How difficult is the Great Glen Way?

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.

Navigation: Waymarking is the Scotland's Great Trails thistle in a hexagon on blue posts and it is consistent throughout. The canal half asks nothing beyond keeping the water beside you, with two interruptions to expect: the level crossing at Caol, and the road and railway swing bridges at Banavie, where the bank has to be left and picked up again below the locks. Leaving Fort William there are two lines, a riverside path and a road alternative, and it is worth knowing which you are on before it matters. Along Loch Lochy the forestry road forks repeatedly and the marked line generally stays on the larger track, with a fork to take near the quarry and another at Kilfinnan. The decision that shapes the second half of the section is the blue sign at a minor road junction shortly before Laggan Locks, where the Invergarry Link leaves the main route. The chainages here follow the Link, so a track downloaded for the main route will part company with this description for roughly thirteen kilometres.

In poor weather: The towpath is hard and drains, so rain makes no difference to the surface, but the glen funnels wind straight along the canal and there is nothing to shelter behind between Banavie and Gairlochy. The part that genuinely changes with the weather is the very start: the riverside line across the Lochy floodplain floods after heavy rain and on high tides, which is why the road alternative exists. In the Loch Lochy forest the trees take most of the weather off and the surface stays walkable in any amount of rain. What forestry ground does produce is closures after wind, and this stretch already carries a signed diversion around the Coire Glas works, so signs on the ground are worth more here than an old map.

Escape options: The opening is the easiest exit anywhere on the trail, with West Highland Line stations at Corpach and Banavie and a road never far from the towpath. It gets harder after that. Gairlochy has no shop and no service of its own; the usual answer is a lift from Spean Bridge, which several places along the A82 will do. From Clunes the forestry road along Loch Lochy has no exit at all: the A82 runs down the opposite shore with no crossing, and a vehicle can only reach the two ends, Clunes and the Kilfinnan end above Laggan Locks. Plan this stretch around that rather than around its distance. Once the line reaches Laggan it is back on the A82 with the Fort William to Inverness bus corridor, and Invergarry is a road junction with beds.

Three distinct pieces in one section. Out of Invergarry the Link climbs back into forest and runs high along the west side of Loch Oich on tracks, which is where the best of its views are, before dropping to the A82 at the Aberchalder swing bridge and rejoining the main route. The Caledonian Canal then takes over for the best part of eight kilometres of dead level towpath past Cullochy and Kytra locks, a quiet, wide, well surfaced stretch with boats working through and cyclists on the same gravel, and the easiest walking on this half of the trail. Fort Augustus is the natural pause and the obvious place to break a trip. The last third is different again: a steep pull out of the village on Bunoich Brae and a woodland path, then forest track rising and falling along the western side of Loch Ness for the best part of ten kilometres, the loch showing in gaps rather than continuously, and finally a long descent on path and surfaced lane to Telford's bridge at Invermoriston. Spread out, the climbing is never severe, but the surface and the mood change under you three times.

Navigation: Forest tracks are obvious and blue waymarked, and the towpath needs nothing at all. Two things want attention. The first is the split a couple of kilometres out of Fort Augustus, where the high route leaves the forest track, climbs above the tree line and rejoins just short of Invermoriston. It is the better walking and much the better views, and in clear weather it is the one to take, but the chainages here follow the low forest line. The second is the descent into Invermoriston, where the gravel path down the hillside has been closed by fallen trees before now and a signed forestry diversion takes over on the tracks; follow the signs rather than a downloaded track. Around Invermoriston there are also local waymarks with a white circle which are not the Great Glen Way.

In poor weather: Canal towpath and forest road both shrug off rain, which makes this a sensible section to spend a wet day on. What weather removes is the reason to be up in the trees at all: in low cloud the forest above Loch Ness gives very little back, and the high route out of Fort Augustus is not worth its climb. The exposed pieces are the tracks above Loch Oich, open to anything blowing along the glen, and the towpath, which has no shelter for its whole length. The steep tarmac zigzag down into Invermoriston is slick when wet.

Escape options: Good for most of its length. The Aberchalder swing bridge puts the route on the A82 with the Fort William to Inverness bus passing the end of it, and from there to Fort Augustus the towpath is rarely more than a few hundred metres from the main road. Fort Augustus is the single most useful bail-out on the whole trail. Between Fort Augustus and Invermoriston it is much thinner: the forest track sits a hundred metres or more above the A82 on a wooded slope with no made way down, so the real exits are the two ends and the forestry car parks reached by vehicle from the main road. The loch side offers nothing.

The steepest ground on the trail and the only part that feels like hill walking. It begins with a switchbacked tarmac climb straight out of Invermoriston through close conifers, close to two hundred metres of it inside the first two kilometres, then eases onto forest track before a rough path throws much of the height away again. The middle is a wide, well graded track heading north east through woodland with a stone shelter built into the bank part way along, level enough to make real time on. At Alltsigh the line comes right back down to burn and loch level, and then does the whole thing over: a gradual pull, then two sets of hairpin loops that lift the track onto the shelf at around three hundred metres and keep it there. Foyers is across the water and the route never goes near it. What makes this hard is not the surface, which is good throughout, but that it climbs, gives the height back and climbs again inside a very short distance.

Navigation: Well signed and hard to lose once you are on it. The start is the part people get wrong: out of Invermoriston the route leaves the A82 for the A887 and then takes the first road on the right, and there is nothing on the main road that looks like a trail. The one real decision is at the top of the first climb, where the high route branches away. It reaches around four hundred and twenty metres, takes in the View Catcher and the Fairy Bridge, and is much the better walking, but it stays high past Alltsigh rather than dropping to it, so anyone booked into the hostel there wants the low line, which is what the chainages follow.

