2017 Trip to Scotland – Day 8 – Saillochy to Inversnaid

It was raining on Saturday, May 13th, as we continued hiking north along the eastern shore of Loch Lomond towards Inversnaid (‘Inver’ in Scottish means ‘mouth of a river’, in this case, the river Snaid.).

About 3.5 miles into the hike, we reached the village Rowardennan, where there is a side trail that leads to the summit of Ben Lomond (3,195 ft). But we stuck to our plan and plowed on through the drizzle. There were other side paths in this area, and we were looking out for a fork that would allow us to get off the low road, and use the less challenging high road instead (as most others did). Unfortunately, the actual fork wasn’t well marked, and by following the signs for the WHW, we ended up on the low road. Over the next TBD miles, I estimate that we had to perform over 200 stream or trickle crossings as we trudged along a rocky 45-80 degree slope down to the loch.

Rowchoish Bothy

Rowchoish Bothy.

: Ruins at Rowchoish Bothy, D500 RAW, 16mm, f/4, 1/40sec, ISO 900, Photoshop ‘Dappled’ filter

The intersection below …

We were pretty beat by the time we reached the Inversnaid Hotel. We had reservations at the Garrison at Inversnaid, which was about a mile up the hill, along a small road that was not safe to hike under those conditions. So, we arranged for our hosts to pick us up at the hotel a couple hours later (Hmm. Time for a pint, a Pinot, and a ‘scone with cream and jam’).

The Garrison was an actual military garrison that was built by the British crown in TBD, smack in the middle of the lands of Rob Roy MacGregor, to help them control the Jacobite rebellion.

Although the property had served many purposes since it was built (including as a ‘house of ill repute’), the earlier three-story structures had collapsed, and it had been converted to a a working farm. For a time, it served as living quarters for staff at the Inversnaid Hotel. Kelly and Paul had bought the property, and they had been renting rooms to the Inversnaid Bunkhouse down the hill, until they saw the opportunity to open up a B&B themselves.