Glencoe, Scotland - May 30th to June 1st, 2025

Glencoe is a small village, situated between Loch Leven, a beautiful lake, and the Glencoe National Nature Reserve in the mountains of the Scottish Highlands. Scenic drives and hiking trails are plentiful in the area. It’s the type of place we love to visit.

Friday was a short travel day, about a one hour drive from Oban to Glencoe. Since check-in wasn’t until 4 pm, we decided to do a short hike in Kinlochleven, at the end of Loch Leven, the same lake that Glencoe sits next to.

It was a beautiful drive. We arrived in Kinlochleven around 11:30 am. The car park at the trailhead was pretty empty. We paid our 4 pounds to park for the day, then walked into town to find a toilet. At first we thought we’d have to go to a cafe and order a drink in order to use their restroom, but then we spotted a public toilet building.

There seemed to be quite a few facilities in town to support long distance hikers, with services such as showers, hostels, mini-lodges, campgrounds, kitchens, and drying rooms. The West Highland Way, a long distance hiking route, passes right through town. It is a 154 kilometer (96 mile) route from Milgavie, just outside Glasgow, to Fort William. Most hikers complete the trail in eight days, with Kinlochleven being the last night’s stay before hiking the final segment of the trail to Fort William.

The hike we picked out was the Grey Mare’s Tail Waterfall Circular. The route passed near the waterfall, along with some other smaller waterfalls and cascades, before looping around to pick up the West Highland Way for less than half a mile to return to town.

The track in AllTrails didn’t have views of the waterfall, but there was a spur that took us close to the base of the waterfall. You could get a little closer, but that required walking on narrow boards above the stream. It looked a little sketchy to us, so we opted not to risk it. We took another little social trail near the top of the waterfall, but that didn’t have very good views of the waterfall. The rest of the route had lovely views of the surrounding area, so it was definitely worth hiking, despite not getting good views of Grey Mare’s Tail Waterfall.

By the time we returned to the car park, we had gone 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) with an elevation gain of 195 meters (640 feet) which we completed in an hour and a half. Even though it was short, we counted it as hike number 19 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

After our hike, we waked over to the cafe at the Highland Getaway Inn for a treat. Ann had a slice of lemon drizzle cake while Keith had a toffee cake. While we were enjoying our sweets, we chatted briefly with the couple sitting next to us. They were hiking the West Highland Way, finishing their last segment the following day. They had their luggage transferred between each of their stops, so they didn’t need to carry much on them while they hiked. How nice!

We walked around Kinlochleven for a little bit before driving to our lodging in Glencoe. We still arrived at the Beechwood B&B a little early. They let us park our car at the B&B while we went for a short walk around Glencoe.

Glencoe is a small, rural community. We picked up the Glencoe Orbital trail which we followed into the woods for a little while before heading back to the B&B to check in.

Back at Beechwood, we met another couple, Mark and Vicky, from Wisconsin. We enjoyed our conversations with them.

For dinner, Jackie, one of the Beechwood owners, had graciously made reservations for us at the Laroch Restaurant and Bar in the neighboring town of Ballachulish. It was about a 25 minute walk from the B&B. It was a nice evening, so we didn’t mind the walk. However, most of it is alongside the A82 highway with its noisy traffic.

Keith ordered the grazed pork belly with scallops while Ann had one of the specials, the gnocchi with a nice variety of vegetables and Gruyere. Keith liked the scallops at Laroch better than the ones he had at Ee-Usk the night before back in Oban (Oban, Scotland - May 26th to 29th, 2025). Unlike the ones at Ee-Usk, Laroch’s scallops had the foot removed.

For dessert, Keith went with the orange and Drambuie crème brûlée with shortbread biscuits while Ann had the chocolate orange tart with orange ice cream. They were both delicious.

Saturday, we went for a hike. We got an early start, as we heard that parking at the trailheads can get full before 10 am. So we left right after breakfast and made it to our trailhead around 9:15 am. There were still plenty of available spots when we arrived.

