• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

Walking Holidays

  • Home
  • Site Map
  • About Almis
  • Contact us
  • The Walks
  • Walking Experiences
  • Walking Gear
  • Walking Health and Fitness
You are here: Home / Featured / West Highland Way – Classic Walks Itinerary

West Highland Way – Classic Walks Itinerary

By Almis Simans Leave a Comment

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn

West Highland Way: Itinerary:

View of Spean Bridge from Fort William on the West Highland Way

View of Spean Bridge from Fort William on the West Highland Way


Scotland’s West Highland Way walk is a 154 km route that takes walkers along the shore of Loch Lomond, across Rannoch Moor and up over the Devil’s Staircase, eventually arriving at Fort William.

West Highland Way Walk

The walk can be done in as little as 6 days, but for a more pleasurable walking experience 8 days is recommended.  In planning an itinerary, some of the considerations in determining the distance for each day should include the type of terrain, the accommodation, weather, time of year and how fit one is.

The following is an outline of the 8-day walk itinerary that we chose.  We decided on this itinerary because of the reasonable distances and the available accommodation.

West Highland Way map in Fort Williams

West Highland Way map in Fort Williams

Begin at: Milngavnie, Scotland.
How to get there: To Milngavnie: Train from London’s Euston Station to Glasgow Central Railway Station (5 – 5 ½ hours), short walk (10 minutes) or bus to Glasgow Queen Street Railway Station, then train to Milngavie (20 minutes).

Walking itinerary:

Day 1 – Milngavnie – Drymen (19 km)
An easy day, just don’t spend too long at the Glengoyne Distillery as you have another 8 km to walk before reaching Drymen.

Day 2 – Rowardennan (22.5 km)
Along the shore of bonny Loch Lomond. See if you can spot the various highland creatures about.

Day 3 – Inverarnan (22.5 km)
A further walk along Loch Lomond, with occasional traffic noise from the motorway on the opposite shore.
Have dinner at the Drover’s Inn (from 1705).

Day 4 – Crianlarich (10.5 km)
Loch Lomond, Glen Falloch and a series of dramatic cascades to the village of Crianlarich.

Day 5 – Bridge of Orchy (21.5 km)
A fairly tiring day, but great views and variable weather.

Day 6 – Kings House (21.5 km)
This is a super day’s walk in the middle of the bleak expanses of Rannoch Moor to the Kingshouse Hotel.

Day 7 – Kinlochleven (14.5 km)
Then past mighty Buachaille Etive Mor, which guards the entrance to Glencoe. Then the ‘Devil’s Staircase’, the village of Kinlochleven at the head of Loch Leven.

Day 8 – Fort William (22.5 km) – your destination!
The final stage of this spectacular trail crosses the Lairigmor pass to Glen Nevis and the busy little town of Fort William, with the vast bulk of Ben Nevis waiting to be climbed.

Fort Williams

End of the Trail in Fort Williams


How to get back from Fort William: A train from Fort William Railway Station to Glasgow Queen Street (3 ½ hrs), then taxi or bus to Glasgow Airport, or to continue to London; short walk (10 minutes) or bus to Glasgow Central Railway Station for a train to London’s Euston (5 – 5 ½ hours)..

Our Take:

Make sure your wet weather gear is up to scratch. Walking lochside can be a little noisy from the traffic on the opposite shore. The moors and the highlands are a great introduction to walking in Scotland.

See the West Highland Way information for walkers here

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn

Related

Filed Under: Featured, The Walks Tagged With: walking holidays, walking in scotland, West Highland Way, West Highland Way accommodation, West Highland Way itinerary, West Highland Way route, West Highland Way walk

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Additions

  • Walking in the Cotswolds
  • Cotswold Way – A Six-Day Ramble in the Cotswolds
  • The Cotswold Way Walk – Our Walking Experience
  • Did Hadrian build Hadrian’s Wall – We find out on our walk
  • Drinking water for folks on Walking Holidays

Plan and Book Your Trip






eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Devon & Cornwall
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright Travelsignposts Pty Ltd © 2025 Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address