As a passionate trail and mountain runner I have long had my sights set on the many parts of Scotland yet unexplored by my itchy feet. The Caledonian Sleeper offers the perfect opportunity to glide into that country’s most magnificent scenery.
Rails to trails
Scotland has the right to roam, and wild camping is legal (unlike England, outside of Dartmoor, and it is even under threat there) and I spent much of Covid online shopping for fast-packing gear including a bivvy bag for just this purpose. Shamefully, though, to date my nerve has failed me and I’ve always favoured hostels as a halfway house.
I like travelling light and on a budget, and I avoid flying for climate reasons, so it was a revelation to me when I discovered the Caledonian Sleeper – one of only two sleeper trains in the UK (the other runs between London and Penzance) – which serves many major cities in Scotland and, more interestingly for me, Aviemore.
Aviemore is a small town in the Cairngorms National Park, which boasts the five highest mountains in the UK after Ben Nevis. It’s not much to write home about in itself but is surrounded by stunning trails and breathtaking scenery and therefore an irresistible magnet for me!
So I decided on a short break of two nights in Aviemore youth hostel, bookended by a return journey on the sleeper.
No sleep on the sleeper!
Book early enough and this is a highly economical means of travel. Travelling through the night doesn’t waste the daylight hours, and arriving in the early morning saves the cost of a night of accommodation. I might even get some sleep, I thought. Spoiler alert – I thought wrong! Cabins with beds are available but are much pricier (and had already sold out in any case) so I went with the basic seat option.
Embarkation is 9.15pm from Platform 1 in Euston Station. You’re greeted by their staff and pointed in the direction of your carriage, which turned out to be modern, well-appointed and encouragingly quiet despite being full. The seats are arranged as a pair, the aisle and a single. If you travel solo you’re likely to be allocated the latter. The seat reclines a fraction (not a large fraction) and features a tray, power socket and a ‘sleep kit’ of a mask and earplugs. There’s an at-seat service which I took advantage of thinking a small can of beer might aid sleep. It didn’t!
A silent night with some discomfort
I settled in and 10 minutes later we pulled out of the station and headed north as the daylight drained from the sky. Progress is rapid at first as there are only two stops before Edinburgh. I had feared the journey would be a raucous experience with entertainment perhaps provided by a stag do but it was the absolute opposite. It was like the inside of a library (I’d even brought a book, which remained unopened), with the only internal sound an almost womb-like white noise from the air conditioning. This was set to cool, so take a spare layer!
Edinburgh arrived just before 4am and two things struck me – the first was the headrest as there is obviously some coupling and decoupling of bits of the train here and they go at it like they’re rodding a drain! The second was that my vague expectation that, as you neared your stop, a white-jacketed butler type straight out of the 1920s would gently tap you on the shoulder and softly intone “10 minutes to your station, Sir. Your newspaper,” proved somewhat wide of the mark. You are left to your own devices and there aren’t any announcements, so set an alarm on the off chance you do manage to nod off!
Aviemore arrival
Past Edinburgh there are many more stops as the train pushes on through the small hours. The light started to reappear as we reached Stirling and on through Dunblane, Gleneagles, Perth; all deserted ghost-stations in the pre-dawn where no-one embarked and no-one alighted. Signs of habitation dwindle, and the scenery just gets more magnificent with each passing stop until the train pulls into Aviemore on the dot at 7:43am.
It seems everyone is heading on to Inverness. I cut a lonely and somewhat dazed figure on the platform as the train leaves me behind. The journey had taken 11 and a half hours but somehow really didn’t feel like it had been anything like that long. I didn’t even leave my seat the whole way which is not at all healthy; just a few desultory leg raises in the vague hope of staving off DVT.
The town had yet to wake up but I discovered a Costa and I was first in for some caffeine and then some carbs at a freshly-opened bakery.
More to explore
The youth hostel, just a short walk from the station, is excellent and they let me stash my bags in advance of check-in, so I changed into running gear and started out on my two days of sublime trail. I loved it. Overall, I covered over 50 miles on foot, including summitting Cairngorm in blue skies and with a 360-degree panorama of mountains to drink in.
It was a great trip, and I’ll definitely take this train again – it also reaches Fort William and I have my eye on more trails to explore from there and out to Skye. Maybe I’ll finally use the bivvy?
If you’re thinking of taking the sleeper and using the seat option, I highly recommend it. It’s an easy journey, there are no queues and it’s the most environmentally friendly way to travel short of walking or pedalling yourself. Take something soft to lean on and you might get at least some rest!
