A Tour of Three Bothies from Corrour
Date(s) walked: 20-22 June 2026
Date(s) walked: 20-22 June 2026
Please note: the GPX track is for illustrative purposes only - I take no responsibility for its accuracy!
I’d been eyeing the glens to the west of Corrour for a while, thinking it would be nice to connect them into a longer walk. It can be tricky to find low-level walks that are still exciting (I’m having to avoid too much ascent due to tendon issues) but the region near Corrour seemed to fit the bill. I have no general background (historical or otherwise) to report on this one so let’s just dig in!
Day 1: Corrour station to Loch Treig | 5.65 km
To avoid getting up at an ungodly hour, I had decided to get the train up to Corrour the evening before instead. I left Edinburgh at about 5pm on a busy Saturday night train, picked up some food at the Sainsbury’s near Glasgow Queen Street and got on the train to Corrour. It was another fairly busy train, which surprised me a bit given that it’s a late one, finishing at Mallaig just before midnight. It seemed to be mostly tourists on board, can they get into their accommodation that late at night? Arrived at Corrour around 21:30 with the setting sun.
Looking back to the station.
A bit further along the track is Corrour Summit. At 411 metres, it is the highest point on the UK’s railway network.
The whole West Highland Railway Line is quite the engineering feat, having managed to tackle steep climbs, wide rivers and a huge section of waterlogged bog. A very entertaining and not entirely factual account of the line can be read here.
Speaking of waterlogged bog, after the summit the track deteriorates fast.
The track was built for a hydro scheme set up along Loch Treig and descends quite steeply down to the loch.
Crossed a nice stream on the way.
I ended up being very lucky and happened upon a great spot in the end. Apart from that spot, there would have been very few options for a long while…
Day 2: Loch Treig to Loch Eilde Mòr | 17.29 km
Woke up to glorious sunshine!
For much of the length of the glen there were remnants of an old metal fence.
I also spotted a lizard!
I stopped for lunch on this rock to the left of the path with a nice view to Loch Chiarain and the hills beyond. Just visible is also the bothy on the loch shore.
It was nice and spacious! Mild creepy vibes still but considering it’s a free shelter I bet it would be very welcome in bad weather. Having visited several more bothies now, I think this one might be my favourite out of the ones I’ve seen so far.
I had a wee browse of the bothy book, last entry was from a week ago but there was no pen anywhere so I suspect others like me had visited but never signed the book. It’s one of the quieter ones, though, there are no big hills right nearby and the walk in is quite long from any direction. From the bothy, I got on the path that starts to ascend to Meall na Cruaidhe.
View back to the bothy and the loch.
As you climb, views of the Glen Coe hills emerge.
I won’t always pick up after people but this was so egregious, I felt too upset leaving it all there.
The path splits not far from the loch with the main branch going down to the Blackwater Reservoir. I continued up the hill on the much poorer upper branch.
Neat existing path on the left with new scars on the right produced by some kind of traffic.
These were not traces of your usual estate or farm vehicle, this was clearly a consequence of lots of thick two-wheeled motorised transport passing through. Not very responsible. The descent to Loch Eilde Mòr was on the steeper side but with nice views.
The beginning of the pipeline beginning its windy descent to the reservoir.
By this point I just wanted to set up camp for the night and found a nice spot not much further away.
I sat by the loch and enjoyed my dinner, a breeze keeping the midges at bay. The moment the sun set behind the hills, the breeze died down, though, and the midges came out, forcing me to retreat to the tent. I thought I had chased all the midges out but throughout the evening I kept finding them inside the tent. Either they were hiding really well or then the mesh is not quite midge-proof in the Lanshan… Based on some measurements on the mesh pore size I have my suspicions about the latter. I couldn’t find any reports of other people having this problem, though, so I’m not entirely sure. I slept with my headnet on in any case.
Evening views.
Day 3: Loch Eilde Mòr to Corrour Station | 24.11 km
Woke up to grey skies and cloud-covered hills.
Past the second loch, the track veers inland and ascends slightly in between the hills.
While the track was wide, it was frequently submerged, making progress slow. Spotted a Pac-Man stone by the track:
Uncanny
It had started to rain so I sat inside and had my lunch. The bothy was nice enough but there was a slight musty smell inside that put me off. I didn’t linger and set off in the drizzle, crossing some major bogland to find something of a path by the Abhainn Rath.
Creaguaineach Lodge - now abandoned - in the distance.
Loch Treig is home to at least two self-proclaimed hermits. The more famous of the two is Ken Smith, whose autobiography (The Way of the Hermit: My 40 Years in the Scottish Wilderness) I read a few years ago. He has been featured in several documentaries as well but still manages to remain hidden away in his little remote log cabin. Davey McDonald has also made the loch his home, although he lives in more primitive conditions in a series of tents. I kept following the track around the loch, passing the point where I had turned off the day before. The uphill from the hydro building was quite gruelling and I was glad to have my poles helping me propel myself upwards.
Concluding remarks
This is one of the only trips that I think back to more negatively than positively. There was a mix of things: being too hot, then getting rained on much of the other day, midges, boggy and poor paths… I think I was mentally in something of a weird space as well. Perhaps I had been out too many weeks in a row. Sometimes it’s like that, though, you can’t always have the best of times. We rest and then go again.