Located in the highlands of Scotland, Fort William is the second largest city in the highlands after Inverness (which I talked about in this previous blog post). Fort William is a great place to stay when visiting Scotland – read on to find out what to do while in the Fort William area.
Ben Nevis
Fort William is quite the destination for outdoor sport enthusiasts, and it’s no wonder given the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, is located here.
Whether you want to do a “walk-around” (aka hike for you Americans), biking, skiing, you can do it all here. At 4,411 feet, Ben Nevis’s summit is quite a feat for mountain climbers. If that’s too much for you, consider ascending via a gondola. Though built for skiers, visitors during the summer months can also take a ride up on the gondola. There’s also a visitor center open everyday from 8-4. Here visitors can go to get more information about the mountain, how to ascend the mountain, and there are short films and a cafe.
Do a Scotch tasting at Ben Nevis Distillery
While in Scotland, I did a three distillery tours- the last being at Ben Nevis Distillery. We visited a total of 3 Scotch distilleries during our time in Scotland. Lets learn a bit about the process of making scotch, shall we? Here are the steps (very simplified):
1) Mashing
Scotch uses barley as their grain. The barley is soaked, then spread out to germinate, and then dried in a kiln. Some distilleries, including Ben Nevis, use peet during this stage, which can add a smokey flavor.
2) Mashing
The second step is called mashing. During the mashing process, the dried malt is ground to something called grist. This distillery, unlike the others, had a machine on site for grinding the barley into grist. The machine is over 60 years old and has never needed repairing! After, the grist is added to hot water and this is called the mash.
3) Fermentation
Next is the fermentation stage, when yeast is added, and the liquid is referred to as a wash. They had washes that were in various stages, from just starting to be filled, to boiling over.
4) Distillation
The next stage is the distillation stage. This is when the liquid goes into the copper stills. Ben Nevis has stills that are more narrow on top, resulting in heavier, peetier whisky.
5) Barreling
The final stage is barreling. Ben Nevis Distillery had some very old barrels- scotch can use barrels up to 4 times (unlike bourbon which can only be used once). They often double cask- meaning the whisky spends some time in bourbon and sherry barrels.
It was also cool to see Ben Nevis mountain in the background, which is where they get their water source.
After the tour, we had two tastings. Consider visiting Ben Nevis distillery when in Scotland- its a great option for what to do in the Fort William area.
West Highlands museum
Walking through central Fort Williams is just a lovely experience- its an adorable area. Lots of little shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs.
And if you’re really lucky, when you’re walking around you’ll hear not one but TWO people playing bagpipes.
While in town, we went to the West Highlands Museum, located right in the heart of Fort Williams.
West Highland museum was quite cool, lots of history about Fort Williams, including a desk and paneling from the now destroyed fort. This is famous in Outlander as being the place where Jamie was captured and held, and in real life there was a siege by the Jacobites. The fort was torn down for the railroad in the mid 20th century.
The museum also has a room all about Queen Victoria, and her favorite manservant John Brown, who lived near here. Finally there was a section about the Jacobites. Here, they had a waistcoat of the Bonnie Prince Charles. There was also a lock of his hair (how was he not bald from all this hair he gave out and I’ve seen everywhere??). I really liked this really cool serving platter with an image on it of the prince. When looked at with a special cylindrical cup, you would see an image of the prince. If people weren’t supporters of the crown, it would be taken away and then it just looks like a splatter of paint. Can you see it in the picture below?
The West Highland museum, opened in 1922, is open from Monday through Friday from 10:30-4:30, and Saturday from 10:30-1:30 and is free to visit!
Neptune Staircase
When visiting Scotland and looking for what to do in Fort William area go just four miles north of the city to find Neptune’s Staircase, the longest staircase lock in Scotland. Built between 1803 and 1822, these series of 8 locks raise the canal 62 feet over a quarter of a mile. It takes about 90 minutes for a boat to travel one way. Erin and I didn’t set out to see them, but we did get stopped on the road twice to allow sailboats through. We watched as the road swung out in front of us. It was pretty cool to see.
Glenfinnan Viaduct
When I came to Scotland, I didn’t have a set itinerary about what I wanted to see. I had a list of possibilities, but admittedly Glenfinnan Viaduct was one of the places on that list that I was VERY excited to see. Not only does it look amazing in pictures, this beautiful viaduct in the mountains by a river, but it is also famous as being the train route to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.
The viaduct carries trains across a 1,000 foot span, 100 feet above the ground. The Jacobite steam train is a very popular way to see the viaduct (get information about that train here). We didn’t have tickets, which needed booked months in advance, so we opted to hike to it.
The Glenfinnan Viaduct was built from 1897 to 1901, it was the first structure in Britain to be built from mass concrete. There is about a 15 minute walk to hike up to a higher vista for views.
The steam train passes over the viaduct several times a day. When we arrived there were several people waiting for the steam train to arrive, so we decided to wait the half an hour until it arrived.
But it was really cool once it did, blowing its horn for all the spectators.
After it was over we headed back towards the car. Located nearby is the Glenfinnan Monument – marking the start of the 1745 Jacobite rising which began here. We also saw a second steam train heading in the other direction on our walk back.
Glencoe
I would be remiss when talking about visiting Scotland and what to do in the Fort William area without suggesting taking just about a half an hour drive to arrive to Glencoe. This is another area I was the most excited to see during my visit to Scotland.
Glen Coe consists of deep valleys and towering mountains- carved out centuries ago by icy glaciers and volcanic explosions. Pictures just don’t do it justice of course, but its an absolute must visit- either for hiking or just driving through.
First we stopped at the visitor center to get a map and some information. There
Hiking An Toor
and then drove about 1 mile up the road to the An Torr parking area. First we crossed a bridge over a stream and then we took the blue/black trail. It was only about a mile and a half long but it was a lot of up and down up onto the hill and down into the valley and up onto the hill and down into the valley. The trail gave us really pretty views of the forest and the valley and the surrounding mountains. Next we went to the McDonald Memorial where the McDonald clan was deceived by another clan and slaughtered in their sleep. Some of the McDonald’s clan got away but it was winter so they most likely died of starvation or exposure.