The hike we picked out for the day was called Lairig Gartain via Glen Cloe in AllTrails. The trail followed along the bottom of a valley, alongside a stream, up to a saddle. The stream provided a wonderful sound of flowing water along with some nice cascading waterfalls. All along were smaller streams feeding into it, with waterfalls lining the mountain sides.

Of course, that meant the trail crossed all of those smaller streams. However, we managed to cross all of them without getting our feet wet. There were nicely placed stones in most of them, but we were glad we had our trekking poles with us to help with our balance as we crossed.

When we reached the saddle, there was a gorgeous view down into the valley below and the lake in the distance, Loch Etive. We perched ourselves on a large boulder while we split a flapjack and enjoyed the view.

It sprinkled on us a few times during our hike, but the sun would peak out, casting spotlights across the scenery around us. As we reached the car, the rain started, and came down heavily for several hours. Perfect timing.

Our hike was 9.2 kilometers (5.7 miles) with an elevation gain of 355 meters (1165 feet) which took us three hours and 20 minutes to complete. It was hike number 20 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

After our hike, we drove over to the Glencoe Visitor Center. While the trailhead was free parking, it cost four pounds to park at the visitor center. We were hoping we could get some advice on what trails to hike the following day. However, the parks in Ireland and the United Kingdom that we’ve been to so far don’t seem to be run quite the same as what we are used to in the States. The Visitor Center had a gift shop, toilets, an exhibition (which was currently closed), and a cafe. The closest thing to hiking advice was a three dimensional relief map showing some of the trails.

We went into the cafe for drinks and waited in the long line to get served. In addition to hot drinks, Ann also got a lemon and blueberry blondie. Getting a seat to enjoy our treats was also an issue. We ended up on a couple of stools at a counter looking out the window at some bird feeders. It wasn’t too bad, but it really wasn’t what we envisioned in our heads when we decided to go to the cafe.

Just outside the visitor center was a replica of a 17th century turf and creel house. The replica is based on archeological excavations in the area. Turf and creel houses were typical in the area when the Massacre of Glencoe occurred in 1692. About 30 people of the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by Scottish government troops for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs.

The foundation of the house is stone. The exterior walls are turf, which is dried peat moss. The interior is creel, which is a framework woven from freshly cut green wood.

Upon returning to the B&B, we took showers and rounded up our dirty clothes. Beechwood asked that guests not use their bathrooms for laundry. So we obeyed their rules and paid the owners ten pounds to do a load of laundry for us. It was ready for us by the time we returned from hiking the following day.

For dinner, we had reservations at Moss, just a five minute walk from the B&B. Keith decided to have scallops again, for the third evening in a row. However, he got the small serving, meant as a starter along with a salad, sourdough bread, and broccoli soup. Ann also had the soup and bread but paired hers with aubergine (eggplant) parmigiana. This time, the scallops were served with the foot again, just like they were at Ee-Usk in Oban.

The soup came with Popadoms (or papadam). Ann’s had it a couple of times before, such as at an Indian restaurant in Westport, Ireland (Westport, Ireland - May 12th to 15th, 2025). However, the times before, the black gram bean flour seemed like it was cooked with dry heat while this time it seemed to be deep fried and seasoned with an herb, so it had a lot more flavor.

For dessert, we split the bitter chocolate cake with black currant compote and chocolate ice cream. We’ll let you guess which one of us picked the dessert. All of the food was delicious, although Keith thinks he liked the scallops at Laroch the best.

Sunday, we got another early start to go on a hike. This time we were not so lucky with the weather. We arrived at the Devil’s Staircase trailhead around 9:30 am and had no problems getting a parking spot.

The route we followed was the Stoib Mhic Mhartuin in AllTrails. It started out following the West Highland Way up to the first ridge. Then it took a spur along the ridge up to the peak of Stoib Mhic Mhartuin. The trail was well maintained with good footing up to the ridge, but the spur was more like hiking the rocky bottom of a small stream, with a couple of inches of water flowing through it.

