Cross Rannoch Moor on the West Highland Way, Scotland's first official long-distance footpath, opened on 6 October 1980 and 96 miles from Milngavie to Fort William

Climb the Devil's Staircase, the Way's 550m high point, from Glencoe over to Kinlochleven

Look up at Buachaille Etive Mòr from Altnafeadh, where the Way turns up the Devil's Staircase

The West Highland Way, Scotland's first official long-distance footpath, opened on 6 October 1980 and runs 96 miles from Milngavie to Fort William. Its wildest stretch crosses Rannoch Moor to Kingshouse, then climbs the Devil's Staircase, the Way's high point at 550m, before dropping to Kinlochleven.

The West Highland Way: Rannoch Moor and the Devil's Staircase

Glen Coe

Cairnryan

Nine nights in a loop from Cairnryan: Conic Hill and the islands of Loch Lomond, Inveraray on Loch Fyne, Oban and the Slate Islands, Glen Coe and the Devil's Staircase, then Stirling Castle and Alloway.

Loch Lomond, Oban and Glen Coe from Cairnryan

From Loch Lomond to Inverness by Glen Coe and Skye: Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis, the Jacobite steam train over Glenfinnan, Eilean Donan, the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing, and the boat from Elgol to Loch Coruisk.

Skye and the West Highlands

Stop at the Three Sisters viewpoint on the A82

Walk into the Lost Valley, Coire Gabhail, between the Sisters

Look up at the Aonach Eagach wall from the glen floor

Glen Coe is a glacial trench cut through the remains of a supervolcano whose caldera-forming eruptions took place about 420 million years ago. The south side rises in the Three Sisters, shoulders of the Bidean nam Bian massif split by Coire Gabhail and Coire nan Lochan; the north side is the single wall of the Aonach Eagach ridge. On 13 February 1692 government soldiers quartered on the MacDonalds of Glencoe killed an estimated 30 of their hosts, and Signal Rock in the woods below is traditionally said to be where the signal was given.

Glen Coe: The Supervolcano and the Massacre of 1692

Climb Ben Nevis (1,345m), the highest mountain in the British Isles, by the Mountain Track from Achintee — about 8km each way and 1,300m of ascent on the path built in 1883

Find the ruins of the summit observatory, staffed continuously from 1883 to 1904, beside the war memorial cairn and survival shelter

Stand on the 40-hectare summit plateau, where in ideal conditions the view stretches over 190km

Be in Fort William on the first Saturday of September for the Ben Nevis Race, run in its present form since 1937

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles at 1,345m. The Mountain Track from Achintee, built in 1883, climbs about 1,300m in roughly 8km — about 17km there and back — to a 40-hectare summit plateau. The observatory was staffed without a break from 1883 to 1904, and its ruins stand beside the war memorial cairn and the emergency shelter; on a clear day the view reaches more than 190km. On the first Saturday of September runners race to the top and back in the Ben Nevis Race, run in its present form since 1937.

Ben Nevis: The Mountain Track to the Top of Britain

Watch boats climb Neptune's Staircase at Banavie, eight locks that lift the canal 64ft in 500 yards

See the Commando Memorial above Spean Bridge, unveiled by the Queen Mother in 1952 with views of Ben Nevis and Aonach Mòr

Cycle or walk the canal towpath between Banavie and Gairlochy

Thomas Telford's Caledonian Canal runs 60 miles from Inverness to Fort William with 29 locks, four aqueducts and 10 bridges, opened in 1822. Eight of those locks are at Banavie, where Neptune's Staircase lifts boats 64ft in 500 yards, and the towpath carries the Great Glen Way north-east from Banavie, with Ben Nevis across the valley.

