West Highland Way: 8-day itinerary

Easy, low-level walking on old railway path, parkland and farm lanes through Mugdock Country Park and a run of small towns — Milngavie, Blanefield, Killearn, Drymen — with no real climbing until the very end. Conic Hill, just before Balmaha, is the one exception: a short, sharp pull that gives the first proper view over Loch Lomond and its islands from height. Well served throughout, with shops and pubs never far away — a genuine warm-up day, sociable and flat, before the trail's character changes completely at the loch shore.

Logistics: Drymen, about two-thirds in, is the last easy resupply before Conic Hill; camping bylaws also begin around here, restricting wild camping to permit areas from spring to autumn.

Navigation: Well waymarked and hard to lose on the old railway path and forest tracks; Conic Hill's open summit path is the one place worth care in poor visibility, where the enclosed paths before it give way to open hillside.

Balmaha and Rowardennan give a deceptively gentle start on estate track and quiet road along Loch Lomond's east shore. Beyond Rowardennan the path narrows and turns genuinely rough — roots, boulders and short, sharp ups and downs through native oak woodland, worse again north of Inversnaid — and pace drops well below what the distance on paper suggests. This is widely reckoned the single most misjudged stretch of the whole Way, catching out walkers expecting an easy lochside stroll. Some burn crossings can flood and become impassable after heavy rain. Beinglas, near Inverarnan at the far end, is the natural finish.

Logistics: Budget significantly more time than the distance suggests for Rowardennan to Inverarnan — roots, rock and repeated short climbs make this far slower going than anywhere else on the trail so far.

Navigation: The path is obvious — there's only the one line along the shore — but it demands constant attention to footing rather than route-finding; some burn crossings can be genuinely impassable for a time after heavy rain.

A complete change of pace and landscape after the loch shore — gentle glen walking up Glen Falloch and Strath Fillan on well-surfaced track, much of it an old military road, with the hills opening out either side instead of closing in. Crianlarich sits slightly off the main line and is easy to bypass if not stopping; St Fillan's Priory ruins and the river crossings at Kirkton mark the approach to Tyndrum. Both villages have full services, making this one of the best-supplied stretches on the trail. A straightforward, recovering day between two harder ones.

Logistics: Both Crianlarich and Tyndrum have full services and rail stations — an easy section to break at either end, and the best-placed resupply pair on the trail.

Navigation: Well waymarked on broad, well-surfaced track; easy to follow even in poor visibility after the attention the loch shore demanded.

The trail's big remote crossing: past Bridge of Orchy and over the open moor to Rannoch Moor, one of the largest and wildest expanses of open ground in Britain, on the line of the old military road. Only one settlement in 34km, and almost nothing in the way of food or shelter — carry what you need. Kingshouse, isolated below the Glencoe peaks, and the ski centre beyond it are the only real landmarks. Fully exposed throughout; this is where wind and driving rain, not distance, decide how hard the day feels.

Logistics: Only one settlement in 34km and almost no food or shelter — carry water and supplies from Tyndrum or Bridge of Orchy for the whole crossing.

Navigation: The old military road across Rannoch Moor is broad and obvious, but featureless in mist — easy to lose confidence in the distance even though the line itself is hard to actually lose.

The Devil's Staircase and the drop into Kinlochleven, packed into a short but brutal 12km — the most dramatic elevation change on the whole trail. The zigzag climb to 548m, the Way's highest point, is well graded and clearly engineered despite the name; the long, knee-jarring descent afterwards, loose and rocky in places, is harder than the climb. Kinlochleven itself, reached at the bottom, then demands the first stretch of the next climb straight back out before the section ends. Big views of Buachaille Etive Mòr and the Mamores from the top reward the effort.

Logistics: Kinlochleven, at the bottom of the descent, is the last full resupply before the remote Lairig Mor crossing in the next section — worth stocking up here even though it feels late in a short day.

Navigation: The staircase path is clear and well engineered — despite the name it's more about stamina than route-finding; the descent has loose gravel and rock that wants more care than the climb.

A steep climb straight out of Kinlochleven leads onto the Lairig Mor, a remote, high pass between the Mamores and the Ben Nevis range — rough underfoot but easy to follow, and a genuine wilderness feel after the villages before it. The gradient eases once over the top, and the second half of the day is a long, gradual descent through forestry plantations into Glen Nevis, with Ben Nevis itself in view for the final approach. The last few kilometres turn suburban, then urban, finishing at the walker's statue in Fort William's Gordon Square — a low-key end after days of hills.

Logistics: Nothing of substance between Kinlochleven and Glen Nevis, roughly 19km — carry food and water for the whole crossing of the Lairig Mor.

Navigation: The track is broad and obvious throughout, if rough underfoot on the high pass; navigation is straightforward even though the ground itself demands care.