Fort William, Scotland - September 2015

Sam and I found ourselves in the bright lights of Fort William last year after  finishing our walk on the The West Highland Way. Fort William is a town of just under 10,000 people that sits on the bank of Loch Linnhe, which links with the Caledonian Canal that itself links the east and west coasts of Scotland. The town was originally small fishing village named Gordonsburgh before being renamed Fort William after the nearby fort in 1901, with access from the railway and the Caledonian Canal and an idealic location tourism soon took off. The town now markets itself as the outdoor capital of the UK, and with a multitude of mountain biking, hiking, climbing and water based activities on offer who am I to argue with that.

The main street of Port William from the finishing spot of the West Highland Way.

The mall that runs through the centre of town has a large collection of outdoor shops which kept me interested as a lot of the brands and gear aren't readily available back in Australia, although I was happy to escape for a day and climb Ben Nevis as I don't think my credit card would of survived two solid days of shopping for outdoor gear. Fort William doesn't seem to have a huge collection of great cafes and restaurants from what I could see, infact easily the best meals that we had in Fort William were actually at our accommodation at the Lime Tree Inn.

On our second afternoon in town we jumped aboard the Souters Lass and took a cruise down Loch Linnhe with Crannog Cruises. The cruise more or less started in front of our accommodation so we didn't have far to walk to get on board, which was probably just as well as the weather turned a little bit crappy. Souters Lass is actually registered on the National Register for Historic Vessels in the UK, and on our little cruise we had the full on Scottish experience complete with a half pissed bag pipe player to add to the atmosphere, yeah there's nothing quite like the ordinary bag pipe playing, except maybe a cat getting strangled.

Ben Nevis towering over Fort William, the Lime Tree Inn is on the bottom right of the photo.

The only dodgy photo I could get of a Scottish Salmon breaching in the salmon farm.

As we sailed away from the pier we looked back to see Ben Nevis towering over Fort William, the summit taunting me by appearing to be free of cloud, I'd been up there yesterday and the cloud had stubbornly refused to lift. The cruise headed down Loch Linnhe towards Corran, on the way we checked out a large Scottish Salmon farm, a controversial industry here just like it is back in Australia. The good thing about the salmon farm though was that there were plenty of sea birds hanging around, the bad news is that I don't remember any of their names.  Our next wildlife encounter was at a spot called Black Rock, this low rocky seaweed covered outcrop that looks like it would completely disappear on a high tide, was home to a colony of basking Grey Seals, now if there's anyone out there who actually follows my blog they'll be quite aware that I have a bit of a soft spot for seals. Eventually, with smoke coming from the motor drive on my camera, we turned and headed back to Fort William, finishing off what had been a pleasant couple of hours.

Grey Seal.

Our accommodation at the Lime Tree Inn proved to be an inspired choice. The hotel was only a couple of hundred metres from the finish point of the West Highland Way so within 10 minutes of taking our finish photo on the WHW we were checking into our flash room at the hotel, although the three flights of stairs to get to my room almost did me in. We were in a loft room and had a great view out over the loch, but initially it was the king size bed and hot shower that got my attention, after a fairly solid last day on the walk this made the small luxuries appear even more decadent than normal. As I've already mentioned, the meals and we ate both breakfast and dinner, at the Lime Tree Inn were sensational. The other slightly quirky aspect of the Lime Tree Inn was that they had their own small art gallery and even more impressive for me a map room, what more could I want! 

Black Rock with Corran in the distance.

It was a little on the chilly side today.

The Dirt.

Fort William was a nice spot to recharge for a couple of days before we started a journey back to Melbourne, the town is big enough to have everything you need but not that big that you can't get around easily on foot. Probably the most famous tourist attraction is the Jacobite Steam Train (the Harry Potter train) but you have to book weeks in front and we couldn't get on. If you miss out on the train ride Crannog Cruises makes for a very pleasant alternative, especially if like me you like seals. The Lime Tree Inn was the highlight of Fort William for me, the room was good, the food excellent, and even more importantly the staff were friendly, I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again.

It doesn't take us long to trash a room!

The highly recommended Lime Tree Inn.