Skip to content

West Highland WayPlanning2 min read

Water and lunch on the West Highland Way, mile by mile

Taps and shops every day of a seven-day walk, until the end: nineteen miles with no food shop across Rannoch Moor, and a last day with nothing at all for twelve.

By Tom Spencer ·

For most of its length the West Highland Way passes a village, a hotel or a campsite shop every few miles. The two gaps that matter are north of Tyndrum, where the Way crosses Rannoch Moor, and on the last day, from Kinlochleven over to Glen Nevis.

Everything below is counted from OpenStreetMap, read 2 October 2026: every food shop, café and pub within a kilometre of the path, and every drinking-water tap within 400 metres. A place on the map is not a promise it is open, and a tap on the map is not a promise it is running.

Food shops within 1 km
42
with 27 cafés and 21 pubs
Longest stretch without a food shop
19 mi
30 km, Inveroran to Kinlochleven
Longest without a tap, or any food
12 mi
about 20 km, Kinlochleven to Glen Nevis

Water

OpenStreetMap has 32 drinking-water taps within 400 metres of the Way, and every day of the planner's seven-day split passes at least four. The longest stretch without one is the last day's: about 20 kilometres from Kinlochleven over to Glen Nevis, where the map has none until the glen. Fill up in Kinlochleven before you leave.

Food

The longest stretch without a food shop is 30 kilometres, about 19 miles, from Inveroran over Rannoch Moor to Kinlochleven. At Kingshouse the map has a pub, The Way Inn, but no shop. The longest stretch with no shop, café or pub at all is the same last day: 19 kilometres, about 12 miles, from Kinlochleven into Glen Nevis.

Day by day

In the planner's seven-day split, walking south to north:

  • Day 1, Milngavie to Drymen. Four taps and 21 food shops, the last in Drymen at the day's end.
  • Day 2, Drymen to Rowardennan. Six taps; six shops, the last at Rowardennan.
  • Day 3, Rowardennan to Inverarnan. Six taps; two shops, the last at Beinglas Campsite at the day's end.
  • Day 4, Inverarnan to Tyndrum. Four taps; five shops, the last in Tyndrum.
  • Day 5, Tyndrum to Ba Bridge. Four taps; four shops, the last at Inveroran, five miles before the end. The night is on the moor, with no shop at all.
  • Day 6, Ba Bridge to Kinlochleven. Five taps, three of them at Kingshouse; one shop, at Kinlochleven at the day's end, and The Way Inn at Kingshouse on the way.
  • Day 7, Kinlochleven to Fort William. Eleven taps, but none for the first twelve miles; twelve shops, from the Glen Nevis campsite shop on into Fort William.

So day 5 wants food for the night and the next morning bought in Tyndrum or Bridge of Orchy, and day 7 wants water and lunch carried from Kinlochleven. The planner's day cards give the last shop before each night for any split you choose.

Build your walkWest Highland Way in 7 days95 mi · about 14 miles a dayOpen the planner →

Now make it yours.

The planner splits the West Highland Way into days that fit the time you have, with the trains at each end. Free, no account.

Build your walk

Related