The West Highlands, from Glasgow to Inverness

Lochs, moors and castles

The journey starts in Glasgow and mainly follows the A82, the great road of the Highlands. It first runs along Loch Lomond, the largest body of fresh water in Great Britain. At Tarbet, the A83 branches off, crosses the Rest and Be Thankful pass and drops down to Loch Fyne and Inveraray.

Beyond Bridge of Orchy, the A82 climbs onto Rannoch Moor, a plateau of peat bog and small lochs with almost no trees. Buachaille Etive Mòr rises beside the road, then the A82 drops into Glencoe, between the Three Sisters and the Aonach Eagach ridge. At Fort William, Glen Nevis runs up along the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest summit in the British Isles (1,345 metres).

The Road to the Isles leads from Fort William to the port of Mallaig, past the Glenfinnan Viaduct and the white sand beaches of Morar. No coastal road continues north: you go back through Fort William to reach Glen Shiel and Eilean Donan Castle. The last day follows Loch Ness to Inverness.

The pretext: the MacDonald chief had sworn his oath to King William III a few days late. Other people died of cold as they fled into the mountains.

The road also crosses paths with the Jacobites, supporters of the exiled Stuarts. Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745. His army was defeated on 16 April 1746 at Culloden, near Inverness: it was the last pitched battle fought on British soil. So the journey links Glenfinnan to Culloden, from the beginning to the end of the last Jacobite rising.

Volcanoes, glaciers and the Great Glen fault

Glencoe is what remains of a volcano that was active about 420 million years ago. Its centre collapsed along a circular fault: it is one of the first places where this kind of caldera was described. Later, glaciers carved out the U-shaped valleys and left large boulders on Rannoch Moor.

The Great Glen follows a fault that cuts diagonally across Scotland. Its lochs, including Loch Ness, about 230 metres deep, are linked by Thomas Telford’s Caledonian Canal, opened in 1822. At Banavie, Neptune’s Staircase lines up eight locks: it is the longest staircase lock in Britain.

What not to miss

1. 1InverarayA small white 18th-century town, below the castle of the Dukes of Argyll.
2. 2Steall FallsA 120-metre drop at the head of Glen Nevis, 1.5 km on foot from the last car park.
3. 3The Glenfinnan Viaduct21 concrete arches on the Mallaig line: it is the Hogwarts Express bridge.
4. 4The beaches of MorarWhite sand facing the islands; Camusdarach was a location for the film Local Hero.
5. 5Eilean DonanDestroyed in 1719 and rebuilt in the 20th century, the castle stands on its islet where three lochs meet.
6. 6CullodenThe 1746 battlefield and, close by, the Clava Cairns, tombs about 4,000 years old.

The West Highlands in pictures

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The arches of the Glenfinnan Viaduct, seen from above.

The Highland table

On the coast, you eat seafood: oysters and kippers, smoked herring, from Loch Fyne, and langoustines landed at Mallaig. Cullen skink is a soup of smoked haddock, potatoes and milk.

Haggis, a sheep’s stomach stuffed with offal and oats, is served with neeps and tatties, mashed swede and potatoes. Cranachan mixes cream, raspberries, oats, honey and whisky. You can visit the Ben Nevis distillery in Fort William, and the one in Oban if you pass through.