Day-by-day trail itinerary

Great Glen Way: 5-day itinerary

Two very different walks joined at Gairlochy. The first is canal walking, and it is as easy as the trail gets: riverside grass and pavement out of Fort William, the Loch Linnhe shore at Caol, the sea lock at Corpach, then the towpath up past Neptune's Staircase and away north east on level gravel with hillsides closing in on both sides and the River Lochy below. Boats, cyclists and dog walkers keep it sociable. From Gairlochy the character changes twice. First a quiet lochside road with woodland paths cut alongside it to keep walkers off the tarmac, as far as Clunes; then a long enclosed forestry road above the north shore of Loch Lochy where the loch is behind conifers for most of the way and progress is measured in bridged burns rather than views. The last part is the least satisfying stretch of the day, dropping to the A82 corridor at Laggan and the Well of the Seven Heads before climbing back into forest for Invergarry. Nothing on it is steep. What governs the day is the twelve kilometres of forestry road with no way off it, and the thin services between Gairlochy and Laggan.