Great Glen Way: route, stages, accommodation and how to walk Scotland's easiest long-distance trail

The full Great Glen Way covers approximately 127 km (79 miles) and is traditionally walked in six stages. Most walkers, however, find that a seven or eight-day rhythm is more comfortable, particularly for a first long-distance walk, because the later stages are significantly longer than the early ones.

Our 8-day Medium itinerary (Great Glen Way Medium) covers 132.5 km over six walking days. The longest day is the final stretch from Drumnadrochit to Inverness at 33.0 km, which includes 490 m of ascent. The other stages range from 12.7 km to 26.7 km, giving a manageable daily average with time to stop and appreciate the scenery rather than simply cover the distance. For most walkers, this is the right pace.

Our 7-day Intensive itinerary (Great Glen Way Intensive) covers 132.3 km over five walking days. The key difference is that the Laggan to Invermoriston section is combined into a single long stage of 28.7 km with 360 m of ascent. This is a full day's effort and suits walkers who are already comfortable with longer distances and do not need as much recovery time.

If you prefer to focus on the most scenic section, the Best of the Great Glen Way (Best of Great Glen Way: Loch Ness Section) covers 84.9 km over five walking days, concentrating on the Loch Ness half of the route from Laggan to Inverness, including a two-stage approach through Abriachan into the city.

Can you walk the Great Glen Way in 4 days? Experienced walkers can certainly complete the route in four walking days by combining stages aggressively, but daily distances would exceed 30 km and involve back-to-back long efforts. It is physically achievable but leaves little time to enjoy the highlights. If you want to cover the full route efficiently without rushing, five to six walking days is a better minimum.

For cycling, the route is typically completed in three days, with overnight stops in Fort Augustus and Drumnadrochit, or four days at a more relaxed pace adding a stop at Laggan Locks.

Great Glen Way itinerary: the stages

The stage rhythm of the Great Glen Way follows the shape of the terrain: the early days are flat and canal-side, the middle section opens onto lochside walking, and the final two stages become more undulating as the path leaves the canal behind and climbs above Loch Ness.

Great Glen Way route and stages at a glance

The following reflects the 8-day Medium itinerary, the most popular way to walk the Great Glen Way:

• Day 1: Arrival in Fort William (0 km)
• Day 2: Fort William to Spean Bridge — 22.9 km, +160 m
• Day 3: Spean Bridge to Laggan Locks — 26.7 km, +250 m
• Day 4: Laggan Locks to Fort Augustus — 16.2 km, +70 m
• Day 5: Fort Augustus to Invermoriston — 12.7 km, +240 m
• Day 6: Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit — 21.0 km, +540 m
• Day 7: Drumnadrochit to Inverness — 33.0 km, +490 m
• Day 8: Departure day (0 km)

The first two walking days follow the Great Glen north-east through the valley, largely on canal towpath and quiet riverside paths. The gradient is minimal and the main challenge is distance rather than ascent. Days four and five are the shortest and most relaxed, threading through the villages along the southern shore of Loch Ness. Days six and seven are the most demanding: the path rises above the loch, the views open up dramatically, and the final day into Inverness is the longest of the walk.

A typical day starts after breakfast at your accommodation, with your bags already collected by the luggage transfer service. You walk at your own pace, stopping in villages for lunch where possible. By mid to late afternoon you reach the next overnight stop. The evenings in the small villages along the canal and lochside are quiet and sociable, with most walkers staying at the same handful of guesthouses.

High route and low route: Between Invermoriston and Drumnadrochit the trail offers two variants. The low route keeps to the western shore of Loch Ness through mixed woodland and is the standard option. The high route climbs well above the loch to a maximum elevation of around 422 m, offering wider views across the glen and the surrounding hills, but with steeper sections that are unsuitable for cyclists. Total ascent on the high route for the full walk is significantly greater than on the low route. If the weather is clear and your legs are good at that stage, the high route rewards the extra effort. In poor visibility or high winds, the low route is the more sensible choice.

Route options and what they cost

Bookatrekking offers three bookable Great Glen Way packages, covering the full route and the Loch Ness highlight section:

• Great Glen Way Medium (8 days) — the full route over six walking days at a comfortable pace, including accommodation and luggage transfer. From €1,590 per person.
• Great Glen Way Intensive (7 days) — the full route condensed into five walking days, combining the Laggan to Invermoriston stages. From €1,305 per person.
• Best of Great Glen Way: Loch Ness Section (7 days) — the second half of the route from Laggan to Inverness, with five walking days focused on Loch Ness and the Abriachan moorland. From €1,450 per person.

Prices as of September 2026, per person based on two travellers.

Every package includes accommodation on a bed-and-breakfast basis, daily luggage transfer between overnight stops, access to the Bookatrekking app with the offline route map, GPX track and weather per stage, and a pre-trip information pack. You handle your own travel to Fort William and home from Inverness.

