Walk the Glen Shiel battlefield, where on 10 June 1719 government forces under Joseph Wightman defeated Jacobites and Spanish marines with the help of four Coehorn mortars

Look up at the Five Sisters of Kintail, the ridge above the glen, from the battlefield

Walk up towards the Bealach an Lapain for the view along the Five Sisters ridge

On 10 June 1719 a Jacobite force with Spanish troops was broken in Glen Shiel by government soldiers under Joseph Wightman, described as the last close engagement between British and foreign troops on mainland British soil. The battlefield is beside the A87 under the Five Sisters of Kintail, and the ridge above carries one of the great Highland walks.

Glen Shiel: The 1719 Battle and the Five Sisters

Kintail

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

Walk up the road to the second broch, Dun Troddan

Cross to Skye on the Glenelg–Kylerhea turntable ferry in summer

Watch for otters from the hide above the Kyle at Kylerhea

Dun Telve is one of the best preserved brochs in Scotland, standing in a quiet glen four kilometres from Kirkton, with its neighbour Dun Troddan 470m up the road and the semi-broch of Dun Grugaig further east; the two brochs are about two thousand years old. From Glenelg the ferry to Kylerhea on Skye has run for centuries — a car ferry has run since 1934, and since 1982 the MV Glenachulish of 1969, the last manually operated turntable ferry in the world, has worked the crossing in summer.

Glenelg: Two Iron Age Brochs and the Turntable Ferry

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

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

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

Watch a boat work up the five-lock flight in the centre of the village

Walk the canal bank from the top lock towards Kytra

Look out over Loch Ness from the pier at the foot of the locks

At the south-west end of Loch Ness, the Caledonian Canal climbs through the middle of Fort Augustus in a flight of five locks, with the A82 crossing on a swing bridge at their foot. General Wade built a fort here between 1729 and 1742 after the 1715 rising and named it for the Duke of Cumberland; Benedictine monks later founded Fort Augustus Abbey on the site.

Fort Augustus: Five Locks in the Middle of the Village

Drive the hairpins of the Bealach na Bà from Tornapress to the summit

Stop at the top for the view west over Raasay and Skye

Drop down to Applecross village on the far side

Come back by the coast road towards Shieldaig, opened in 1975

The Bealach na Bà, the 'pass of the cattle', was begun in 1818 and finished in September 1822 by John Reid & Son of Edinburgh, and it is engineered like an Alpine pass, with tight hairpins and gradients approaching 20%. It has the greatest ascent of any road climb in the United Kingdom, rising from sea level at Applecross to 626m in about six kilometres, and is the third highest mountain pass in Scotland. Applecross itself — A' Chomraich, 'the sanctuary', where the Irish monk Maelrubha founded a monastery — was reachable only by boat until the 19th century, and the coast road round the peninsula to Shieldaig and Torridon was not built until 1975.

Bealach na Bà: The Biggest Road Climb in Britain

Walk up to the Old Man of Storr through the Sanctuary of pinnacles

Walk into the Quiraing and find the Needle, the Prison and the Table

Look for the dinosaur footprints on the platform at An Corran, Staffin

Follow the Skye Ecomuseum paths between Flodigarry and the Storr

The Trotternish landslip is the longest in Great Britain, and its pinnacles are among the best-known sights on Skye: the Old Man of Storr below the Storr's eastern cliffs, and further north the Quiraing, where the Needle rises 37m and the Prison stands like a ruined keep above a raised plateau called the Table. On the coast at Staffin, a wave-cut platform at An Corran carries at least 18 dinosaur footprints up to 50cm long, left by a large theropod in the Middle Jurassic about 170 million years ago.

Trotternish: The Old Man of Storr, the Quiraing and the Staffin Dinosaurs

Walk the geological trail at Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve to see the Moine Thrust, where Ben Peach and John Horne showed in the 1880s that older rocks had been pushed some 70km over younger ones

Visit the interpretation centre at Knockan Crag, in the North West Highlands Geopark

Find the artworks on the trail, Joe Smith's The Globe and Susheila Jamieson's Pipeworm

At Knockan Crag, Ben Peach and John Horne showed in the 1880s that older rocks had been pushed some 70km over younger ones along what is now called the Moine Thrust — one of the first thrust belts ever recognised and a milestone in the history of geology, set out in full in their memoir of 1907. The crag sits in the North West Highlands Geopark, and the Lewisian gneiss to the west is up to 3,000 million years old.