West Highland Way Stage 1 – Milngavie to Drymen

Milngavie to Drymen stats

Distance: 12.5 miles (20km)

Timing: 5.5 – 6 hours

Elevation: 255m

Descent: 257m

Milngavie to Drymen is the first stage of the West Highland Way. It’s 12.5 miles of easy walking along river side trails, wooded tracks, disused railway trackbeds and country roads as you begin to leave suburbia behind. The Milngavie to Drymen stage for me is a slow starter. The West Highland Way is a journey from lowlands to highlands so don’t expect to be hit with the good stuff straight away. The highlight of this stage is the unmissable Glengoyne Distillery which the trail walks directly past. In my opinion a visit here is a must to make this stage a little more exciting (see details below)

The Drymen to Rowardennanstage takes between 6 – 7 hours of continuous walking (without stops).

Milngavie to Drymen stage overview

There are three sections in the Milngavie to Drymen stage. It’s an easy first day with gentle gradients. The first section is an 6 mile stretch departing from the official start point in Milngavie at the obelisk in the town centre, a gentle stroll through Mugdock Wood before passing Craigallian Loch on your left, rising up to a ridge before descending onto a track that follows the former Blane Valley railway. This disused railway trail forms section 2 and is an easy 4 miles long ending at Gartness, a pretty village with sandstone cottages. Just a short way into the railway trail (20 mins) you’ll see Glengoyne Distillery on your right. My advice is to pre-book a tour here – I guarantee it will be the highlight of the day. The third section and final section of the Milngavie to Drymen stage is from Gartness to Drymen – this is a short 30 minute walk along the road.

Milngavie (pronounced Mull guy) is an unattractive town in the northern suburbs of Glasgow. It’s not a particularly charming destination however it’s perfectly fine to spend the night there before you start the trek. Just don’t expect a picturesque village! Amazingly the town hasn’t even really geared up to cater to the thousands of walkers embarking from its centre each year. We stayed at an Airbnb the night before and had an excellent curry takeaway for dinner – so much that we saved half of it for our lunch the next day. There are a handful of restaurants and a fish & chip shop as well as a fairly large M&S food hall.

WHW bag transfer

If you’ve booked a baggage transfer to help you ease your way along the West Highland Way, you’ll need to drop off your bag in Milngavie before you set off. Normally this will be in Milngavie train station car park and is easy enough. Milngavie is only small and so it’s only probably a less than ten minute walk from anywhere you’ve stayed overnight. Beware if you are arriving in Milngavie the day you’ll start the trek as most companies will only pick up bags for the baggage transfers service between 8-9am. If you arrive later than this you may have to carry your bag with you the entire 12.5 miles from Milngavie to Drymen! Or in this scenario you can order a taxi to take your bag on to Drymen. This is quite common occurrence and you shouldn’t worry about giving your bag to a random taxi driver. However it’s expensive so try to arrive in Milngavie before 9am.

READ MY POST: WEST HIGHLAND WAY BAGGAGE TRANSFERS – HOW IT WORKS

The trail from Milngavie to Drymen starts at the official WHW granite obelisk in the town centre and gently unwinds through the outskirts of the town through Mugdock Wood and out into the countryside. In May the bluebells in Mugdock Wood are just beautiful. The trail passes Loch Craigallian with views of Campsie Fells before dropping down to Glengoyne Distillery at the foot of Dumgoyne Hill. You begin to see the lure of the distant hills of the Highlands far on the horizon. The good stuff will come – be patient.

Glengoyne Distillery

I would highly recommend booking a tour of this fantastic whiskey distillery – it turns this stage into a highlight rather than just the first stage that gets you out into the countryside. This is the only distillery directly on the trail and it’s no longer possible to simply drop in on the hour which is when their tours used to start. It’s now necessary to pre-book however it’s easier than ever now with their new online booking system on their website. The Glengoyne Tour and Tasting tour, their most popular tour now start at 10.45, 11.30, 12.30, 14.00 and 15.45 and 16.30 daily costing £21.00 for adults and £6.00 for children between 3-17. In order to book it’s good to know that on average it will take a trekker 2.5 hours to reach the distillery or 3 hours for a walker. The tour lasts 1 hour & 15 minutes and includes a tasting of two of their single malt whiskeys. This was definitely the highlight of this stage for me.

Lunch: After re-joining the trail from the Distillery there are a couple of options for lunch. 15 minutes further from the Distillery the trail goes behind the Oak Tree Pub, a former train station, which has a variety of offerings for the trekker. You’ll see some tiny ponies grazing here. However I’d bypass eating at the Oak Tree Pub and keep on the trail for a further 15 minutes to get to the excellent Turnip the Beet cafe. This cafe is fantastic – they are right on the trail – don’t worry you won’t miss them. Turnip the Beet sells excellent coffee and snacks as well as soup, an amazing array of fresh curries and a best selling dahl and naan dish. They are open from to 9-5 Monday to Saturday and 9-4 on Sundays. They also have an honesty box outside on the trail where you can pay cash or by card. This is hands down the best cafe on the trail – don’t miss it (see photos below).

There’s also a garden centre just 10 or 15 minutes further that does good lunches however its not the easiest to find. You’ll see it on your right as you continue along the trail and then when you’d cross the road if you were following the trail, you need to turn right and walk up the road where you’ll see the entrance to the garden centre.

The trail then goes through over the bridge at Endrick Falls into the tiny hamlet of Gartness with their pretty cottages. Here the disused railway tracks ends and you’ll begin the last section of the trail on the Milngavie to Drymen stretch. Gartness has an honesty shop (photo: below top left) with drinks and ice creams. You’ll see many honesty shops along the West Highland Way route so keep a good amount of change on you whilst you are walking each day.

This last section from Gartness to Drymen is all on road. You’ll pass Duncan Family Farms Glamping Pods and begin to get views of the island and hills of Loch Lomond briefly on a high point before descending into Drymen. On a bridge the WHW route turns to the right. If you are staying overnight in Drymen as oppose to having a longer day continuing onto Balmaha then don’t take this turning but carry on straight on the short distance to Drymen. You’ll find the pretty village of Drymen much more geared up to walkers than Milngavie as the 127m long distance trail, Rob Roy’s Way, starts in Drymen. The Drymen Bakery & Deli sells a great assortment of WHW souvenirs, maps & other useful items.