The Route

by Eduard Salla Simó | 11 Jun 2015 | 0 comments

The West Highland Way official guide divides the 154 kilometers that make up the route in 8 stages.

These 8 stages of the official West Highland Way route are the same ones I comment on in my story. Instead, the official website www.westhighlandway.org divides it into 7 stages, although it comments that there are 8 stages. In the end, it is a question of adapting the route to each other’s possibilities, taking into account the physical state that allows for more or less miles to hold, and where accommodation has been found to make night, that if it is not planned in advance, it may force us to change some end/beginning of stage.

Below you can find the West Highland Way stages divided by 5, 6, 7 and 8 days, with two possibilities for route 7:

Stage	Itinerary	Distance (km)
1	Milngavie – Drymen	19,5
2	Drymen – Rowardennan	22,5
3	Rowardennan – Inverarnan	22,25
4	Inverarnan – Crianlarich	10,5
5	Crianlarich – Bridge of Orchy	21,5
6	Bridge of Orchy – Kingshouse	19,25
7	Kingshouse – Kinlochleven	14,5
8	Kinlochleven – Fort William	22,5

Stage	Itinerary	Distance (km)
1	Milngavie – Drymen	19,5
2	Drymen – Rowardennan	22,5
3	Rowardennan – Inverarnan	22,25
4	Inverarnan – Tyndrum	19,4
5	Tyndrum – Inveroran	14,5
6	Inveroran – Kinlochleven	30,6
7	Kinlochleven – Fort William	22,5

Stage	Itinerary	Distance (km)
1	Milngavie – Drymen	19,5
2	Drymen – Rowardennan	22,5
3	Rowardennan – Inverarnan	22,25
4	Inverarnan – Tyndrum	19,4
5	Tyndrum – Kingshouse	30,6
6	Kingshouse – Kinlochleven	14,5
7	Kinlochleven – Fort William	22,5

Stage	Itinerary	Distance (km)
1	Milngavie – Drymen	19,5
2	Drymen – Rowardennan	22,5
3	Rowardennan – Crianlarich	32,2
4	Crianlarich – Inveroran	24,1
5	Inveroran – Kinlochleven	30,6
6	Kinlochleven – Fort William	22,5

Stage	Itinerary	Distance (km)
1	Milngavie – Balmaha	32,2
2	Balmaha – Inverarnan	33,8
3	Inverarnan – Bridge of Orchy	30,5
4	Bridge of Orchy – Kinlochleven	33,8
5	Kinlochleven – Fort William	22,5

The West Highland Way: The Official Guide

Surely, buying the official guide, or any other guide, is not necessary to travel the West Highland Way without any problem. But if what you want is to know better about the environment where it goes, the landscape, fauna, flora, history, while you see precious photographs of the lakes and hills that you’re going to go through, it’s definitely recommended. And it will also help you, of course, to improve the planning you can do.

The official guide, updated in 2018, is the one I used (in a previous edition, obviously); it is protected with a plastic cover, so that it does not get wet, and it carries a map that goes very well to know where you are at all times.

For those who do not want books, or want to save money, you can buy the official map, indestructible, without the guide, or, for example, this other map, on a scale of 1: 40,000 and water resistant.