An absolute must when visiting the Scottish Highlands is seeing the Glenfinnan Viaduct and Jacobite Express, aka the Hogwarts Express. There are a lot of ways to visit the area, and generally people just drive in for the day. However, I’d highly recommend staying the night in Glenfinnan. Although hundreds of people (or more) flock to see the Jacobite train crossing the viaduct everyday, Glenfinnan becomes a serene and tranquil spot when the crowds leave at the end of the day.
How to Get There
We drove directly from Edinburgh to Glenfinnan, with some stops in the Glencoe region along the way. It’s just under a four hour drive, with stops not included. The drive itself is phenomenal and the roads are quite easy to maneuver. I’d highly recommend stopping in Fort William for snacks and food, as there isn’t anywhere in Glenfinnan itself.
Where to Stay
While in Glenfinnan, we stayed at a lovely Airbnb hosted by Beth. She has a gorgeous tiny home in her backyard, perfect for two people. It’s small, but has all the necessities and is perfect for one night. As there is only one restaurant in the area, Beth offered to make us a home-cooked roast chicken dinner for a small fee. It was perfect, especially after a long day of driving. She also has free parking, and is a quick walk to the Glenfinnan Visitor Centre.
How and When to See the Jacobite Express
The Jacobite Express, which many know as the Hogwarts Express, has become a phenomena to see crossing over the Glenfinnan Viaduct. The viaduct itself connects trains between Fort William and Mallaig. Not only does the Jacobite train cross over the viaduct, but other ScotRail trains do as well. We saw a ScotRail train crossing the viaduct in the late afternoon, while exploring after all the tourists had left for the day.
If you want to see the Jacobite Express crossing over the viaduct, it is important to check the train schedule. Generally, it has a morning and afternoon service, but does not operate between November and March. With two services a day, it technically crosses the structure four times.
For the quintessential photo op, I’d recommend visiting the viaduct while the train is enroute to Mallaig, from Fort William. The morning service leaves Fort William at 10:15am, and the afternoon service leaves at 12:50pm. Generally, the train will arrive approximately 30 minutes after departing Fort William. The day we visited, it arrived 40 minutes after the scheduled departure. We were there for the morning service, which although busy, is not as busy as the afternoon run.
The weather here turns incredibly quickly, and ended up raining as the train was crossing. The viaduct viewpoint is east facing, which with optimal sunny conditions may make the afternoon service preferable for a photographer. Due to our schedule we opted for the morning visit, which still worked out well and we preferred less people.
As this is an incredibly popular event to watch, we arrived to the visitor centre about one hour before the train arrived to walk toward the viewpoint and get a good spot. The parking lot was already quite full, and we were happy to have only had to walk less than 10 minutes to the visitor centre. We spent some time in and around the visitor centre, before walking over to the viewpoint to get a spot. I’d certainly suggest visiting the centre itself – it provides a lot of good insight into the history of the Jacobite Rising and Glenfinnan as a whole.
We arrived to the viewpoint at 10:15am, which I would recommend as a good rule of thumb. It was quite a wet and rainy morning, and there were still almost 200 people there by the time the train arrived. The trails in the area before the viewpoint are flat and incredibly accessible. The viewpoint train itself is easy to follow, but has a bit of an incline and isn’t the most accessible for strollers or people with disabilities. However, there are still several great viewpoints down below the Viaduct to watch the train crossing. When the train arrives, it is quite a quick moment (under one minute) so it is important to have your camera gear ready.
After the train passes, most people walk back down the trail towards the Visitor Centre. I would recommend continuing up the hill on the Glenfinnan Viaduct Circular trail. It was only about 30 minutes, but is sprinkled with a ton of viewpoints along the way of Loch Shiel and the Glenfinnan Train Station as well.
Talk Soon,
Sarah
[…] My friend and I visited the Isle of Skye as part of a larger eight day Scotland road trip. We began our journey in Edinburgh, and finished it in Glasgow. I’d recommend doing a similar route, and stopping in the Glencoe region and Glenfinnan on the way. Check out my blog post on Glenfinnan here. […]