The Great Glen Way can be walked in any month of the year, and this year-round accessibility is one of its genuine advantages. That said, the choice of season does affect the experience meaningfully.

May and June are widely considered the best months for walking the Great Glen Way. Daylight hours are long, temperatures are cool but comfortable, the vegetation along the canal is at its freshest, and the Highland midge is not yet at its peak. Accommodation is easier to find than in high summer, though you should still book well in advance.

July and August bring the longest days and the best chance of sustained sunshine, which is genuinely transformative on the high route above Loch Ness. They also bring the Highland midge in force. The midge is a tiny biting insect that breeds in the damp, still conditions that the Great Glen creates reliably in summer. On calm, overcast days near the lochs and in woodland, midges can be persistently unpleasant. Midge repellent and a head net are worthwhile additions to your pack for a summer walk. Accommodation books out fastest in these months.

September and October offer a good compromise: the midges thin out, the autumn colours on the loch shores and in the forests can be outstanding, and the route is quieter. Rain becomes more likely and the days are shorter, but many experienced walkers prefer autumn to peak summer on Scottish trails.

November to April is for those who do not mind short days and more challenging conditions underfoot. The route is passable but some accommodation closes, particularly the smaller guesthouses and bunkhouses in the remote villages. Snow on the higher sections of the high route is possible from November onwards.

The Bookatrekking app shows the current weather forecast for each overnight stop based on that location's coordinates, updated daily. Check it the evening before each stage to decide whether to take the high route or the low route above Loch Ness, and to know what kit to have ready in the morning.

Navigation on the Great Glen Way is straightforward on the main route. The trail is waymarked throughout with the distinctive thistle-and-arrow symbol of Scotland's Great Trails, and the signs are consistent and well maintained in both directions. For the towpath sections along the Caledonian Canal there is essentially no navigation required.

A Great Glen Way map becomes more useful on the high-route variant between Invermoriston and Drumnadrochit, where the path climbs away from the obvious lochside corridor and crosses open hillside and moorland. On these sections, particularly in mist or rain, a clear map and a GPS track provide reassurance that the waymarks alone do not always offer.

All Bookatrekking packages include access to our app, which carries the full offline Great Glen Way map, the GPX track for each day's stage, and a turn-by-turn route line. The app works without a mobile data signal, which matters in the more remote sections of the glen. It also displays the weather forecast per stage, based on the coordinates of each overnight stop, so you can plan each morning with accurate local information rather than a regional generalisation.

For those who prefer a physical backup, a printed map or guidebook covering the Great Glen Way is worth carrying alongside the app. The waymarking is reliable, but a paper map is a useful reference when you want to understand the wider landscape around you.

One navigational note: the route runs from south-west to north-east, and the recommended direction is Fort William to Inverness. Walking this way means the prevailing westerly wind is generally at your back, which makes a noticeable difference on the more exposed sections in the second half of the trail.

Great Glen Way accommodation is concentrated in the villages and small towns that the route passes through: Spean Bridge, South Laggan, Fort Augustus, Invermoriston, Drumnadrochit and Inverness. Accommodation on the route is mostly B&Bs, guesthouses and small hotels, with a handful of bunkhouses and hostels for walkers on a tighter budget.

The challenge is not the quality of the accommodation but the quantity. Many of the villages along the canal are small, with only two or three places to stay. Fort Augustus is larger and has more options, but even there the best rooms fill up months in advance during the summer. Drumnadrochit, as the base for most Loch Ness visitors, also books out quickly in July and August. Arriving in the Great Glen without confirmed accommodation is a gamble that rarely pays off.

Bookatrekking books every stage of your accommodation before you travel. You receive confirmation of each night's stop in advance, your luggage is collected each morning and delivered to the next overnight stop, and you walk knowing that a bed and a hot shower are waiting at the end of the day. All our Great Glen Way packages are built around hand-selected accommodation that combines walking-friendly practicality with genuine comfort.

Here is what one recent solo walker said about the experience:

"Brilliant trail and couldn't be easier to follow using the in app features. Navigation was very straightforward and I really appreciated the ability to easily monitor weather conditions. I completed this trek solo for the first time and would really recommend to travellers looking to do similar. I just didn't want to come down at the end of the trip!"

— Hannah, 5 stars on Trustpilot, August 2026

If you are thinking about walking just the Loch Ness section, the Best of Great Glen Way: Loch Ness Section package includes all accommodation from Laggan to Inverness, with the same luggage transfer and app access. It is a practical way to experience the most scenic half of the route without committing to the full distance.

Unlike other treks in Europe, like the Alta Via 1 in Italy, where wild camping is not allowed, it is possible to go wild camping during the Great Glen Way, but only if practiced responsibly under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. If you want to find out about the code and the rules that you should follow while wild camping, you can do so here. When it comes to camping, there are also numerous campsites along the Great Glen Way where you can find a good place to place your tent and you will also have some basic facilities at your disposal.