In poor weather: Almost all of this is hard track under trees, so rain is a comfort problem rather than a surface one. The exceptions are the tarmac switchbacks out of Invermoriston, which are slippery wet, and the rough path below the first summit. Wind matters mainly on the high option, which loses its shelter along with its trees, and in low cloud that option loses its whole point. The dip to Alltsigh means climbing into whatever the weather is doing twice rather than once.

Escape options: Thin. Invermoriston at the start and Alltsigh part way along are the only points where the route touches the A82 and the Great Glen bus corridor, and Alltsigh is a bridge and a hostel rather than a village. Everywhere between them the track sits a hundred to three hundred metres above the loch on a wooded hillside with no made descent to the road, so trouble in the middle means walking on to one end or the other. The high option is worse again for this, being further from the road throughout.

A long shelf above Loch Ness that slowly turns into a descent. The first part is forest track and woodland edge at around two hundred and fifty to three hundred metres, with Meall Fuar-mhonaidh filling the view inland and the loch a long way below; the high route drops back in near the start of it. At Grotaig the track becomes a public single track road and stays that way for about three miles through Balbeg and Bunloit, though a good deal of new path has been built alongside the tarmac and the road walking is less of a slog than it used to be. This is the open, airy part of the trail, and on a clear day it carries the best Loch Ness views on the route. The lane runs out at a clapper gate and the line falls steeply through woodland to the River Coiltie, then follows the near bank east to Borlum Bridge, the A82 and Lewiston. Drumnadrochit at the end is a proper village with shops, food and a doctor. Most of the work here is downhill, which flatters the distance.

Navigation: Blue thistle waymarks throughout and little chance of going wrong once on the lane. The turn off the road is the one to watch: a wooden clapper gate on the left with the path dropping away at once, easy to walk past if you have settled into the tarmac. Lower down, do not cross the bridge over the River Coiltie; the route turns and follows the near bank. Where new path runs beside the lane it is intermittent and puts you back on the road repeatedly, which is normal rather than a wrong turn.

In poor weather: The lane from Grotaig to Bunloit is the most exposed walking between Fort Augustus and Abriachan, open on the loch side with nothing to get behind, and it is also where you share the ground with vehicles, so heavy rain and poor light matter more here than the gradient suggests. The steep woodland descent to the Coiltie is the surface that changes: soil and roots under trees, greasy in the wet and worse under fallen leaves in autumn. In clear conditions this is the section worth timing a day around, because everything it has to offer is the view.

Escape options: Better than the section before it. From Grotaig to Bunloit the route is on a public single track lane, so a vehicle can reach you, although it is a long narrow climb up from the A82 and not a road anyone finds in a hurry. Below the clapper gate there is no road contact again until the Coiltie and the A82 at Borlum Bridge. Drumnadrochit is the best served point between Fort Augustus and Inverness, on the main road with buses in both directions.

The high crossing out of the Great Glen, and the part of the trail that feels least like a canal walk. It opens flat, on A82 pavement past Urquhart Bay, then leaves the road and climbs steadily on surfaced track and forest path onto the ridge behind Abriachan, reaching the highest ground on the stored line at a little under four hundred metres. Abriachan Forest is community owned and has toilets, benches and a campsite and cafe on the line, which is the only thing of the kind up there and the reason many people split this into two days. Beyond it the route follows a public single track road for close to four kilometres with no pavement, then an old drove road across open moor, sparse old pine and birch woodland, and forest again past Blackfold. The last part drops off the ridge through woods above the city, comes down through housing at Leachkin, meets the Caledonian Canal at Torvean and finishes along the River Ness and its island footbridges at the castle. Long, high and committed in the middle, entirely urban at the end, and with no natural stopping place other than Abriachan.

Navigation: Signing is good, but this is the section where people carry straight on: the marked line repeatedly turns off a wide forest track onto a narrower path, and the wide track always looks more like the way. At Abriachan Forest there is a real choice, a low forest road and a high option over Carn na Leitire which is the true summit of the Great Glen Way and much the better viewpoint. The stored chainages follow the low road, so a walker who takes the high option will be running slightly ahead of these distances until the two rejoin. On the four kilometres of public road there is no alternative line to take, so stay on the tarmac until a sign leads off it. The finish is at the castle, reached from the river bank up a narrow alley, not from the canal.

In poor weather: The middle of this section is the most exposed ground on the trail: moorland and single track road above three hundred metres with no shelter and no way of shortening the day once you are on it. Wind and driving rain up there cost more time than the ascent does, and conditions on the ridge can be nothing like Drumnadrochit. The road is the specific problem in poor visibility, four kilometres with no pavement, blind bends and drivers who are not expecting walkers. Surfaces hold up well otherwise: the forest tracks and the made descent off the ridge stay walkable in heavy rain, and the only greasy going is the hairpinned woodland path lower down when wet leaves are on it.

Escape options: Two realistic exits, and both need a lift arranged in advance. The public road at Abriachan runs down to the A82 by the loch, and the Abriachan Forest car park is where walkers splitting this into two days get collected. The other is the minor road at Blackfold, which runs out to the western edge of Inverness. Nothing in between helps: the A82 and its buses are several hundred metres below the line down a wooded hillside with no path to them. From Leachkin onwards the route is inside Inverness, with pavement, city buses and a station at the end.