Kingshouse – The Old Road, the Buachaille and the Climbers Bar
A few hours.
The route
The Kingshouse Hotel stands alone where Rannoch Moor runs into Glen Coe, looking straight at Buachaille Etive Mòr.
Part of the building has stood here since the 1750s, and the West Highland Way passes its door. Walk out along the old road towards the mountain for as long as the light and the weather allow, then come back to the fires of the Climbers Bar.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Woodlands Glencoe, 13 miles away. Sleeps 2.
The day
Kingshouse
A short walk on an old road across open moor with one mountain filling the view, out and back from the hotel door, and then the bar.
About two and a half hours
The old road towards Altnafeadh
Park at the Kingshouse Hotel, at the end of its own road off the A82. The West Highland Way runs past the door, and the stretch to walk is the one heading west on the old military road, straight towards Buachaille Etive Mòr. The track is good underfoot, stony in places and easy to follow. Altnafeadh, at the foot of the mountain, is three miles off, and there is nothing you have to reach: walk out for half an hour or so and turn round. There is no shelter, and the moor is very exposed in wind and rain, so take a waterproof whatever the forecast and stay in if the cloud is down. Keep a dog on a lead: red deer sometimes graze by the river at the hotel. From late October the sun sets before 5pm, and before 4pm in December.
Kingshouse Hotel
A drink
The Climbers Bar is the hotel's own pub, with windows on the mountain you've just walked towards. The hotel calls it the first bar in Glencoe. As the light drops, its fires show in the glass from outside, which is the moment to go in. It serves coffee and scones from 10am, lunch from noon to 4.15pm, and dinner and drinks from 5pm to 9pm, every day. Dogs are welcome in the bar. Whoever drives keeps to soft drinks. The other way to do it is to stay: the hotel has rooms and a bunkhouse, and walkers on the West Highland Way arrive at the door on foot.
If it rains
In rain or low cloud leave the walk out: the moor has no shelter and the mountain is hidden. The bar's windows and its fires are the wet-day version.
Kingshouse Hotel, historic inn on Rannoch Moor.