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The West Highland Way

Milngavie to Fort William Scottish Long Distance Route

By Terry Marsh

ISBN

9781852848576

Availability

Published

11 Aug 2016

Reprinted

14 Aug 2023

Edition

Fourth

Pages

144

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x .90cm

Weight

230g

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Guidebook to walking the West Highland Way National Trail, a 95 mile Scottish long-distance route from Milngavie near Glasgow to Fort William, passing Loch Lomond and crossing Rannoch Moor. Suggested itineraries over 6 to 9 days. Includes accommodation guide and pull-out 1:25K OS map booklet.

Seasons

May-June and September-October avoid the worst of the midges, but suitably experienced backpackers can do this walk at any time of year.

Centres

The walk traditionally starts in Milngavie, on the outskirts of Glasgow (accessible by rail), and concludes at Fort William (likewise). There are few towns or villages en route where supplies can be had: Drymen, Crianlarich, Tyndrum and Kinlochleven.

Difficulty

The walking is not difficult for anyone accustomed to regular walks longer than 10 miles, although there is ample scope to shorten almost all of the days, and to offload the pack carrying onto an independent service that will transport your baggage for you.

Must See

The West Highland Way embraces diversity, from the urbanity of Milngavie to the days in the company of Loch Lomond, and then the striding splendour of Rannoch Moor. The haul from Glencoe, under the gaze of Buachaille Etive Mòr, up the Devil's Staircase, then into the hidden valley of Lairig Mòr, are stages to be savoured.

ISBN

9781852848576

Availability

Published

11 Aug 2016

Reprinted

14 Aug 2023

Edition

Fourth

Pages

144

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x .90cm

Weight

230g

Overview

A guidebook to Scotland's West Highland Way, a 95-mile walk from Milngavie near Glasgow to Fort William, passing Loch Lomond, crossing Rannoch Moor and finishing in the shadow of Britain's highest mountain. The walk, which takes roughly one week to complete, is described in seven stages, with each stage ranging from 8 to 20 miles. The guide details the 'classic' south-north direction but also provides a summary description for those wanting to walk the route in the opposite direction. The guidebook, which features step-by-step route descriptions, 1:100K mapping, handy practical information as well as notes on the region's history, culture and geography, is accompanied by a separate, pocket-sized 1:25K OS map booklet, providing all the mapping you need to walk the route. Passing from the lowlands to the highlands, the West Highland Way, which is one of Scotland's Great Trails, showcases the splendour of glens flanked by great mountains, majestic moorland and sprawling farmland. It is the perfect adventure for distance walkers keen to discover the wild beauty of western Scotland.

Table of Contents

Map key
Overview map
West Highland Way trek planner
Route summary tables
Preface

Introduction

From the Lowlands to the Highlands

How hard and how remote?

Planning your trip

Suggested itineraries

When to go

Getting there and back

Transport along the route

First nights and last nights

Accommodation en route

Facilities en route

Pack-carrying services

Cash management

Preparation and what to take

Planning day by day

Using this guide

Digital and printed maps

Waymarking

Emergencies

Weather forecasts

Phones and internet

All about the Highlands

Geography

Geology

Plants and wildlife

History and culture

Food and drink

The West Highland Way

Stage 1 Milngavie to Drymen

Stage 2 Drymen to Rowardennan

Stage 3 Rowardennan to Crianlarich

Stage 4 Crianlarich to Bridge of Orchy

Stage 5 Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse

Stage 6 Kingshouse to Kinlochleven

Stage 7 Kinlochleven to Fort William

Appendix A Useful contacts

Appendix B Accommodation

Appendix C Further reading

Updates

March 2020

Page 24

Avon Skin So Soft has been reformulated and no longer includes citronella making it ineffective as a midge repellent.

January 2020

2020 reprint route updates

857 Reprint 2020

April 2018

Update on accommodation

Page 133 Passfoot Cottage B&B has closed.

Reviews

Couldn’t have done it without your help.

Two days ago I completed the Cape Wrath Trail after completing the Southern Upland Way, John Muir Way, and West Highland Way. Couldn’t have done it without your help.

Thank you for being a part of my journey.

Josh

Download (743.144 KB)

To find and hold a niche in this crowded marketplace a guide has to be good. This is a very good guide.

The free market may not always produce the manifold benefits proclaimed by its more zealous proponents, but in the case of guidebooks to the West Highland Way it has certainly achieved a high degree of consumer choice. There are over a dozen assorted guidebooks and guide maps to the Way and variations on it, between them running to about 35 editions - one for every year since the route was opened.

To find and hold a niche in this crowded marketplace a guide has to be good. This is a very good guide, the fourth edition by the same highly competent author, from the stable of Cicerone, experts in the preparation of guides for walkers. lt is intensely functional, packed with information, in a compact format with a convenient map booklet at 1:25000 scale.

Bob Aitken

"This new long distance guidebook series from Cicerone has a unique selling point: each copy comes with a pocket-sized booklet providing 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey mapping for the whole of the route it covers. Guidebooks have of course included map sections in the past, but the difference here is that if you stick to the route outlined in each book you shouldn't need to carry an extra map with you. So for those of you who like saving weight (and money for that matter) on your long distance adventures, then this could be the ideal navigation tool....

The guidebooks are impeccably researched and written by Cicerone's expert pool of outdoor authors...

Our only criticism is that they haven't been doing it for years!"

Oli Reed, Trail Magazine

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Terry Marsh

Lancashire-born writer and photographer Dr Terry Marsh specialises in the outdoors and travel. He is the author or revision author/editor of over 100 guidebooks, including the award-winning Cicerone guides to the Coast to Coast Walk (first published in 1993), The Shropshire Way (1999) and Great Mountain Days in the Pennines (2013). Terry has a PhD in Historical Geography and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). He is a Life Member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild.

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