Kayak from Balmaha out among the islands of Loch Lomond, Britain's largest lake by surface area at 71km² and holding more than 30 islands

Paddle to Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles

Land on Inchcailloch, the wooded island nature reserve just off Balmaha

Loch Lomond is the largest lake in Britain by surface area, 71 square kilometres, with more than 30 islands, and the best way into them is by kayak from Balmaha on the eastern shore. Inchcailloch, just offshore, is a wooded island nature reserve; further south, Inchmurrin is the largest freshwater island in the British Isles.

Loch Lomond by Kayak: Inchcailloch and Inchmurrin

Loch Lomond

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

Climb Conic Hill from Balmaha on the West Highland Way

Pick out the line of the fault in the islands from the summit

Take the boatyard ferry out to Inchcailloch, or the mail boat round the inhabited islands in summer

Walk the shore path along the loch from the boatyard

Conic Hill rises straight out of Balmaha on the Highland Boundary Fault, the line where the Highlands meet the Lowlands; from the top the islands of Loch Lomond run away south-west in a chain that marks the same fault under the water. The West Highland Way climbs over it, and the boatyard at Balmaha runs a ferry across to Inchcailloch and, in summer, the mail boat round the inhabited islands.

Balmaha and Conic Hill: The Highland Boundary Fault

Tour Glengoyne Distillery, distilling here since 1833

From the distillery side of the A81, look across to the warehouses and work out which side of the Highland Line each is on

Climb Dumgoyne, the volcanic plug above the distillery

Look back from the top over Glasgow and the Lowlands

Glengoyne has been distilling at Dumgoyne, north of Glasgow, since 1833, when it was called Burnfoot, and it sits exactly on the Highland Line: the stills are in the Highlands and the casks mature across the road in the Lowlands, so it makes a Highland malt matured in the Lowlands. Behind it rises Dumgoyne, a volcanic plug 427m high at the end of the Campsie Fells, reached by a path beside the distillery.

Glengoyne: The Distillery on the Highland Line

Climb Ben Lomond (974m), the southernmost Munro, by the tourist path from Rowardennan

Look south from the summit down Loch Lomond towards its islands

Ben Lomond, 974m, is the most southerly of the Munros and one of the most climbed, by about 30,000 people a year. It stands on the east shore of Loch Lomond within the Ben Lomond National Memorial Park, owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The usual way up is the wide tourist path from Rowardennan; the Ptarmigan ridge to the west makes the better descent.

Ben Lomond: The Southernmost Munro

Cruise Loch Katrine on the steamship Sir Walter Scott, in service since 1900, on the loch that Sir Walter Scott set his poem The Lady of the Lake beside in 1810

Climb Ben A'an (454m) from the car park on Loch Achray for the view over the Trossachs

Walk part of the Loch Katrine shore path from Trossachs Pier, inside Scotland's first national park, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, created in 2002

Loch Katrine is where Sir Walter Scott set The Lady of the Lake in 1810, and the steamship named after him has sailed it since 1900. Above Loch Achray, Ben A'an is only 454m but looks over the whole of the Trossachs. It all lies in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, Scotland's first national park, created in 2002.

The Trossachs: Loch Katrine and Ben A'an

Start at the West Highland Way's obelisk in Milngavie, where Scotland's first official long-distance route begins

Walk out through Mugdock Country Park on the first miles of the Way

Follow the old Blane Valley railway line north

Look up at the Campsie Fells from the Way

The West Highland Way starts at the obelisk in Milngavie, Scotland's first official long-distance footpath, and the first day runs out of the suburbs into Mugdock and along the old Blane Valley railway to Drymen — flat, easy walking that gets the Campsie Fells into view.

The West Highland Way: Milngavie to Drymen

Walk over the Kelvin Aqueduct of 1790, the largest in Britain when it opened

Go down to the Kelvin Walkway and look up at the aqueduct's four arches

Cycle the towpath east towards Kirkintilloch

The Forth and Clyde Canal opened across Scotland in 1790, 35 miles from the Carron at Grangemouth to the Clyde at Bowling, and at Maryhill in the north of Glasgow it crosses the River Kelvin on the Kelvin Aqueduct. Robert Whitworth designed it, and when it opened it was the largest aqueduct in Britain — 136m long, four arches, 19m above the river — and people came to watch sailing ships pass over their heads. The same contractors built the flight of Maryhill locks beside it, and the towpath runs east out of the city towards Kirkintilloch.

The Forth and Clyde Canal: Maryhill Locks and the Kelvin Aqueduct

Visit Eilean Donan Castle, on its tidal island where lochs Duich, Long and Alsh meet, founded in the 13th century, wrecked by Royal Navy frigates in 1719 and rebuilt between 1912 and 1932

Cross to Skye and back over the Skye Bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh

Walk the waterfront at Plockton, where cabbage palms line the shore of Loch Carron

Eilean Donan stands on a tidal island where lochs Duich, Long and Alsh meet. Founded in the 13th century, it was wrecked by Royal Navy frigates in 1719 during the Jacobite rising and rebuilt between 1912 and 1932. West of it the road runs out to Kyle of Lochalsh and the Skye Bridge, and north over the hill lies Plockton, sheltered enough on Loch Carron for cabbage palms to grow along its waterfront.

Eilean Donan, Kyle of Lochalsh and Plockton

Watch the Braemar Gathering, held since 1832, on the first Saturday in September in the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park

See the heavy events — including tossing the caber — and the light events and Highland dancing

Tour Braemar Castle, run by the community since 2007

Drive up Deeside to the Linn of Dee and walk the river gorge

Braemar has held its Gathering since 1832, now on the first Saturday in September in the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park, its home since the Duke of Fife gave the land in 1906; since Queen Victoria's time the reigning monarch has been its patron and Chieftain. The rest of the year the village keeps its castle on the road north and the road west up Deeside to the Linn of Dee, where the river runs through a rock slot.