The Road to the Isles – Glenfinnan, Silver Sands and Mallaig
A day by car, from Fort William and back.
The route
The Road to the Isles is the A830, about forty-three miles from Fort William to the fishing port of Mallaig, where the ferries leave for Skye and the Small Isles.
The railway keeps it company the whole way, along Loch Eil to Glenfinnan, down to the sea at Lochailort and round the bays to Arisaig and Morar. This day drives it out and back, stopping for what the road is known for: a railway viaduct and a Jacobite monument, a village on a sheltered bay, white sand and a working harbour. For the last few miles Eigg, Rum and the hills of Skye stand out to sea.
Before you go
Book a bed near Fort William
The day starts and ends in Fort William, and beds in and around the town go early in the busy months, so book as soon as your dates are set.
The day
Mallaig
Leave Fort William soon after eight and the morning belongs to Glenfinnan: the viaduct, the monument at the head of Loch Shiel and the old station on the line to Mallaig. The afternoon goes west to Arisaig and the Silver Sands of Morar. The day ends on Mallaig's quayside, with Skye across the water, before the drive home.
2 hr 37 min at the wheelAbout 87 miles by carAbout 2 miles on foot
Glenfinnan Viaduct
An attraction
It's 35 minutes' drive west from Fort William on the A830, past Neptune's Staircase, the canal locks at Banavie, and along Loch Eil, to the visitor centre car park at Glenfinnan. The car parks are usually full from about 9.30am. A flat path leads in 15 minutes to the foot of the viaduct of the Harry Potter films: 21 arches, carrying the West Highland Line since 1901. A steeper path climbs 10 minutes more to the viewpoint. In its season the Jacobite steam train is due over at about 10.45am.
About 1 min on foot
Glenfinnan Monument
An attraction
The visitor centre, a minute's walk from the car, tells the story of the Jacobite rising of 1745, and the tower at the head of Loch Shiel is five minutes more across the A830. Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745, and the rising began. The monument followed some seventy years later, with the statue of a Highlander added to the top in 1835. When the tower is open, 62 steps of narrow spiral stair climb to the view down the loch.
2 min by car
Glenfinnan Station and the Dining Car
Drive 2 minutes on through the village to Station Road, where the museum has a small car park at the foot of the station approach. The station opened with the line in 1901, and its building is now a museum of how the railway to Mallaig was built, with a railway toy chest for children. See it first, then have lunch at about midday on the platform, in a restored dining car that serves from Tuesday to Saturday, with a verandah looking down towards Loch Shiel.
27 min by car
Arisaig
An attraction
Arisaig is 27 minutes' drive west on the A830. The road runs the length of Loch Eilt, comes down to the sea at Lochailort and rounds Loch nan Uamh, where Bonnie Prince Charlie stepped ashore in 1745. Arisaig sits on a sheltered bay, with a marina and summer boats to Eigg, Muck and Rum. In the Second World War secret agents trained around here, and a memorial by the shore remembers the Czech and Slovak soldiers among them. Leave by 1.45pm: Mallaig's Heritage Centre can close at 4pm.
About 10 min by car
Silver Sands of Morar
An attraction
Take the B8008, the old coast road, 10 minutes north from Arisaig, past the Traigh beaches and the dunes of Camusdarach, to the car park at Tougal, where steps lead down to the Silver Sands of Morar. The River Morar, one of the shortest in Scotland, comes down from Loch Morar here and crosses the bay in a ribbon through the sand. At low tide the sands are huge; at high tide the bay fills. Keep clear of the river mouth, where the tide runs fast.
7 min by car
Mallaig Heritage Centre
An attraction
Mallaig, where the A830 ends, is 7 minutes' drive north past Morar. West Bay car park is on the seafront as you come in, and the Heritage Centre is 200 metres on, beside the station. See it before the harbour: it closes at 4pm in spring and autumn, 5pm in summer. Inside is the story of a village that barely existed before the 1840s, of the railway that reached it in 1901, and of the herring that made Mallaig Europe's busiest herring port in the 1960s.
3 min on foot
Mallaig harbour
An attraction
It's 3 minutes' walk from the Heritage Centre to the harbour. Mallaig is still a working port, and fishing boats tie up along the quay. Beside them are the ferries for Skye and the Small Isles of Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna, and the boat to Inverie in Knoydart, a village no road reaches. Watch the boats come and go, and find fish and chips or a pot of tea before you leave. It's an hour and a quarter's drive back to Fort William, best done in daylight.
If it rains
This is a day for the views, and in low cloud the islands disappear, but there is a roof at each end of the road. Give a wet morning to Glenfinnan indoors: the visitor centre's exhibition, the station museum and, from Tuesday to Saturday, a long lunch in the Dining Car, with the flat path to the foot of the viaduct between showers. The Silver Sands are still worth ten minutes in a waterproof. At Mallaig the Heritage Centre is three-quarters of an hour under cover while it's open, and the Tea Garden is a short walk from the station.
Worth a detour
- The Prince's Cairn
A large lay-by on the A830 beside Loch nan Uamh, with a short path to a cairn on a small promontory above the shore. It marks the traditional spot from which Prince Charles Edward Stuart sailed for France on 20 September 1746, fourteen months after he landed on the same loch, and was built in 1956.
- Camusdarach Beach
The wide white bay where the beach scenes of the 1983 film Local Hero were shot, about five minutes from its car park on a sandy path through the dunes. On a clear day Eigg and Rum sit out on the horizon, with the hills of Skye to the north-west. The car park is small and allows no overnight stays, and there are no toilets; the nearest are at Traigh, a mile back, and at Tougal. The road outside has double yellow lines, so if the car park is full, drive on to Tougal. Allow three-quarters of an hour, in place of a long stop at the Silver Sands, and take it only if you left Arisaig by 1pm: the Heritage Centre at Mallaig can close at 4pm.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Lochaber.
Photographs by Elisabeth Kaltenbacher, Leah Chappell and Hello Ness via Google; VisitScotland / Kenny Lam