| Information | Home page | Topics | Programme | Abstracts | Participants |
Overseas participants should note that it may be difficult to change money on Skye -- Glasgow Airport may be your last easy opportunity.
We have booked hotels in Glasgow for those who asked for this - separate email gives details.
There are regular buses to the City Centre (every 30 minutes, at 20 and 50 mins past each hour), fare 2 pounds; the journey takes about 20 minutes. The buses stop in North Hanover Street just outside Queen Street Station.
Travel (tickets Glasgow-Mallaig) have been booked and sent out to all who asked. If necessary, tickets can be bought at the station (allow time in case of queues!) - single 27-60, `Saver' return 36-00.
At Glasgow Queen Street Station: Train is the 12.42 to Fort William (16.22/27) and Mallaig (17.49). Note that this train divides at Crianlarich (14.27/39), with the other half going to Oban (if you have reserved seats, they should of course be in the right part of the train, going to Mallaig!). There is a catering service on the train (including hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, etc).
Missing the train?? If time is short, take a taxi, either to Queen Street Station (15-20 minutes) or to the train's first stop, Dalmuir (also 15-20 minutes, across the Erskine Bridge), where the train stops at 12.57. If too late for either of these, there is a Scottish Citylink / Skye-Ways bus from Glasgow to Skye that stops at the airport at 15.20, and reaches Broadford on Skye at 21.00. [It can also be caught from Buchanan Street Bus Station in the city centre at 15.00.] If you do miss the train, please telephone Sabhal Mor Ostaig (01471 844373) to let us know -- and so that we can have you collected from Broadford.
The West Highland Line is one of the most beautiful of train journeys -- we hope you enjoy it. From Glasgow, it runs close to sea inlets for about an hour to Arrochar, where it crosses over to Loch Lomond. From there it runs among the hills of the Central Highlands to Fort William. Look out particularly for the section after Bridge of Orchy where it turns NE, first passing through an old native pinewood, and then climbing to the high remote Rannoch Moor, in parts so boggy that the line floats on brushwood rather than solid foundations. It descends to Fort William round the north side of Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain (1343 m).
The final section, from Fort William to Mallaig, is notable for the early (c.1900) use of concrete -- note especially the magnificent curved viaduct at Glenfinnan, with its view down Loch Shiel past the monument to the 1745 civil war that started here. The last twenty or so miles after Glenfinnan are the most beautiful of the entire journey.
At Mallaig: please join together on the platform for the walk to the boat: Valerie Isham will have a list of who should be on the boat, the `Western Isles' (Bruce Watt Cruises), which should be waiting at its usual berth, about 200-300 metres from the station.
| Top of page | Information |
| Home page | Topics | Programme | Abstracts | Participants |
Denis Mollison, 15th March 1997
