Tag: fort william

Going for a ride on the Jacobite Steam Train

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Our main reason for visiting the Highlands was to take a ride on the Jacobite Steam Train, which chugs along from Fort William, over the world famous Glenfinnan viaduct, to the coastal village of Mallaig, in sight of the Isle of Skye. We would not go to Skye on this trip, but at least I saw it out there in the distance. This is one of several steam trains that operates in the Scottish Highlands and there is honestly no better way to see the Highlands than by train. Other than hiking maybe, but you can sit down on the train and watch it all go by from your window. The Jacobite Steam Train – so called because it goes through the heart of the countryside most associated with the Jacobite uprisings – is probably most famous as the inspiration for the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter movies, where you see it going over the big viaduct, probably followed by a Dementor or a flying car. So, the route is as you can imagine very popular with Harry Potter fans, and we saw a lot of people in their Gryffindor or Slytherin scarves, and you could purchase Harry Potter themed snacks. It wasn’t all Wizarding World cheesiness though, this train was all about experiencing the golden age of steam. Before we took the train however, we wanted to actually see it go over the viaduct from below. We drove out to Glenfinnan, about 20 minutes or so from Fort William. It was raining, but there were a lot of people out ready to photograph this iconic view. We had to park a little way up the hill, but Glenfinnan is so beautiful even in the dreary wet that we enjoyed the walk and the fresh air. We found a spot with a great view of the huge viaduct, built between 1897 and 1901, took some photos, and waited for the train. I had to sketch it of course, as best I could in the by now very light rain. What a fantastic moment as it passed by. There were scores of people on the hillside with their cameras, and we were one of many down below at ground level. We didn’t have time to go and look at the Glenfinnan monument but could see it clearly. Glenfinnan was where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in 1745 to gather the Highland clans in uprising against the British crown, to regain the throne for the Stuarts. Despite many victories and a deep advance into England (getting as far as Derby) the uprising was ultimately unsuccessful, and ended at the tragic Battle of Culloden in 1746 with Hanoverian victory and a lot of bloodshed. Anyway, on to the steam train!

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We had been looking forward to this ride for quite a while, and it did not disappoint, in fact it was the highlight of our trip. We took our seats which were reserved to face out towards the curve of the viaduct as we passed it – on the return journey, you switch sides with the passengers on the opposite side of the aisle, which is a nice way to do it. The scenery was beautiful, but it was still raining a fair bit, and had been coming down as we boarded the train. I did a quick sketch of my son looking out at the rolling Scottish scenery, a bottle of Highland Spring water and a can of Irn Bru Xtra giving us no doubt as to which country we were in. Our neighbours across the aisle were visiting from Canada, along with their friend who was an older man from Glasgow, an interesting chap I enjoyed talking geology with. He enjoyed telling my wife his joke that “the best thing to come out of Edinburgh is the train to Glasgow,” which she had heard once or twice before, I think Glaswegians like to remind people!

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This is the Hogwarts Express, whatever anyone says, and so you expect a bit of magic. We got some – the rainy morning suddenly gave way a few minutes before we arrived at Glenfinnan, blue skies and sunshine started breaking through the Highland clouds, and our journey over the viaduct was probably one of the most beautiful views we’ve ever seen. And we have been to the Grand Canyon, Delicate Arch, the Golden Gate Bridge; well this was right up there, because we were part of it. I was safe to poke my phone out of the window to take pictures; they do of course warn you not to stick your head out of the window as the train is moving, for fear that it will get lopped off by a tree (like that scene in The Young Ones).

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We made a short stop at Glenfinnan station, where we could stretch our legs, look at the little museum in the station, or buy souvenirs (I spent 20 quid on a set of small prints of classic LNER Scottish railway posters). Then it was back on the train for the scenic stretch to Mallaig. That train journey was one of the best we’ve ever done, but as you leave the hills and go along the silvery coastline, you get the feeling that you’re approaching the edge of the world. It really sparks the imagination.

