Qualla: Great Glen Way

Great Glen Way: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit don cload, CC BY-SA 2.0. Most Scottish long-distance trails punish the walker. The Cape Wrath Trail to the north takes weeks of bog and bothy. The West Highland Way climbs over Rannoch Moor and skirts Ben Nevis. The Great Glen Way does something else. It walks 73 miles diagonally across the Highlands and almost never lifts you above the canal towpath. You stroll from Fort William to Inverness, following a geological fault that glaciers carved and a Victorian engineer connected, sleeping in B&Bs, eating in pubs. It can be done in six days at a walking pace or two on a mountain bike, and you can absolutely turn around and go home whenever you want.

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Image: don cload | CC BY-SA 2.0

Great Glen Way: Walking a Fault Line

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gabriel Vidal Álvarez (Gabriel Vidal), Public domain. The Great Glen is the surface expression of a strike-slip fault about 430 million years old. Glaciers found the line of weakness, gouged it into a deep diagonal trench, and left three long lakes strung along the floor: Loch Lochy, Loch Oich, Loch Ness. In the early 1800s Thomas T...

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Image: Gabriel Vidal Álvarez (Gabriel Vidal) | Public domain

Great Glen Way: Out of Fort William

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0. The official start is the old sea wall at Fort William, near the railway station. The town itself is a working Highland service centre, the northern terminus of the West Highland Way and the base camp for Ben Nevis. From the sea front the trail hugs the coast to Inverlochy Castle...

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Image: Andrew Abbott | CC BY-SA 2.0

Great Glen Way: The Middle Loch and the Castle

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sourav Niyogi at Wikitravel / User: (WT-shared) P.K.Niyogi at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Invergarry Bridge sits at the southern end of Loch Oich, the highest stretch of the Caledonian Canal. The trail then runs along the old railway formation, now a cycleway, past the ruins of Invergarry Castle, sacked by Cumberland's troops in 1746 and never rebuilt. North of Loch O...

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Image: Sourav Niyogi at Wikitravel / User: (WT-shared) P.K.Niyogi at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Great Glen Way: The Long Loch

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kognos, CC BY-SA 4.0. From Fort Augustus the Great Glen Way runs along the west side of Loch Ness, 23 miles end to end. Walkers choose between a low-level lochside route and a high-level forest track that adds a mile but offers wider views. Drumnadrochit, midway up the loch, is the centre of Nessie to...

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Image: Kognos | CC BY-SA 4.0

Great Glen Way: The Practicalities and the Midges

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Shaundd, CC BY-SA 4.0. The trail is no permits, no fees, no waymarking confusion. Wild camping is legal under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Scottish Canals operates small Trailblazer rest sites with showers. Commercial luggage transfer companies will move your bag between B&Bs while you walk with a...

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Image: Shaundd | CC BY-SA 4.0