It rained most of the way up to the peak. We had both our rain jackets and rain pants on this time. Even though it was cool, we had a hard time trying not to overheat during the climb up. Ann started out with her thin warm layer on and we both had headbands or hats on. However, those quickly came off. We opened up the “pit-zips” on our rain jackets. We’ve heard you’re only supposed to open those up long enough to dump out your body heat, then zip them back up to prevent rain from getting inside, but we left them open the whole hike. We didn’t really seem to have an issue with water getting inside our jackets. It was raining steadily and windy, but it was not a downpour with high gusts.

Despite the rain and some low clouds, we still had some views, both out over Glencoe Valley and out along the West Highland Way Trail towards Ben Nevis. We’re not sure if one of the peaks in the distance was Ben Nevis or not. It is the tallest peak in the British Isles. We could see the Backwater Reservoir that feeds the hydroelectric power plant in Kinlochleven.

The rain stopped briefly while we were up top, but just for a few minutes. It started up again as we descended back down. There was a building near the trailhead that we thought might be a restroom, so we walked over to it when we reached the road, but no such luck. The only restroom that we know of in the whole valley was back at the Glencoe Visitor Center, and it costs 4 pounds to park there. We decided we could wait.

By the time we returned to our car, we had covered 6.2 kilometers (3.9 miles) with an elevation gain of 412 meters (1352 feet) which we completed in just over three hours. Even though it was not that much more elevation gain than the hike the day before, it was over a shorter distance, so the trail was steeper and felt more like a climb. We counted it as hike number 21 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

After our hike, we went for a drive. Continuing down the A82 highway, we turned right onto a little one track road that followed alongside the River Etive. Keith wanted to see the viewpoint from one of the scenes from the James Bond Movie Skyfall. It was still raining, but you could make out the features in the view. Nearby was a waterfall that was also in the movie. As we were heading back to highway A82, we stopped to check out another waterfall along the river. Ann didn’t care too much about seeing scenes from a movie, but she does like seeing beautiful waterfalls.

To complete our waterfall tour, we stopped to see the Glencoe Waterfall at the Meeting of Three Waters. Since the Devil’s Staircase hike was not very long, we originally thought we might try fitting in the Lost Valley hike (Coire Gabhail), since it was only there miles long, to get some more elevation gain under our belts. The Lost Valley hike is the most popular trail in the Glencoe Valley. However, our morning hike took longer than we thought it would and we didn’t really want to get back out into the cold rain. It didn’t look like the rain was going to let up any time soon.

So we went back to the B&B to dry out our gear. Beechwood Cottage had a drying room, so we handed over our wet packs, gloves, hats, socks, and rain gear. One of the B&B owners, Iain put wads of newspaper inside our hiking boots to help dry them out faster. Jackie and Iain finished up our load of laundry just in time for us to change into the clean and dry clothes after our showers. That was good, because the only clothes Ann had to change into were in that load of laundry.

For dinner, we had reservations at the Waters Edge Restaurant at the Isles of Glencoe Hotel in Ballachulish. Fortunately, the rain stopped so we could walk the 30 minutes from Beechwood Cottage. Then it rained while we ate and stopped again to allow us to walk back.

As you could probably tell from the name of the restaurant, it has views out over Loch Leven. They gave us a table right next to the long bank of windows. Ann ordered a starter of the beetroot and goat cheese salad. Then we both had the Pork Tomahawk for a main. It came with a piece of grilled zucchini and layered potatoes along with a chimichurri sauce. The grilled pork chops had a wonderful flavor.

For dessert, Ann had the panna cotta while Keith opted for the crème brûlée, again. Keith’s had a panna cotta before, in Chagford England (Dartmoor National Park, England - March 28th - 31st, 2025), so now it was Ann’s turn. Panna cotta is an Italian dessert of thickened cream and gelatin. Very tasty.

Despite all the rain, we really enjoyed the Glencoe area. The wonderful scenery and lovely hiking trails are a treat in any kind of weather. This was the typical Scottish weather that we were expecting and our rain gear held up to the test.

Check out our related video: Glencoe, Scotland

(Ann)