The Great Glen Way

The Great Glen is one of the most remarkable features in the Scottish landscape - a ruler-straight valley along an ancient fault line through the Highlands. The glen is threaded by the scenic Caledonian Canal, which provides a link for sea-going vessels between Fort William and Inverness.

The Great Glen Way offers walkers the chance to enjoy a low-level route from coast to coast at almost any time of the year. It measures 117km (73 miles) and its course includes easy, level stretches alongside the Caledonian Canal, undulating forest tracks, lochside paths, old drove roads and military roads, as well as contrasting stretches over heather moorlands or through city suburbs. The route is an ideal introduction to long-distance walking, with a range of facilities along the way. Walkers can enjoy the scenery and wildlife, delve into the history of the Highland clans, visit castles, or keep an eye open for the elusive Loch Ness Monster!

Paddy Dillon's excellent guide contains background on the walk and the areas passed through, plus photographs of significant sights along the way and coloured mapping sourced from the Ordnance Survey of each of the sections of the walk. The Great Glen Way is normally walked from south west to north east, and guides to the walk usually assume you will be walking in teat direction. A particularly intriguing aspect of this book is revealed in its subtitle: "A Two-Way Trail Guide". Route descriptions for each section of the walk are given for walkers intending to cover the Great Glen Way in either direction. As a result this book is both a useful guide for anyone travelling in the normal direction, but an essential resource for anyone considering walking it the opposite way.

Add to the package a history timeline that focuses particularly on the areas you will be walking through; a list of useful information and contacts; and an introduction covering the Great Glen itself, accommodation, and background on long-distance walking, and you have an attractive, eminently readable, and very useful guide.