GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 21

024 tRaiN aNd feRRy to the
SCilly iSleS

025 take the SleepeR tRaiN
fRom loNdoN to the SCottiSh
hiGhlaNdS

It's all very well choosing to travel by train
as an environmentally friendly alternative to
flying, but it's not much fun if you have to hang
around in a soulless station waiting for an
onward connection that never comes. Thankfully,
travelling to the Scilly Isles involves an easy
transition from train to ferry. There's a sleeper
train service to Penzance in Cornwall, from
where it's a short walk to the ferry terminal
building at Penzance Quay. The Scillonian III
ferry to the Scilly Isles is scheduled to leave
about an hour after the train arrives, so there's
plenty of time to pause for a pasty before you
board. It takes just 2hr 40min to cross to the
bustling harbour of St Mary's - from where you
can head to the botanical gardens on Tresco, the
laid-back island of Bryher, the Turk's Head inn
on St Agnes, the white sands of St Martins…

Board the Caledonian sleeper train one evening
at Euston station and the following morning
you'll wake up in the heart of the Scottish
Highlands - a slow, subconscious teleport out of
the urban grit and grind into the mountainous
fresh and wild.
After leaving Euston at 9.15pm the train
reaches Crewe just before midnight; it's then
a long trundle overnight up to Scotland. The
train has one- and two-bed cabins plus a lounge
car with comfy chairs and a bar. If you wake up
early, take a peak through the curtains and you'll
see the vast, desolate heath bogs of the Central
Highlands before the train passes over Spean
Bridge and arrives at Fort William around 10am
at the foot of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest peak.
From here you can join the second leg of
the West Highlands Railway, one of the most
brilliantly engineered and scenic train journeys
in Britain. The track winds all the way to the
coast in just under an hour and a half. From Fort
William, the train crosses the Caledonian Canal
over a swing bridge at Benavie before travelling

Need to know For timetables and fares for the
Night Riviera sleeper train from London Paddington
to Penzance see W www.irstgreatwestern.
co.uk. Sailing timetables, fares and general info
on attractions in the Isles of Scilly at W www.
islesofscilly-travel.co.uk.

The main harbour at St Marys,
Scilly Isles