Experience the West Highland Way as you’ve never seen it before. Not the West Highland Way: A Mountain High Way explores a series of alternative day walks, mountain routes and multi-day options that run alongside, above and beyond Scotland’s most popular long-distance trail. From Milngavie to Fort William, these routes swap busy paths and low-level tracks for high ridges, classic peaks and sweeping Highland views, offering a wilder, more challenging way to engage with this iconic landscape.

Designed for walkers who want to go beyond the standard 96-mile route, this guidebook shows how to build tougher, more adventurous itineraries using high-level detours, standalone mountain days or linked multi-day routes. It’s ideal for experienced hillwalkers, return visitors to the West Highland Way, or anyone looking to combine iconic scenery with greater challenge and solitude. 

• The guidebook includes 14 alternative mountain variants and side loops, ranging from roughly 10–29km with ascents from around 650–1600m, giving you options for single high-level days above almost every stage of the standard West Highland Way
• Two beginner-friendly two-day backpacking trips are also described, offering a gentle introduction to wild camping and hut nights while staying close to the security and facilities of the main trail
• Three extended multi-day adventures go beyond the West Highland Way itself – including routes such as Corrour to Dalwhinnie and Fort William to Inverie – opening up wilder corners of Rannoch, Knoydart and the central Highlands for those with extra time
• Practical information on access, mapping choices and mountain safety is woven throughout, helping you judge weather, terrain and commitment levels before leaving the valley path for more exposed hill crossings in the Highlands
• Get the level of navigational detail you expect from a Cicerone guidebook: detailed route descriptions, OS mapping and GPX files for digital navigation across unbeatable Scottish landscapes 

Featuring iconic landscapes such as Ben Lomond, Ben Lui, the Black Mount, the Mamores, Loch Etive and Glen Nevis, this guidebook unlocks some of the Highlands’ most dramatic scenery. These routes lift you above the crowds, turning well-trodden glens into high-level mountain journeys defined by sweeping ridges, cascading waterfalls and expansive Highland views.

Not the West Highland Way – Quick Facts

Guide name: Not the West Highland Way: A Mountain High Way 
Scope: Mountain alternatives and extensions to the West Highland Way 
Location: Scottish Highlands, UK (Milngavie → Fort William and beyond) 
Content: 14 mountain variant/side‑loop options to the WHW stages, ranging ~10–29 km with ascent gains ~650–1600 m  
Additional routes: Two 2‑day backpacking trips and extended deviations beyond the WHW  
Multi‑day adventures: Summarises longer options such as Corrour to Dalwhinnie; Fort William to Inverie; Spean Bridge to Cluanie (or Cape Wrath)  
Difficulty: Moderately difficult mountain alternatives; includes some challenging sections with high ascent  
Navigation & safety: Access, mapping and mountain safety information provided, GPX files available
Best season: Spring to autumn recommended; winter options for the adventurous

Author Highlight

“For those new to the Highlands and the big hills, the West Highland Way is a dream – and a convenient dream, with its signposts and bridges, its hostels and its shops. But for those more familiar with the hills, it’s a shop itself: a sweetie shop – and you haven’t any pennies in your pocket. For all of those fine mountains are seen, yes, but you’re not allowed to touch. The comfortable gravel path, the well-placed waymarks and cosy bunkhouses, the cheerful evening singer doing (yet again) Loch Lomond’s ‘bonnie banks’: do these really compensate for not going up any of those mountains? Not when above the stony path there rises the compelling cone of Beinn Dorain, sprinkled at its top with snow.”

- Ronald Turnbull, author of Not the West Highland Way: A Mountain High Way

Route summary table
Overview map
Map key
Overview of Routes

INTRODUCTION
The High Road and the Low
When to go
Safety in the mountains
Maps 
How to use this book
A Winter Not the West Highland Way

PART 1 THE HIGH ROAD AND THE LOW
Milngavie to Drymen
1 Hill Option: the Campsie Fells
Drymen to Rowardennan
Rowardennan to Inversnaid
2 Rowardennan Outing: Ben Lomond
3 Hill Crossing: Ben Lomond to Inversnaid
Inversnaid to Inverarnan
4 Hill Crossing: Beinn a’ Choin
5 Inverarnan Outing: Beinn Chabhair
Inverarnan to Tyndrum
6 Hill Crossing: Ben Lui 
7 Crianlarich Outing: An Caisteal and Beinn a’ Chroin
Tyndrum to Inveroran
8 Hill Crossing: the back of Beinn Dorain
9 Inveroran Outing: Ben Inverveigh and Meall Tairbh
Inveroran to Kings House
10 Hill Crossing: Black Mount 
Kings House to Kinlochleven
11 Hill Crossing: Beinn a’ Chrulaiste and the Blackwater
Kinlochleven to Fort William
12 Hill Crossing: Mamores
13 Hill Crossing: Between the Binneins
14 Fort William Outing: Ben Nevis by the CMD Arête

PART 2 BEGINNERISH BACKPACKING
The excitement is in tents
Midges are unpleasant
May is the month
Shoulder-strengthening short trips
The off-route food-fetching formula
Stuff, stuffsacks, and throwing it all away
15 A mostly gentle two-day: the back of Ben Nevis
16 A wilder two-day: Taynuilt to Bridge of Orchy

PART 3 AWAY FROM THE WAY
17 Dumbarton Start 
18 Wrong side of the loch: the Arrochar Alps
19 The Etive Trek
20 Blackwater and the Lairig Leacach
21 Routes of Rannoch

PART 4 ROADS TO THE DEEP NORTH
22 Corrour to Dalwhinnie
23 Fort William to Inverie
24 Spean Bridge to Cluanie and even Cape Wrath

APPENDIX A: Access
APPENDIX B: Useful information
APPENDIX C: Further reading
 

Seasons

Spring to Autumn, with May, June and September the best months of all. A Winter Not the West Highland Way for the tough and ambitious.

Centres

Glasgow, Dumbarton, Loch Lomond, Crianlarich, Tyndrum, Dalmally, Bridge of Orchy, Corrour Station, Kinlochleven, Fort William.

Difficulty

Moderately difficult diversions above the West Highland Way including several full-on mountain days (with the good low-level path as a foul-weather alternative). Challenging backpack routes of 2 days upwards.

Must See

Loch Lomond from overhead; sunrise from the summit corrie of Ben Lui; woods and waterfalls of River Leven; long, lonely Loch Etive; Glen Nevis from its bleak head down to its Himalayan-style gorge.

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