Scotland by train: the West Highland Line
When to go
May to September is the season: long days, light until ten at night in June, the Jacobite steam train running to Mallaig, and the moors green and purple with heather from August. It is also the season of the midges on still evenings, and of the full trains and dear rooms in Edinburgh, above all in August, when the Festival fills the city. The ScotRail trains run all year, and the West Highland Line under snow is one of the great winter rides in Europe, but the days are short and the Jacobite does not run.
The stops
Interactive map of the route on our site ›
- Edinburgh2 nights
The trip starts at Waverley, the only major railway station in the world named after a novel: Walter Scott’s Waverley of 1814. Its glass roof lies in the valley between the Old Town on its ridge and the Georgian New Town.
- Linlithgow Palacestop on the way
The roofless royal palace above the loch, seen from the train above the town, is where Mary, Queen of Scots was born in December 1542. It burned in 1746 and was never restored.
- Glasgowone night
Scotland’s largest city, the city of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Its little circular Subway, opened in 1896, is the third oldest underground railway in the world, after London and Budapest, and Garnethill Synagogue of 1879 is the oldest synagogue building in Scotland.
- Loch Lomondstop on the way
Past Helensburgh the line climbs onto the hillside above the west shore of Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Great Britain by area. Going north, sit on the right for the view.
- Crianlarichstop on the way
Here the train divides: one part goes west to Oban, the other north to Fort William and Mallaig, so be sure you are in the right carriage. Beyond it the line loops round the foot of Beinn Dòrain in the Horseshoe Curve.
- Rannochstop on the way
The line opened in 1894 and crosses Rannoch Moor where no road goes. The ground was so soft that the builders floated the track on a mattress of tree roots, brushwood and ash, and it still rides on it.
- Corrourstop on the way
At about 408 metres, the highest station on a main line in Britain, with no public road to it. The characters of Trainspotting get off here in the 1996 film.
- Fort William2 nights
A town at the head of Loch Linnhe under Ben Nevis, at 1,345 metres the highest mountain in the British Isles. Just outside it, at Banavie, Neptune’s Staircase lifts the Caledonian Canal of Thomas Telford by eight locks, the longest staircase lock in Britain.
- Glenfinnan Viaductstop on the way
A curving viaduct of twenty-one arches, built of mass concrete by Robert McAlpine for the line to Mallaig, which opened in 1901, and the bridge the Hogwarts Express crosses in the Harry Potter films. In season the Jacobite steam train crosses it on its way from Fort William to Mallaig and back; the ScotRail train takes the same line all year.
- Mallaigstop on the way
The end of the line, a fishing harbour that grew with the railway and was once among the busiest herring ports in Europe. The Jacobite gives a little under two hours here before it steams back to Fort William.
- Urquhart Castlestop on the way
The bus from Fort William runs the length of the Great Glen and along Loch Ness, past the ruins of Urquhart Castle on its point. The loch is over 220 metres deep and holds more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales together.
- Invernessone night
The Highland capital on the River Ness. The red sandstone castle above the river was built in the 1830s on the site of the old one; a few miles east is Culloden, where in April 1746 the last pitched battle on British soil ended the Jacobite rising.
- Strathcarronstop on the way
From here the Kyle line runs along the shore of Loch Carron. At Strome Ferry, the next station, in June 1883 local men held the pier to stop fish being loaded onto a train on a Sunday, and several were jailed for it.
- Plocktonone night
A village laid out around 1800 on a sheltered bay of Loch Carron, where cabbage palms grow on the shore in the mild air of the Gulf Stream. It was Lochdubh in the BBC series Hamish Macbeth.
- Kyle of Lochalshstop on the way
The end of the Kyle line, ten minutes on from Plockton, which reached here in 1897. The Skye Bridge across the strait opened in 1995, and its tolls were abolished in 2004.
- Culloden Viaductstop on the way
Leaving Inverness south, the train crosses the valley of the Nairn on the Culloden Viaduct of 1898, twenty-nine arches of red sandstone, the longest masonry viaduct in Scotland.
- Drumochter Passstop on the way
At 452 metres, the summit of the Highland Main Line and the highest point of the railway network in Britain.
- Pitlochryone night
A Victorian resort town on the Tummel. At the hydro-electric dam of the 1950s a fish ladder of thirty-four pools lets the salmon climb past it, and a window lets you watch them in early summer.
- Forth Bridgestop on the way
The last miles cross the Firth of Forth on the red cantilever bridge opened in March 1890, a World Heritage site since 2015.
- Edinburghstop on the way
The train from Pitlochry is back in Waverley in about two hours, below the castle on its rock.
What it costs
Eighty dollars a night is the room. The train tickets are yours and are not included: ScotRail tickets bought point to point, which are cheapest booked ahead as Advance fares, or a Spirit of Scotland travel pass, which covers the ScotRail trains and some Citylink buses; check that the Fort William to Inverness bus is among them for your dates. The Jacobite steam train is a private train and is not covered by any pass: its ticket is bought separately from its operator and sells out weeks ahead in summer.
What to know
Three things. One: the seats. The trains to Fort William, Mallaig and Kyle are short, two to four carriages, and in summer they fill; reserve a seat with the ticket, free on ScotRail, and sit on the right going north from Glasgow for Loch Lomond. Two: the luggage. These small trains have little room for big suitcases and there is no porter service; travel with one bag each if you can. Three: the connections. The trains on the Highland lines are few, some only three or four a day, and on Sundays fewer, so check the timetable for every leg before you fix the hotels.
Roads, tolls and rules
This route has no car. It goes from Edinburgh to Glasgow, up the West Highland Line across Rannoch Moor to Fort William, out to Mallaig and back on a day of its own, then along the Great Glen to Inverness, out on the Kyle line to the west coast at Plockton, and home down the Highland Main Line. One leg is not a train, and honestly so: no railway joins Fort William and Inverness, and the link is the Citylink bus along Loch Ness, about two hours. Skye is not on the route; the ferry from Mallaig and the bridge from Kyle are there for whoever wants a day of their own. Be honest with yourself about the rooms: in summer a room at eighty dollars is hard to find in Edinburgh, and rare in Fort William and Plockton, which have few hotels; when none is free the site offers two flats at that price instead.
Travel Scotland by train: the West Highland Line
The route on our site, with a room up to $80 every night.