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Mallaig is a small fishing village and port and the terminus of this branch of the West Highland Line. We had a couple of hours to look around, get some ice cream, enjoy the little harbour. It was warm and sunny by this point, and while my wife and son had a wander, I sat and drew the scene above, which took well over an hour. Many of the people around town were from the steam train as well, but there were hiker families too, from all over – the group sat next to me were Finnish. When I was finished (nice segue there), I did another very quick outline sketch of some moored boats, with the intention of drawing it all in more details and colour later. In the end I only added the ink (I did that on the flight back to America) but didn’t colour it in. So you can imagine all the bright colours of those boats for yourself. We all got a soft-serve ice cream, some mroe drinks for the two-hour journey back to Fort William, and went back to the train. As it rolled out of Mallaig, there were people in their yards waving at all the passengers, the train tracks just a few feet away from the back doors.

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We took so many photos on the way back. It became a joke in our part of the carriage that every time I would get up to take a picture from the window, we would suddenly pass by some trees or enter a short tunnel. Sometimes the view would be just the side of a steep hill, but sometimes it would be a cinematic sweep over a deep blue loch, like below. You cannot get enough of this type of thing. I live in California and we have some of the best views in the world, but Scotland is just mind-blowing. We want to go back and explore all the rest. I think there’s some Irn Bru and Tunnocks Teacakes we haven’t yet consumed too.

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I did get a nice local beer on the train though. I went to the dining car, and asked for a beer please. The guy on the counter said, “Oh aye, I can recommend this one!” He gave me a super delicious beer called “Sheepshaggers Gold”, by Cairngorm Brewery. Chuckling at the name, it was a tasty way to round off our train journey. Here I am enjoying it, wearing my lovely FC Red Star Paris shirt.

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With our epic steam train journey over, we spent another night in Fort William, before our final day in Scotland, when we would visit Loch Ness, and we would finally find that elusive creature that every single gift shop sold cuddly toys and magnets and postcards and t-shirts of. No, not Nessie, but the Hairy Highland Coo…

just fort william

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We arrived in Fort William, parked our rental car on a very steep slope, and checked into our hotel. I think I’d imagined it to be a bit nicer, like some cosy guest house, but it wasn’t, it seemed furnished like an old office building, and was spartan to say the least. There was a sizeable colony of mould on the ceiling. The shower in our tiny bathroom was also unbearably hot to the touch, and would not go any colder than the insides of a new McDonalds apple pie (which if you’ve ever had one of those, you’ll know why it says “caution: HOT” on the sleeve). We had the front desk staff come up to see if it could be fixed, and they fiddled about and turned it on, to the same temperature, and touching it momentarily with their finger they said they thought it was fine. It definitely wasn’t. So no showers on this two night stay, unless you want to be scalded. So I dubbed the hotel “Faulty Showers”, and now I can’t remember the actual name, so it’s just Faulty Showers. The view from the bedroom was nice, overlooking the hills and the church of St. Andrews. We were in Fort William because (a) we were going on a very special trip on the Jacobite Steam Train the next day, and (b) this is really the best place to stay to explore the Highlands, being the biggest town for quite a way. I didn’t really warm to Fort William as a town. Great connections, some good shops (it had a good Tesco Metro close to our hotel, for sandwiches and supplies – ie, Irn Bru and Tunnocks Teacakes, which we brought onto the Jacobite with us). Dinner options were a little limited, because this being the main hiking and Highlands hub it’s where everyone stays, so they all go out for dinner at the same time, and food is expensive. One place we saw it was eighteen quid for a burger. We had a decent Indian meal on our first evening there; I was surprised to see “Haggis Naan” on the menu; I don’t even know how that works. The pubs didn’t look as inviting as I’d have expected, the best one looked like the Ben Nevis, but on this evening it didn’t exactly exude the Highland pub atmosphere I’d imagined, mostly tired hikers and tables of empty glasses, while some of the other pubs on the main pedestrianized drag seemed a little bit, well, ‘English lager lad’, doorways spilling with middle-aged English men and women aggressively smoking and vaping and swearing, so I gave them a miss. Around the rest of the town centre, teenage youths ambled up and down with an air of boredom, and hikers tiredly made their way in small crowds to whatever expensively priced and cheaply run hotel they were pitstopping at. This is the end of the Great Highland Way, but also the start of the Great Glen Way which goes up by Loch Ness, and of course it’s right at the foot of Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain, which was completely shrouded from view by Scottish mist. the sketch I did above, early in the morning, was the Memorial to Donald Cameron of Lochiel, with the Duncansburgh Church behind it. As I sketched, a man passed by walking back to his hotel and said to me (in a southern English accent), “It would be quicker to take a photograph you know,” and just walked on. Something in his tone was so dismissive, it irked me. I just glared nonplussed as he hiked off towards his hotel, but in my mind I thought, “ooh, you’re my enemy now.”

