The Great Glen Way

Jacquetta Megarry and Sandra Bardwell

The Great Glen Way runs for 77 miles (124 km) along Scotland's historic Great Glen between Fort William and Inverness. It follows the Caledonian Canal and passes several lochs, including Loch Ness of famous monster legend, and Urquhart Castle. There is still debate about its exact length: please see How long is it? below.

This 4th edition of our popular guidebook was fully revised based on fieldwork in summer 2010 and contains all you need to plan and enjoy your holiday:

• details of visitor attractions and side-trips
• town plans of Fort William and Inverness
• recommended hill climbs and notes on Ben Nevis
• background on local geology, history and wildlife
• summary of each section showing distance, terrain and food/drink stops
• planning information for travel by car, train, bus or plane
• drop-down map of the Great Glen Way in five panels (1:110,000)
• in full colour, with over 70 photographs, many of them new
• waterproof paper throughout.

For more, please use the buttons at far right: click to Look inside the book, view a Gallery or read its Reviews. View its Route map, visit our Great Glen Way forum or follow our Great Glen Way links.

Click for details of Great Glen Way walking holiday providers.

At its launch in 2002, the Great Glen Way was announced as 73 miles (117 km) and for the first 9 years, that distance was almost universally quoted in all publications including our guidebooks. However, in January 2011 the length was remeasured and officially declared to be 79 miles, an increase of over 8%. We have remeasured all Great Glen Way distances and cross-checked against our Google maps route overlay and the Footprint map.

We now believe that the last section – already at 18 miles/29 km too long for many walkers – is actually a punishing 20 miles/32 km, making it too long for most. Therefore we have provided an updated distance table and some ideas on how to split the overlong sections on our Great Glen Way forum.