Fort William, the starting point of the Great Glen Way, is well connected to the rest of the UK by both train and bus. Direct train services run from Glasgow Queen Street to Fort William, a scenic journey of approximately four hours. National Express Coaches and Scottish Citylink run bus services from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Fort William; the bus from Glasgow takes approximately three hours. From Edinburgh, the journey by train or bus to Fort William requires a change in Glasgow or runs directly to Inverness with a connection.

Inverness, where the Great Glen Way ends, is the transport hub of the northern Highlands. It has its own airport with flights from London, Manchester, Dublin and other UK cities. Direct trains run between Inverness and both Glasgow and Edinburgh in roughly three to three and a half hours. Scottish Citylink buses connect Inverness to Glasgow and Edinburgh and also stop at villages along the Great Glen, which is useful if you need to adjust your itinerary at any stage.

If you are flying into Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are the most practical entry points for Fort William. For Inverness, flying directly into Inverness Airport is increasingly well served and saves a significant overland journey.

For a broader overview of reaching Scotland and the range of walking routes available, the Scotland walking hub covers everything you need to plan your trip, from arrival logistics to choosing the right trail for your experience level and available time.

The Great Glen Way is a very popular trek and attracts thousands of tourists every year. Thanks to its popularity, a big touristic industry has grown around it and there are plenty of services which will make your walk easier and lighter. One of these services is that of baggage transfer. There are several agencies that offer baggage transfers during the Great Glen Way and most of them offer their service for the full trek for about £50,-. The Baggage transfer companies pick up your bags every morning from your hotel and make sure that they are waiting for you at your next stop when you arrive. That way, you can enjoy the trek without any extra weight on your shoulders. Quite convenient, isn't it?

The Great Glen Way is a great route for those who prefer riding a bike to walking. The trails on this route are wide and suitable for bikes. Just as for trekkers, you can choose to do the higher or the lower trail, but of course, the higher route has more difference in altitude, which should be taken into account when planning your trip.

If you are cycling the Great Glen Way, the itinerary will be shorter and it is usually done in 3 days, with overnights stops in the villages of Fort Augustus and Drumnadrochit. A 3-day itinerary gives you enough time to stop along the way and visit the different highlights on the route. If you want to take it easier and explore a bit more, you can also choose a 4-day itinerary with overnight stops in Laggan Locks, Invermoriston, and Drumnadrochit.

Once you finish your cycling tour on the Great Glen Way, you will probably have to make your way back from Inverness to Fort William. In that case, you can take a train back to Fort William. ScotRail allows bikes in their wagons and it removes the stress of finding a way to carry your bike back to the starting point of the trek.

The Great Glen Way and the West Highland Way are two of the most famous long-distance walking trails in Scotland. If one is not enough, you can very easily combine the two. The West Highland Way happens to end in Fort William, the starting point of the Great Glen Way, which makes them the perfect match for a longer adventure!

The Great Glen Way is the most accessible of Scotland's major long-distance trails. The path is waymarked throughout with the thistle symbol of Scotland's Great Trails, the terrain is predominantly canal towpath and forest track, and the overall elevation profile is modest compared to any Highland walking route. For someone walking a long-distance route for the first time, the Great Glen Way is the right starting point.

The first four walking days involve very little ascent. The canal towpath between Fort William and Fort Augustus is almost entirely flat, and the main physical challenge on those stages is simply the distance. Day 5, Fort Augustus to Invermoriston, introduces more rolling terrain alongside Loch Ness, but remains well within the capabilities of any reasonably fit walker.

The challenge increases on Day 6 and Day 7. The stage from Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit gains 540 m of ascent over 21 km, with woodland paths that can be muddy in wet conditions and sections of steady climbing above the loch. The final day, Drumnadrochit to Inverness, covers 33 km with 490 m of ascent in the first half before a long descent into the city. This is the day that catches walkers by surprise: it is long, it is hilly by the standards of the rest of the route, and it requires a good reserve of energy. Starting early and breaking for lunch in Abriachan, roughly halfway, is a reliable strategy.

Which is harder, the Great Glen Way or the West Highland Way? The West Highland Way is noticeably harder. It involves significantly more ascent and descent, particularly on the sections crossing Rannoch Moor and descending through Glen Coe, and the terrain includes more rough mountain paths and open exposed ground. The Great Glen Way is lower, more sheltered and better surfaced throughout. If you have completed the West Highland Way, the Great Glen Way will feel more relaxed. If you have not yet walked a multi-day route, the Great Glen Way is the better introduction.

The only aspect of the Great Glen Way that is not straightforwardly easy is the weather. The Scottish Highlands receive high rainfall year-round, and a walk of five to seven days will almost certainly include at least one wet day. Waterproof jacket and trousers are not optional; they are the most important items in your pack.