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Still, what a view over Loch Linnhe at sunset. After our day on the Jacobite, and after dinner (which due to the lack of available options at the time we ate at the Wetherspoons, not exactly my first choice, but it tasted fine), I decided not to go back to Faulty Showers and stayed out sketching. Sunset here is even later than in Glasgow, and it wasn’t raining, so I sat by the Loch which was pretty peaceful and drew the lovely colours. We really were on the other side of the world now, it felt like. Even though I’m from Britain, for a Londoner this feels like a million miles from home, let alone for a Californian. The Highlands really are lovely, and there’s so much of it to explore, we were only seeing a little bit. Satisfied with my sketch, I turned around and drew the scene behind me, the Highland Hotel. Perhaps a tad nicer (and a wee bit more expensive) than Faulty Showers, this looks like the place to be. It was the sunset-kissed clouds that drew me in though. And I am sure Ben Nevis is around there somewhere, but he wasn’t showing his face. I went back to our hotel and went to be (after watching with my son a few sketches from the old mostly-Scottish sketch show from the early 90s, ‘Absolutely’, which I used to love, because the ‘Stonybridge’ sketches had popped into my head while we were driving north the day before).

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There was a really nice bookshop in Fort William though that we spent a bit of time in, and got some lovely prints. I nearly got a book to teach myself how to speak Gaelic, but I know I’m probably not going to do that, unless I take a class. It’s a lovely language though, and you will see it on so many road signs up here. Fort William is called An Gearasdan in Gaelic, and about 7% or so of the population speak it. While this is the main town for this part of the Highlands, it was built to, you know, put the Highlands people down. Originally established by Oliver Cromwell to keep the local Clan Cameron in line, it was later named Fort William after King William III who built the fort to control the local Highlands clans, who over the next century would rise up in Jacobite rebellion several times. We heard a lot about the Jacobites during this part of the trip. There was also a really nice visitor centre in Fort William where I got some postcards, magnets, tea coasters, because I am a tourist and you can never have too many of those.

Fort William St Andrews Church

I did get up early on our last morning there and draw the church of St. Andrews, which was close to Faulty Showers. The gateway was so pretty and covered in moss, which I didn’t end up colouring in, and the kirkyard had a lot of character (and probably a lot of characters). I was up to get some nice pastries (and Tunnocks Teacakes) from the little Tesco. I was also, if I’m honest, kind of hoping to see that English guy who had made the irksome comment the morning before. I’m not saying I had spent a lot of the day thinking of what my comeback should have been, like George Costanza (like “yeah, well the jerk store called, and they said it would be quicker for you to just bugger off mate”, yeah not that good really) but I was perfecting my dirty look. He was probably already halfway up Ben Nevis by now. At which point I thought, ooh I should walk past him trying to climb Ben Nevis, all out of breath and red-faced, and say, “it would be quicker for you to take a photo!” or something similarly witty. However that wouldn’t be true, because Ben Nevis just would not show itself to us, hiding behind all that mist. Rather than wait for the mist to clear, I determined it would be quicker to look at a picture of Ben Nevis on Wikipedia, and we left Fort William and its faulty showers behind us.