universe, just see it. Have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space. That's ownership enough.”

It’s so easy in the day to day to chase the next thing, but sometimes just being able to see what’s in front of you, being grateful that you are there, and appreciating the view is enough.

I couldn’t recommend the West Highland Way highly enough – there is unquestionably something magical and spiritual about setting off on this type of “pilgrimage” where you get to experience the awe and majesty of nature just by doing one of the most primal things, walking, and by each day walking to a different destination.

It was great to see the same other faces walking the same trail each day – one duo stuck in my mind, a father and teenage daughter doing the Way together, wild camping, and raising money for Young Minds. Big grins on their faces each time we saw them – was lovely to see.

And the sense of accomplishment at the end was amazing. I’m going to sit with this for a while and just enjoy it – next trip, a solo bike packing adventure in October, the King Alfred Way...

Thank you for reading this far – hope you enjoyed it.