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Route: West Highland Way (United Kingdom)

Submitted by Alasdair Grant on Wed, 07/08/2020 - 02:06pm
Location
United Kingdom
Distance
154 km
Vertical Gain
3,155 m
Description

This is a premier walking trail route in Scotland. It runs from a small town to the north of Glasgow to Fort William. The route takes in Loch Lomond and then enters Scotland's Western Highlands through Glencoe and then up to Fort William. It is a popular tourist walk but it can also be a trail run. There is an official West Highland Way trail race. The website for the route is here https://www.westhighlandway.org/.  We do not track FKTs set in races, since the race websites do that.  As of 2020 the CR for the race is 13h41m8s (Rob Sinclair, 2017).

 

GPS Track
West Highland Way.gpx42.23 KB

FKTs

Comments

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Matt Girvan
Thu, 04/22/2021 - 01:15am

Hi folks. I'm going to attempt a solo, unsupported run of the WHW starting tomorrow (Friday 23rd April 2021). I'll start at Fort William at around 5pm and make my way south in one continuous push, hoping to make it to Milngavie in around 24 hours = 5pm Saturday. I understand that this would be an unsupported FKT (hats off to George for doing his in winter!). I'm surprised not to see more times listed for such an iconic and historic route - I'd love to hear if anybody knows of previous fast self/unsupported times on the WHW. 

I'll travel entirely unsupported, carrying all my own food/gear and only collecting water along the way (to be clear, I have no support people meeting me en route and will not be buying anything from shops/cafes along the way). Due to the relatively short length of the trip/trail I won't have a live tracker, but I'll record the entire journey on Strava for verification and take plenty of photos. The forecast looks excellent, but I'll be keeping safe with a PLB, emergency bivvy bag, first aid kit, wet weather gear etc. 

In line with current Covid restrictions (due to ease on the 26th) I will not be staying in any tourist accommodation before/during/after the trip and will just have to do it in a rapid train-run-train trip to/from Edinburgh.

Wish me luck!!

(Regional Editor): Well done, Matt, great time! I walked the WHW N to S in Sept 2019 with a full backpack and it's tough going, especially on the shoreline of Loch Lomond, as you say. And that stretch looks the easiest on paper. Let's see if anyone comes up with a faster unsupported or self-supported time... 

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dnechev
Tue, 07/26/2022 - 02:40pm

Hi Matt. Did you succeed in your goal? Would love to hear how it went, what were your challenges and what advice would you give. 
Thanks. Dimitar