LONDON in winter challenges the cosmopolitan spirit: dark, damp and dreary by 6pm; other people’s umbrellas threatening to take your eye out; cramped and crowded public transport. This was my ungenerous feeling arriving at Euston Station on a cold evening, seeking out Platform 1. Reassuringly, the Caledonian Sleeper is parked there but, with time to spare, my ticket gains entry to the Club Lounge, just above the platform where my cross-border escapade is about to begin.
It’s goodnight and goodbye London when you’re about to bed down and wake up the following morning at Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. The Caledonian Sleeper slips out of Euston shortly after 9pm and, on board and ensconced in a Caledonian Double, there is time for a visit to the lounge car for snacks, drinks or dinner.
Snow-capped mountains behind Inverlochy Castle Hotel with Loch Marag in front
The train speeds north through the night and I slept soundly through the 04.40 service stop at Edinburgh where the train splits and a small portion of the train continues on the West Highland line to Fort William.
Brushing teeth is not usually a memorable experience but it is when the window blind is lifted over the sink and I gaze out at the morning scene: snow-capped hills, loughs and treeless moorland. The highlands of Scotland beckon and, after use of the en-suite shower, I head off to the adjoining lounge carriage. Breakfast (with a vegan option) is included for passengers in a double room or in the 1- or 2-bed Club rooms and could be served in your compartment by leaving a ticked order from outside your door the night before. But I wanted the lounge’s bigger windows for maximum exposure to Highland scenery – and those big deer with huge antlers – before pulling into Fort William station a couple of minutes before 10am.
The Inverlochy Castle Hotel
It takes ten minutes to reach Inverlochy Castle Hotel from the station forecourt and stepping through the hotel doors brings at first an unexpected sight . Gazing upwards to the ceiling of a grand sitting room, you see chandeliers and a spreading fresco – all bright colours and fluttering putti – that would not be out of place in a Venetian palace. Back on ground level, a hidden door, camouflaged by wallpaper, opens into a library that would not be out of place in any baronial mansion. A broad and carpeted staircase leads from the sitting room up to a balcony for access to bedrooms and a room with a full-sized billiard table and hunting trophies adorning the wall. The bedrooms, thankfully, do not pursue this masculine theme: with pelmeted curtains and soft colours, the tone of relaxed luxury is enhanced with some superb pieces of period furniture (and check out the wardrobe with inlaid designs that stands on the balcony).
Loch Marag at Inverlochy Castle Hotel
Exploring the 50-acre grounds should begin with the Victoria Wood pathway, if only for its ancient beech trees and, on the way there, a stately row of redwood trees. Other trails bring Ben Nevis (1345m), Britain’s highest mountain, into view. Even in winter, weather permitting, there is a Mountain Gondola close to to it that reaches a height of 650m for access to viewpoints of snow-coiffed glens and lochs (and hot chocolate drinks in a cafe).
A walk to the ruins of the actual castle that gives its name to the hotel takes half an hour along a cycling footpath. The well-preserved, rough-hewn walls, where blood was spilt in more than one battle, date back to the 13th-century.
Fort William is a centre for outdoor activities and Inverlochy Castle Hotel can arrange activities but in winter the indoor pleasures of the hotel were more lazily appealing: curling up in the hotel’s sitting room with a book; afternoon tea with champagne; soaking in a large, bubbly bathtub. Come evening and it’s time for pre-dinner drinks in front of a comforting fire and live music played on a piano and a Celtic harp (clàrsach in Scottish Gaelic).
The Caledonian Sleeper waiting for you in the station
The restaurant, carpeted and ornately furnished, exudes country-house style with its coral pink wallpaper, stuccoed ceiling and candle-lit tables. There is a choice of menus – one with the option of wine pairings – and vegetarians or vegan present no problems for chef Colin Nicholson whose Michelin-star potential is very evident. Dinner is accompanied by some classic, old-school touches like a cheese trolley, butter knives and – can you believe it? – the mandatory wearing of jackets for male diners.
The train back to London departs early evening but the journey could be broken by taking a Scottish Citylink bus to Glasgow in the morning and spending time there before boarding the Caledonian Sleeper late at night. However you get there, returning to the metropolis comes as a jolt after a sojourn in a Highland region that is one of the least populated areas in Europe – something that cannot be said about Euston Station.
by Sean Sheehan