Hiking in Scotland: 5 Trails and the Law That Opens Them

You step off a Glasgow commuter train at Milngavie and walk north, crossing the fault line where the Highlands begin, following Loch Lomond end to end and spending a day on Rannoch Moor with nowhere to shelter for about 15 kilometres, all the way to the foot of Ben Nevis. No car required.

That is one of five waymarked trails below. Our guide to hiking in the UK sets Scotland beside England and Wales, while this one goes trail by trail, right down to the midges. And when the waymarks stop? You keep going.

Quick facts:

• Where: Scotland, from the Borders and Speyside to Loch Ness and Skye

• What: Multi-day, inn-to-inn walking on waymarked Great Trails of 125 to 344 km

• How difficult: Gentle on the Great Glen Way, tough on the West Highland Way, and the weather is the real grade

• When: April to October, with May, June and September the best months

5 Best Trails for Hiking in Scotland

Most lists of the best hikes in Scotland stop at day summits, but these five fill a week, follow waymarks from first step to last and sit inside the Scotland's Great Trails network. Each suits a first or second trip.

1. West Highland Way

• Distance: 154 km (96 mi)

• Typical days: 5 to 8

• Waymarked: yes, seven official stages

• Start and finish: Milngavie to Fort William

From a Glasgow suburb to the foot of the highest mountain in Britain, through Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe in that order, this is the most walked trail in Scotland and the one that gets people hooked on the country. You will have company.

Two sections do the damage. The east shore of Loch Lomond is slower than its distance suggests, because the path turns to root and boulder for several miles, and later the Devil's Staircase climbs steeply out of Glen Coe before dropping to Kinlochleven. Neither is technical.

Both punish anyone who skipped the training. Our West Highland Way tour walks the whole line over nine nights, on stages of roughly 14 to 24.5 km graded fitness 4 and technical 3 of 5, and because the inns are few and fill months ahead, booking early decides whether you walk.

Short on days? The West Highland Getaway takes three walking days on the northern half, from Bridge of Orchy to Fort William over stages of roughly 17, 16 and 24 km, so you get the Devil's Staircase and the Lairig Mor while skipping the slow lochshore, and the grade drops to fitness 2 of 5.

2. Great Glen Way

• Distance: 125 km (78 mi)

• Typical days: 5 to 7

• Waymarked: yes

• Start and finish: Fort William to Inverness

Here you walk the geological fault that splits Scotland in two, on canal towpath, forest track and a high-level option above Loch Ness, past Neptune's Staircase and the ruins of Urquhart Castle. It is the easiest classic underfoot. First long walk? Start here.

The sting is at the end. Our Great Glen Way tour follows a slightly shorter line of about 120 km over seven nights, with days of 12 to 30.5 km at fitness 3 and technical 2 of 5, and the final push into Inverness tops 30 km, though a shuttle can shorten it.

3. Rob Roy Way

• Distance: 127 km (79 mi)

• Typical days: 6 to 8

• Waymarked: yes

• Start and finish: Drymen to Pitlochry

You cross the country of the 18th-century outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor, over the Menteith Hills, along Loch Lubnaig and up to the Glen Ogle viaduct, before the last day drops through the Birks of Aberfeldy into Perthshire. It is far emptier than the famous one. The obvious second trail.

Because the route is a traverse rather than a loop, every day shows you new ground, and our Rob Roy Way tour takes eight nights from Drymen to Pitlochry with days of 15 to 24 km at fitness 4 and technical 3 of 5. It opens in March. Everything else waits.

4. Speyside Way

• Distance: 137 km (85 mi), plus a 25 km spur

• Typical days: 6 to 9

• Waymarked: yes

• Start and finish: Buckie to Newtonmore

From the Moray coast you follow the River Spey upstream through farmland and woodland, on the flattest Great Trail for most of its length, through the region that makes most of Scotland's single malt, with more than fifty working distilleries and Glenfiddich, Aberlour and Glenlivet all within reach.

The 25 km spur to Tomintoul, the highest village in the Highlands, is the scenic half. Our Whisky Trail walks it from Craigellachie over four nights, with days of 10 to 19 km and 160 to 340 metres of climbing, at fitness 3 and technical 3. Short days leave time for distilleries.

5. Southern Upland Way

• Distance: 344 km (214 mi)

• Typical days: 12 to 16

• Waymarked: yes

• Start and finish: Portpatrick to Cockburnspath, coast to coast

Britain's first official coast-to-coast route crosses the Borders from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, more than twice the West Highland Way with a fraction of its traffic, through grass hills and forestry rather than rock.

The catch is supply. Stages between villages run long, some sections have no accommodation at all and walkers bridge them with bothies and stashed food boxes, while booked-bed packages for the full route run to about two weeks. Many walk it in halves.