The Great Glen: Neptune's Staircase and the Caledonian Canal

Ride the Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Mallaig over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, 21 arches and 380m long, built in mass concrete between 1897 and 1901 by the firm of Robert McAlpine, 'Concrete Bob'

Walk to the viewpoint over the viaduct, familiar as the 'Harry Potter bridge' from four of the films

Visit the Glenfinnan Monument on Loch Shiel, commemorating the raising of Bonnie Prince Charlie's standard in 1745

Explore the fishing village of Mallaig at the end of the West Highland Line

The Jacobite steam train runs the West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig and back, over the Glenfinnan Viaduct: 21 arches and 380m of mass concrete, built between 1897 and 1901 by Robert McAlpine, 'Concrete Bob', and known to a generation as the Harry Potter bridge from four of the films. At the head of Loch Shiel below it, the Glenfinnan Monument commemorates the raising of Bonnie Prince Charlie's standard at Glenfinnan in 1745. The line ends at the fishing harbour of Mallaig.

The Jacobite: Steam Over the Glenfinnan Viaduct

Climb to McCaig's Tower, the unfinished Colosseum-style folly begun in 1897 above Oban, for the view over the harbour to Kerrera and Mull

Take the small ferry to Kerrera and walk to Gylen Castle, the MacDougall tower house of 1582

Tour Oban Distillery, founded in 1794 in the centre of the town

Above Oban stands McCaig's Tower, an unfinished folly in the shape of the Colosseum begun in 1897, with a view over the harbour to Kerrera and Mull. A small ferry crosses to Kerrera, where Gylen Castle is the MacDougall tower house of 1582, and back in the middle of town is Oban Distillery, founded in 1794.

Oban and Kerrera: McCaig's Tower and Gylen Castle

Walk the Ardkinglas Woodland Garden near Cairndow, open year-round, beside Ardkinglas House, designed by Sir Robert Lorimer for Sir Andrew Noble and built in 1906–1908

Eat oysters at Loch Fyne Oysters at Cairndow, the business started in the loch in 1979

Find the Grand Fir, one of the tallest trees in Britain, in the garden

At the head of Loch Fyne, the Ardkinglas woodland garden, laid out from the 18th century with an arboretum planted in the 1860s and 1870s, holds some of the tallest conifers in Britain, and in 1979 the estate's owner, Johnny Noble, and the fish farmer Andy Lane started farming oysters in the loch — the business that became Loch Fyne Oysters. The loch itself is the longest sea loch in Scotland and the road runs down it to Inveraray.

Loch Fyne: Ardkinglas and the Oyster Bar

Tour the Dalwhinnie distillery, at 355 metres one of the highest in Scotland

Taste the Dalwhinnie 15-year-old, one of the six Classic Malts

Drive over the Pass of Drumochter, the highest point on the A9

Walk or cycle the track along the shore of Loch Ericht

Dalwhinnie — Dail Chuinnidh, the meeting place — sits at the head of Glen Truim and the north end of Loch Ericht, and at an average of 6.6°C it is one of the coldest villages in the UK. Its distillery, built in 1897 as the Strathspey Distillery between the Great North Road and the Highland Railway, stands at 355 metres, one of the highest in Scotland, and in the late 1980s it became one of the six Classic Malts. Just south, the Pass of Drumochter carries the A9 over the Grampian watershed at 460 metres, its highest point, and the railway beside it at 452 metres, the highest main line summit in the UK.

Dalwhinnie: One of Scotland's Highest Distilleries

Join a hill visit to the free-ranging reindeer herd, reintroduced to the Cairngorms in 1952, from the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre at Glenmore

Watch the ospreys from the RSPB's Loch Garten Nature Centre in Abernethy Forest, where two Scandinavian birds nested in 1954

Look for capercaillie, crested tit and the Scottish crossbill, the only bird species unique to Britain, in the Caledonian pine forest

Reindeer were brought back to the Cairngorms in 1952, and the free-ranging herd is visited on the hill from the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre at Glenmore. In 1954 two Scandinavian ospreys nested of their own accord at Loch Garten in Abernethy Forest, the return of a species that had been wiped out in Britain, and ospreys have nested there almost every year since 1959. The same Caledonian pine forest holds capercaillie, crested tits and the Scottish crossbill, the only bird species found nowhere but Britain.