West Highland Way: How Long It Takes, and the Hard Days

On the second morning of the West Highland Way you climb a grassy hill above Loch Lomond, and somewhere near the top you cross from the Lowlands into the Highlands. There is no sign. There is only a view that suddenly looks different.

From there the trail runs north for six more days, along a loch, over a moor and under the biggest mountains in Britain, to finish at Fort William below Ben Nevis. Our guide to hiking in Scotland sets it beside the country's other waymarked trails.

Quick facts:

• Where: Milngavie on the edge of Glasgow to Fort William, through Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe

• What: a waymarked 154 km (96 mile) trail, Scotland's first official Long Distance Route, walked inn to inn in five to eight days

• How difficult: moderate to challenging; two hard sections, no scrambling, no special skills

• When: April to October, best in May and September

The Eight Stages, South to North

Most people walk the trail in eight days, south to north, and every stage ends where there are beds. The figures come from our own routing, which covers about 151 of the official 154 kilometres.

Do not judge a day by its distance. The shortest days on paper are not the easiest, and the slowest is only 22.5 kilometres long.

Ben Nevis itself is not part of the trail. At 1,345 metres it needs its own weather window and its own legs, so plan an extra night in Fort William if you want the summit.

Where Do the Highlands Begin?

On top of Conic Hill. Scotland is split by a long crack in the Earth's crust called the Highland Boundary Fault, running right across the country from the island of Arran to Stonehaven on the east coast. Conic Hill sits exactly on it.

South of the line the land is soft, green farmland. North of it the rock is older and harder, which is why the mountains start suddenly instead of building up slowly.

You can see it happen from the summit. The islands in Loch Lomond below you sit in a straight row, because they are the same fault line poking out of the water.

It is the clearest geology lesson on any British trail, and it takes about ten seconds to understand. Loch Lomond is also the largest lake in Britain by surface area, at 71 square kilometres. Loch Ness, which our Great Glen Way guide walks the length of, is smaller on the map but holds far more water.

How Hard Is the West Highland Way

Harder than its reputation, but no special skills. Our routing grades the full walk fitness 4 of 5 and technical 3 of 5, the joint highest fitness grade of any Scottish trail we run, level with the Rob Roy Way.

There is no scrambling, no river to cross without a bridge and no navigation problem, because the waymarking is continuous. What it asks for is eight days in a row of 14 to 25 kilometres.

The Two Hard Sections

The difficulty sits almost entirely in two places, and knowing which two changes how you plan the week.

Everything else is straightforward. The Devil's Staircase is famous and quicker than its name. Rannoch Moor is flat, but it is open to the wind and rain for 15 kilometres with no shelter and no road out, so the weather decides how hard it feels. The first two days are gentle.

The people who struggle are rarely the least fit. They are the ones who trained on pavement and met tree roots and wet rock on day three. Our guide on training for hiking covers how to prepare for rough ground.

What the Walking Feels Like

The landscape rebuilds itself as you walk. You start in a suburban park, cross farmland, climb a fault line, follow 30 kilometres of loch shore, break out onto open moor and finish among the biggest mountains in Britain. Very few trails anywhere change that completely in a week.

Every day takes you somewhere new, and the ground gets wilder as you go. You notice it in small ways first: the fields thin out, the woods give way to open hill, the villages shrink to a single inn. By Kingshouse there is one building in view and a mountain the shape of a pyramid standing over it.

You will not be alone. Tens of thousands of people walk this trail every year, more than any other in Scotland, and in July you will rarely have a view to yourself.

That has an upside. The inns know walkers, baggage transfer runs the whole length, and you keep meeting the same faces each evening. May and September are noticeably quieter.

Who Built the Road on Rannoch Moor?

Soldiers did, in the 1700s. After the Jacobite rising of 1745, the government built roads into the Highlands so it could move troops quickly. Major William Caulfeild supervised the line from Fort William south over the Devil's Staircase and across Rannoch Moor between 1749 and 1752, and two summers of work went into the moor alone.

Much of the northern half of the trail is that road. The raised, cobbled stretches on the moor and the zigzags of the Devil's Staircase are 18th century military engineering, built for soldiers and pack horses rather than for the view. That is why it climbs the way it does. ScotWays still maps it as a heritage path.

Why Is There a Village at Kinlochleven?

Because of aluminium. A hydroelectric scheme was built here between 1905 and 1909 to power a smelter, and a village went up around it on ground that had held almost no one.

It was among the first villages in the world where every house had electric light, at a time when Fort William did not. The smelter closed in 2000 and walkers took its place. The old pipelines on the hillside are still the first thing you see as you come down off the Devil's Staircase.

When to Walk the West Highland Way

May and September are the best months, inside a season that runs April to October.

Getting There and Where to Sleep

Take the train both ways. Milngavie is a 25 minute suburban train from Glasgow city centre, and the station is a few minutes from the official start. Fort William at the far end sits on the West Highland Line, about four hours by train from Glasgow, and a sleeper runs overnight to and from London.

No car, no transfer, no parking to recover.

Buses run the A82 the length of the route and serve most overnight stops, so a stage can be shortened or skipped without unpicking the week.

Every night is an inn, hotel, guesthouse or B&B with breakfast. Book the three smallest stops first: Rowardennan, Inveroran and Kingshouse are barely villages, each with a single hotel or a handful of rooms, and when they fill there is nothing else within walking distance.

Accommodation along the trail runs roughly Easter to October, and six months ahead is normal rather than cautious. Beds are also most of what the week costs. The walking itself is free: no permit, no access fee and no national park charge, because Scotland's right of responsible access covers the whole trail.

Know Before You Go

Walk south to north, pack for midges and ticks, and buy food in Tyndrum. Those three habits prevent most problems on this trail.

Which Way to Walk

Almost everyone walks from Milngavie to Fort William, and for good reasons. The trail gets wilder in that direction, so the landscape builds instead of fading. The prevailing southwesterly wind sits behind you. And the gentle days come first, so they train you for the last one.

Walking the other way means finishing in a Glasgow suburb after starting under Ben Nevis. The only real argument for it is quieter beds, because you move against everyone else.

Midges and Ticks

Midges are the famous one. From June to August the Loch Lomond woods and Kinlochleven are exactly the still, damp ground they love, so carry a head net and repellent. Our guide to surviving midges on a hike covers the practicalities.

Ticks are quieter and matter more. They live in the bracken and oakwoods from Drymen northwards, so check yourself every evening and carry a remover, because correct removal matters more than prevention.

What to Carry

The trail is low but two sections are rough, so the list is close to a hill walker's:

• Waterproofs: a jacket and overtrousers, because west coast weather arrives with little warning

• Boots, not trail shoes: for the roots on the loch shore and the long stony descents

• Trekking poles: for the loch shore and both long descents

• Water: two litres, because Rannoch Moor and the Lairig Mor run for hours with nothing open

• Food: three days of snacks and lunches from Tyndrum, because there is no shop until Kinlochleven

• Phone: a power bank, because signal is patchy from Inverarnan north

Weather and Rescue

Before the moor and the last day, check the summit forecast on the Mountain Weather Information Service rather than a valley forecast. Mountain rescue in Scotland is free, but the teams are volunteers, so leave your route with someone each day.

Ready for the West Highland Way?

Our West Highland Way trip covers all eight stages of the full walk, and the West Highland Getaway takes the northern half in three walking days, from Bridge of Orchy over Rannoch Moor and the Devil's Staircase to Fort William. Both run April to October, inn to inn, with your luggage moved every morning and a digital guidebook with GPS routing.

If you would rather we shaped the stages around your own dates, get in touch with our team.