Two Bonus Trails in Scotland

Two celebrated routes carry no waymarks at all, and they are here so you can rule them out on purpose, or plan one properly if you already have the navigation and camping skills they ask for. Neither is bought as a week.

Cape Wrath Trail

• Distance: about 370 km (230 mi)

• Typical days: 16 to 22

• Waymarked: no, and no fixed line

• Start and finish: Fort William to Cape Wrath

This is the hardest walk in Britain. There is no official route, no waymarking, no baggage service and no accommodation infrastructure, while unbridged rivers become impassable after rain and resupply gaps run to several days.

It is superb ground for experienced backpackers with real navigation skills. It is not a first Scottish trail. It is not a holiday.

Skye Trail

• Distance: about 128 km (80 mi)

• Typical days: 7

• Waymarked: no

• Start and finish: Rubha Hunish to Broadford, on Skye

An unofficial route the length of Skye, over the Trotternish Ridge and round the coast at Elgol, where distances vary between sources because nobody agrees on the line and the ridge is exposed and pathless in places. You plan this one yourself.

What the Walking Feels Like

Scotland is small on a map and slow on the ground. Forget kilometres. A day here is measured in wet peat, rock underfoot and how low the cloud sits, and on open moor you can walk for hours with nothing but wind, water and your own boots for company.

The weather arrives off the Atlantic with very little warning, cloud can drop to 300 metres and sit there for days, and the scale reads as alpine even though nothing tops 1,345 metres, because every climb starts close to sea level. You will wear your waterproofs.

What surprises people is the light. Eighteen hours of it at midsummer in the north means a long stage never races the dark. Then you move one region over and everything changes: rock, weather, crowds, even midges.

Five regions matter to walkers, and picking the wrong one for your dates is the commonest planning mistake. Read these first.

Can You Really Walk Anywhere?

Almost. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gave everyone a right of responsible access to nearly all land and inland water, from hills and forests to beaches, riverbanks, field margins and most estate ground, with only houses and their surrounds, gardens and growing crops off limits. The law lets you leave the path.

England and Wales have no general equivalent (our ultimate guide to hiking in Wales is written around that difference), so here you can take the ridge that looks better, link two glens no path connects and pitch a lightweight tent on most unenclosed land for two or three nights.

Walkers raised on rights of way spend day one expecting to be moved on. Nobody is coming. The exception is Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, where camping byelaws run from March to September in lochshore zones covering under 4% of the park, so check the park's camping page first.

How Bad Are the Midges?

Bad on a still July evening in the west, and mild almost everywhere else. The Highland midge flies from late May into September, peaks through July and August, concentrates on the west coast and in the Highlands and carries no disease, but it does decide where you stop and eat.

Now the good news. A breeze above about 7 mph grounds them completely, and so does bright sun, while the east coast, Orkney and Shetland stay largely clear even at peak. A head net weighs nothing. Our guide to surviving midges on a hike covers the rest.

What Is a Bothy?

A bothy is a free, unlocked shelter in a remote glen, four walls and a sleeping platform with no booking, no beds and no facilities, and the Mountain Bothies Association looks after around a hundred of them across Scotland, Wales and northern England, the majority in the Scottish hills.

Nobody can reserve one. Nobody can turn you away either, which cuts both ways on a wet night when the biggest are busy most summer weekends, so you carry a tent anyway, bring your own fuel, keep your group to six or fewer and leave it cleaner than you found it.

Treat every bothy as a bonus, not a bed you are counting on. Then the system works.

When to Go

Go in May, June or September. May and June are on average the driest spell of the year, while September empties the hills as midge numbers collapse and the heather stays out.

Our trips run April to October (the Rob Roy Way from March, the Whisky Trail from May), and whatever month you choose, book beds before flights, because West Highland Way villages hold a small, fixed number of rooms. January booking for July is normal.

Know Before You Go

You need no car, no permit and no fee. You need booked beds, full waterproofs and a mountain forecast, because the weather is the real difficulty rating and the Mountain Weather Information Service gives wind at altitude, cloud base and freezing level.

Ready to Hike in Scotland?

Pick your trail by your days and your legs. One week and the famous one? The West Highland Way, trained for. A first long walk? The Great Glen Way, without question. Quiet country and new ground? The Rob Roy Way.

Every one of our self-guided Scotland trips includes:

• Inn-to-inn accommodation booked in the right sequence

• Your luggage moved each morning

• A digital guidebook with GPS routing

• Support on the phone if a stage falls apart

See every route and date on our Scotland hiking tours page, compare them with our UK hiking tours, or get in touch with our team to shape a route around your dates.