The West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig is regularly voted one of the great railway journeys in the world, and in summer a steam-hauled service called the Jacobite runs along part of it. Somewhere near the middle it crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct — twenty-one arches on a curve above the head of Loch Shiel — and because that shot appears in the Harry Potter films, it has become one of the most photographed sights in Britain.
There are two quite different ways to experience this, and it is worth being clear about both before you commit money to one of them.
The Jacobite is a steam locomotive-hauled tourist service that has run under various names and operators every summer for decades. It leaves Fort William in the morning, runs the forty-two miles west to Mallaig, gives passengers a couple of hours there, and returns in the afternoon. In peak season a second service runs.
The route takes in Neptune’s Staircase, the shore of Loch Eil, the Glenfinnan Viaduct and station, Arisaig — the most westerly station in Britain — the Silver Sands of Morar and the sea approach to Mallaig, with views to Eigg, Rum and Skye.
This is where the experience goes wrong for a lot of people. Tickets sell out months in advance for the summer, the booking system has frustrated a great many would-be passengers, and the service has picked up a mixed reputation as a result — the ride itself is generally loved; getting on it is not.
Practical advice: book as early as you possibly can, be flexible about dates, check for returned tickets, and have a plan B. Prices are substantially higher than the ordinary service on the same line.
Which brings us to the alternative most visitors overlook. ScotRail runs scheduled diesel services along exactly the same line, several times a day, year-round, for a fraction of the price. The scenery is identical. The viaduct is the same viaduct. What you do not get is steam, a heritage carriage and the specific film association.
For a great many people — particularly those who could not get Jacobite tickets, or who are travelling in winter — this is the answer, and it is a genuinely wonderful journey. Our day trips guide covers the Mallaig run.
The other option, and the free one, is to stand on the hillside and watch the train cross.
The Glenfinnan viewpoint is on the hill above the viaduct, reached by a path from the National Trust for Scotland car park at Glenfinnan, twenty-one kilometres west of Fort William. It takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to walk up, it is steep in places, and it gives you the classic three-quarter view of the whole twenty-one-arch curve with the train on it.
There is a lower path that goes underneath the viaduct and along the valley floor, which gives a different and equally good angle from below the arches.
You need to know when the train is coming, and the times change year to year and between the two daily services. Check the current timetable before you go, allow for the walk up, and arrive at least forty-five minutes early in summer because you will not be alone.
The ordinary ScotRail services also cross, several times a day, and a diesel unit on that viaduct is still a fine sight.
The National Trust car park at Glenfinnan is charged and it fills very early on summer days — long before the train is due. There is limited roadside parking and a good deal of local frustration about people leaving cars in unsuitable places. The realistic options are to arrive early, to take the bus, or to take the train to Glenfinnan station and walk up from there, which is the elegant solution.
The Glenfinnan Monument stands at the head of Loch Shiel, marking the spot where Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised his standard in August 1745 and the Jacobite rising began. It is a National Trust for Scotland site with a visitor centre and a café, and the view down the loch is one of the most photographed in Scotland.
Glenfinnan Station Museum is in the old station building, small and free or nearly so, with a dining car and a sleeping car preserved alongside.
Loch Shiel cruises run from the head of the loch in season.
The village is a stop on the road west, and it is worth an hour or two beyond the train.
If you are riding the line, the far end deserves attention. Mallaig is a working fishing port with seafood restaurants, ferries to Skye, the Small Isles and Knoydart, and a completely different atmosphere from anywhere inland. Arisaig and the Silver Sands of Morar are the stops before it, with white shell-sand beaches looking out to the islands.
A day that combines the train west, a couple of hours in Mallaig and the return is a full day out and one of the best in Scotland.
Season. The Jacobite runs roughly from April to October. The ordinary ScotRail service runs year-round.
Journey time. About two hours each way on the steam service, a little less on the scheduled trains.
Which side to sit. The loch and coastal views are largely on the left going west, though the viaduct is best seen looking forward from the front of the train as it curves.
Weather. The West Highlands are wet. The journey is still worth doing in rain, and the light in broken weather is better than in flat sunshine.
Filming locations. Beyond the viaduct, the area around Glenfinnan and Loch Shiel appears in several films, and it is a well-established part of why visitors come. It is also a working community — park sensibly.
It helps to know what you are looking at. The West Highland Line was built in stages in the 1890s and the Mallaig extension, opened in 1901, was one of the most difficult railway projects attempted in Britain — it crosses eleven miles of some of the most awkward ground in Scotland, with eleven tunnels and hundreds of bridges and culverts.
The Glenfinnan Viaduct is the signature structure and it is significant for reasons beyond the films: it was among the earliest large-scale uses of mass concrete for a railway viaduct anywhere, built by Robert McAlpine — who acquired the nickname Concrete Bob on this job. Twenty-one arches, a hundred feet high, on a curve, in a landscape that had never seen anything like it.
There is a persistent local story that a horse and cart fell into one of the piers during construction and remains entombed there. A radar survey in the 2000s found no horse in the viaduct — but did find one in the nearby Loch nan Uamh viaduct, which is a better ending than the legend deserved.
The most satisfying version of this, for anyone who cannot get Jacobite tickets or would rather not spend the money, is a day built around the scheduled train. Take the morning ScotRail service west from Fort William, get off at Glenfinnan, walk up to the viewpoint and watch the Jacobite come through, look round the station museum and the monument at the head of Loch Shiel, then take a later train on to Mallaig for the afternoon — the harbour, the seafood, and the view across to Skye — and come back in the evening.
That gives you the viaduct from above, the viaduct from a train, the best of the coast, and a working fishing port, for an ordinary rail fare. It also solves the Glenfinnan parking problem entirely.
The locomotive and the route are those used in the films, and the viaduct is the one the train crosses on screen. It is a steam excursion service rather than a film attraction.
Book directly with the operator as far ahead as you can. Summer services sell out months in advance.
Yes — the viewpoint above the National Trust car park at Glenfinnan gives the classic view, and it is free apart from parking.
The route is identical. You lose the steam and the heritage carriages, and you pay a small fraction of the price.
About twenty-one kilometres west, twenty-five minutes by road, or a short hop on the train.
It varies by season and by service. Check the current timetable and arrive well ahead — the viewpoint fills up.