West Highland Way · Overnight stop
Accommodation in Drymen
19km / 12 miles in — the end of stage one and the last village before the Way turns properly uphill.
19km from Milngavie · Stage stop
A village around a green, close enough to Glasgow to be busy at weekends with people who have not walked anywhere. The Way skirts it rather than going through it, so the last half-mile is a small deliberate detour — worth it, because the alternative is another 23km to Rowardennan.
The standard first night on the 7-day and 8-day schedules.
What is actually in Drymen
Hotels, B&Bs, a campsite and a bunkhouse. The Clachan Inn is the popular first-night stop and books accordingly.
How far ahead to book
Three to six months for June to August. Drymen is small, it is the default first night, and it takes the entire day-one cohort at once — which is a sharper constraint than the village size suggests.
When it is full
Balmaha is 11km further on and is the usual answer, but it is a longer first day than most people want. Backtracking toward Glasgow for the night and returning by bus in the morning works and costs you a morning.
Getting there, and getting out
Buses to Balloch and Stirling. No railway station — the nearest is Balloch, which is a bus ride away. As a bail-out point Drymen is straightforward; from Rowardennan onwards it stops being.
Camping
There is a campsite. Wild camping from here northwards runs into the Loch Lomond Camping Management Zones, which require a permit from 1 March to 30 September — see the camping zones guide before you plan a wild pitch on this half of the route.
Permit price: £4.50 per tent/motorhome/campervan per night. Full detail of which stretches are covered and how to book is in the Loch Lomond camping management zones guide.
Food and resupply
Shops and pubs. A good resupply point, and the planning guide lists it as one of the four places most wild campers top up.
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