There is a very specific frustration a lot of people share and almost nobody writes about: not driving, or not wanting to drive abroad, shuts you out of almost every nature destination. The guides send you to the city and tell you to rent a car for everything else.
Scotland is the serious exception to that rule, and not by chance: it is a country of mountains and islands where the railway reached the west coast early and where the boat never stopped being public transport rather than a tourist attraction.
01 Why it works here
Start with the West Highland Line, which links Glasgow to the ports of Oban and Mallaig. It is the westernmost railway in Great Britain, built in sections in the late nineteenth century — the stretch to Fort William opened on 11 August 1894 — and it survived two attempts to close it, in 1963 and in 1995.
It is not only a means of transport. In 2009 readers of an independent travel magazine voted it the world's best rail journey, ahead of the Trans-Siberian and the Cuzco to Machu Picchu train. And there is a second line running west, the one connecting Inverness with Kyle of Lochalsh.
Then there is the sea. The company operating the west coast ferries serves 22 of the major islands, has 37 vessels, calls at more than 50 harbours and makes an average of over 162,700 sailings a year. In 2018, its busiest year, it carried around 5.3 million passengers.
And there is the way in: one of only two night trains left in the United Kingdom connects London with Scotland, on a service that has run on that line since 24 February 1873. You go to bed in a city and wake up with the Highlands out of the window.
02 What it gives you and what it does not
03 The route, connection by connection
The structure that holds up best over ten or twelve days is three bases, with three or four nights in each. No changing accommodation daily: without a car, every move eats half a day of timetables and hauling your bag.
The first base is a city in the central belt, where everything starts and where the lines connect. The second, in the mountainous west, at the end of the railway line: from there you can start walks that literally begin at the station.
The third is an island, and here it pays to be realistic: choose one, not four. An archipelago covered by ferry is enjoyed by staying put, not by chaining crossings. Three nights in one place gives you two full days of walking; three islands in three days gives you three days of harbours.
04 How to plan it
The right order is the reverse of the usual one. First you check the ferry timetables for the island that interests you, then you fit the trains around them, and only at the end do you book accommodation. Do it the other way round and you end up with a booking there is no way to reach.
Two practical rules. Do not chain a train and a boat with less than an hour's margin if the boat is the last of the day. And always have a fallback for the crossing day, because the sea decides: a swell cancels sailings and there is no appeal.
05 What you have to accept
The first thing is that some areas stay off the list, and that is fine. Much of the Highlands has no scheduled service of any kind, and forcing those glens without a car means expensive taxis or very long approach walks. Better to build the trip around what is actually connected.
The second is luggage. Everything you bring you will lift onto a train, take down onto a platform, drag to a pier and lift onto a boat, several times over. A pack you can carry for fifteen minutes without complaining is the sensible limit.
And the third is the season. In winter frequencies thin out and the light runs out by mid-afternoon, so this trip works mainly between April and September. April, May and September are the most comfortable months: full service and nothing is full yet.
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