West Highland Way

The West Highland Way starts in the middle of Milngavie, a town on the northern edge of Glasgow, which Scotland's Great Trails says is simplest to reach by train from Glasgow Queen Street. The streets are soon behind: the path goes by Mugdock Castle and through Mugdock Country Park, and comes out into open country.

By the west side of Craigallian Loch, a small monument beside the path remembers the Craigallian Fire. Then the land opens into what Scotland's Great Trails calls the pastures of the Campsies, with the knoll of Dumgoyach beside the path.

It ends at Drymen, a village just off the path: 800 metres from it, by our measure.

It is 19.3 kilometres from Milngavie to Drymen on our line, with 170 metres of climb.

After Drymen the path goes into the plantations of Garadhban Forest and then climbs to the first real summit of the Way, Conic Hill, 361 metres. The hill sits on the Highland Boundary Fault, and from the top the view is over Loch Lomond and back towards Glasgow.

In lambing season, for about three weeks from late April, dogs are not allowed in the two enclosed fields on the east approach to the hill, even on a lead. Below it is Balmaha, on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond.

From here the path keeps to the wooded east shore of the loch, by Milarrochy and Sallochy, to Rowardennan. This stretch is inside Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, and from 1 March to 30 September its byelaws allow camping only in campsites or in designated zones, booked in advance; Scotland's Great Trails says that applies from Drymen to a point north of Rowardennan.

It is 23.6 kilometres from Drymen to Rowardennan on our line, with 490 metres of climb.

North of Rowardennan the path keeps to the wooded eastern shore of Loch Lomond, over the lower slopes of Ben Lomond and back down to the water at Inversnaid.

The hotel at Inversnaid was built in 1790 as a hunting lodge for the Duke of Montrose, next to the Arklet Falls. Much of the hillside and lochside here is a nature reserve kept by the RSPB. A little to the north is the cave said to have been a hideout of Rob Roy MacGregor; it is hard to reach, and easier to see from the loch, where white paint marks it.

The path goes on by Ardleish, near the head of the loch, to Inverarnan.

It is 22.0 kilometres from Rowardennan to Inverarnan on our line, with 400 metres of climb.

From Inverarnan the Way goes north up Glen Falloch. Near Crianlarich it does not go into the village: it skirts the hills just to the west, alongside Bogle Glen, about a kilometre from the village by our measure.

Beyond, the path crosses into Strath Fillan. By Kirkton farm are the remains of St Fillan's Chapel and the priory of Strath Fillan, a small Augustinian house that seems to have been founded in 1318 by Robert I, King of Scots.

The day ends at Tyndrum, which lies in Strath Fillan at the southern edge of Rannoch Moor. It has a station on each of its two railway lines, Upper Tyndrum on the line to Fort William and Tyndrum Lower on the line to Oban, and the hills around it were mined for lead in several phases between 1730 and 1928.

It is 19.3 kilometres from Inverarnan to Tyndrum on our line, with 420 metres of climb.

This is one of the most remote sections of the Way, with little in the way of settlements. From Tyndrum the path runs north to Bridge of Orchy, then over the drovers' road to Inveroran, with wide views on the way.

Beyond Inveroran it climbs onto Rannoch Moor: about 130 square kilometres of bog and lochans, which Scotland's Great Trails calls very exposed. The railway crosses it too; its builders had to float the track on a mattress of tree roots, brushwood and earth. The path crosses by Ba Bridge.

At the end of the day the pyramid of Buachaille Etive Mòr, 1,021 metres, stands at the head of Glen Etive, one of the most recognisable mountains in Scotland, and the path comes down to Kingshouse.

It is 30.1 kilometres from Tyndrum to Kingshouse on our line, with 570 metres of climb.

From Kingshouse the path goes west to Altnafeadh, at the head of Glen Coe. Then it turns north and climbs the Devil's Staircase, the zig-zags of a military road built in 1752 to carry soldiers from Rannoch Moor over the ridge to Loch Leven.

The top of the Staircase is the highest point of the West Highland Way: 545 metres by our terrain (Wikipedia gives 550). From there it makes a great descent to sea level at Kinlochleven.

Kinlochleven sits at the end of Loch Leven, a fjord-like sea loch. Its dam and water works, built between 1905 and 1907 and making the Blackwater Reservoir, powered an aluminium smelter, which closed in June 2000. It became known as the Electric Village: the first village in the world with every house connected to electricity.

It is 14.4 kilometres from Kingshouse to Kinlochleven on our line, with 360 metres of climb.

The last day follows an old military road out of Kinlochleven, by the Lairigmor, skirting the Mamore mountains, past the ruins at Blar a' Chaorainn, and descends into Glen Nevis.

The glen runs along the foot of Ben Nevis, at 1,345 metres the highest mountain in the British Isles; its flanks rise 1,200 metres in about two kilometres above the River Nevis.

Then the path comes out of the glen onto the pavements of Fort William, to the traditional finish in the town. Scotland's Great Trails notes that getting home from Fort William is easy, by express bus or train.

It is 24.4 kilometres from Kinlochleven to Fort William on our line, with 530 metres of climb.