Walk in the Argyll Forest Park, Britain's first forest park, created in 1935

Visit Benmore Botanic Garden, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's Argyll garden, and walk its Redwood Avenue

Walk the circular forest route from the Puck's Glen car park, linking Benmore with the wider forest

Benmore is the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's garden in Argyll, entered along an avenue of giant redwoods, in the Argyll Forest Park, which in 1935 became Britain's first forest park. From the Puck's Glen car park beside it a circular forest route links Benmore with the wider forest.

Benmore Botanic Garden and the Argyll Forest Park

Walk the shore at Tighnabruaich, the village on the Kyles of Bute whose pier, probably first built in the 1830s and rebuilt in 1885, served paddle steamers and Clyde puffers

Sail or boat the Kyles of Bute, the narrow channel between Bute and Cowal

Take the ferry from Portavadie to Tarbert to continue to Kintyre

Cycle part of National Cycle Route 75, which runs from Edinburgh to Tarbert through the village

Tighnabruaich is a sailing village on the Kyles of Bute, the narrow channel between Bute and Cowal; its pier, probably first built in the 1830s and rebuilt in 1885, served paddle steamers and Clyde puffers. National Cycle Route 75 runs through the village, and from Portavadie a ferry crosses Loch Fyne to Tarbert.

Tighnabruaich and the Kyles of Bute

Tour Mount Stuart, the neo-Gothic mansion with a marble chapel and stained glass, which claims the first heated swimming pool built inside a house

Explore Rothesay Castle, built around 800 years ago by the High Steward of Scotland, with its circular curtain wall and moat, twice besieged by the Norse in 1230 and 1263

Walk the gardens at Mount Stuart, parts of them laid out by Robert Weir Schultz

Mount Stuart, the neo-Gothic house of the Marquesses of Bute, claims the first heated swimming pool built inside a house and was the first home in Scotland lit by electricity, and it has a marble chapel and fine stained glass. In Rothesay the castle, built around 800 years ago by the High Steward of Scotland, has a round curtain wall and a moat, and was besieged by the Norse in 1230 and 1263.

Bute Heritage: Mount Stuart and Rothesay Castle

Tour Inveraray Castle, the Gothic Revival seat of the Dukes of Argyll, chiefs of Clan Campbell, beside Loch Fyne

Visit Inveraray Jail, the 19th-century courtroom and prison museum

Climb Dun na Cuaiche above the town to the folly watchtower of 1747–48 and the view over Loch Fyne

Inveraray is the town of the Dukes of Argyll, chiefs of Clan Campbell, on Loch Fyne, and their Gothic Revival castle stands beside it. Inveraray Jail keeps the 19th-century courtroom and cells as a museum, and above the town a path climbs Dun na Cuaiche to an 18th-century folly built as a ruined watchtower, with a view over the loch.

Inveraray: The Castle, the Jail and Dun na Cuaiche

Stop at the Rest and Be Thankful and find the inscribed stone that gave the pass its name

Look down Glen Croe at the line of the old military road

Walk a stretch of the old military road below the pass

At the head of Glen Croe the A83 reaches the pass the soldiers who built the military road in the 1740s named the Rest and Be Thankful — a stone inscribed with the words was set up around 1749. The old road still runs below the new one; it was a motor-racing hillclimb until 1970 and is now the diversion route when landslides shut the A83, and the slope above is so prone to them that the road is regularly closed.

The Rest and Be Thankful: Glen Croe and the Old Military Road

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

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

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.