“What has been your highlight of the walk so far?” I asked Isaac and Ethan, teenage brothers I’d passed – and been passed by – several times in the final miles of the West Highland Way.
“All of it!” Isaac replied enthusiastically, to nods of approval from his younger sibling.
And that is, perhaps, the key to why this is one of the world’s most popular long distance hikes. With its ever-changing scenery, it’s constantly rewarding the efforts of those who walk it with something fresh and interesting around every corner.
Opened in 1980, the West Highland Way was the very first official long-distance walk in Scotland and is now one of the nation’s designated Great Trails. Usually walked in five to eight days from south to north, the well-waymarked route begins in Milngavie (pronounced mul-guy), on the outskirts of Glasgow, and ends in the town of Fort William on Loch Linnhe.
On the way,passes the entrance to Glen Coe and tiptoes around the towering hulk of Ben Nevis.
