My wife and I will be in the Highlands the end of this August thru the start of September. We have 2 nights in Oban (planning Mull and Iona) then two nights Aviemore in the Cairngorms. On our travel day we really want to get the best of Glen Coe. What are the best hiking trails? Is there a guided hike that any would recommend? We are both pretty fit so rugged trails are not a problem. Thanks!
Posted by
London
81 posts
I would always recommend the Coire Gabhail, Hidden Valley, a relatively flat route surrounded by mountains. If you don't mind something steeper then the route up the Devil's Staircase is great and gives superb views before dropping down into Kinlochleven. And it's also worth taking a run down Glen Etive and looking for routes off there.
Posted by
Massachusetts, USA
1605 posts
It is worth it to drive down the Glen Etive Road even if you don't do any hiking there. The scenery is spectacular. The road is 12 miles long and ends at the beginning of Loch Etive. Glen Coe is one of our favorite stops in Scotland and the drive down Glen Etive Road was one of the highlights of our trip.
Posted by
174 posts
Drive it! That really is the best way to see some of the sites and make sure to stop off at the car parks with viewpoints.
If you decide you want a more low key hike rather than rugged, we did the River Coupall Hike that you can take out to the Glen Etive viewpoint. Rick does not mention it specifically in his book, but if you either google the Glen Etive or River Coupall Hike, it should pop up with the route and location start point. It was honestly a really beautiful hike, and we wound up in Glen Coe on a somewhat rainy day, where anything super rugged was gonna be wet and dangerous.
I really loved Glen Coe. I hope you have a good time.
Also... If you can include Staffa with your trip out to the Hebrides, I would really try to do it. It was the absolute highlight of those three islands between Fingel's Cave and the Puffins. I wish we could have gotten to Tobermory on Mull but we ran out of time.
Posted by
Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico
1745 posts
Laura beat me to it - I was going to say if you're going to Mull and Iona, add on Staffa! It was one of the highlights of my visit to Scotland.
Also, Aviemore is a convenient base for exploring Cairngorms, but it's not exactly worth visiting in itself. The best thing about Aviemore is that it's adjacent to Rothemurchus. I walked from Aviemore to Loch an Eilein, which may be the prettiest loch I saw in the five weeks I was in Scotland. But If you're traveling by train, consider Kingussie, the next town on the train heading south. It's small but charming, and would be a nice place to come back to at the end of a day of sightseeing. If you're driving, maybe check out Grantown-on-Spey.
As for Glencoe, you've got a lot of excellent suggestions already. I'll just add that I did a hike to the summit of Cow Hill, starting and ending in Fort William (https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/fortwilliam/cowhill.shtml); the views were spectacular.