Glencoe Hiking

Posted by Helen (St. Louis, Missouri, USA) on 02/05/26 06:12 PM

Hello,

My daughter and I will be spending a few days in Glencoe in May. We want to take advantage of the gorgeous scenery to do some hiking. My daughter is in her 30s and is in good condition. I am 64 and in moderate condition. Of course, we will be using some of the hikes suggested by Rick in his book. I have three questions:

Does anyone have experience with hiring a guide to do a hike (walk)? Was it worth the cost?
If the answer to #1 is yes, yes, then do you have any recommendations for guides?
Does anyone have any recommendations for unguided walks that aren't already mentioned in Rick's book?

Thanks!

Posted by Mardee

Duluth, MN🌲

02/05/26 07:39 PM

11264 posts

I would suggest spending some time on the Walk Highlands website, which has just about every hike you could think of in Scotland and also other parts of the UK. They have extremely good information, and it's really a wonderful place to find some hiking.

Here's a link to a search result I got from Glencoe, but there could be more, so I would advise you to look beyond this if you don't find what you're looking for.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/fortwilliam/glencoe.shtml

Posted by Trotter

02/05/26 10:00 PM

1953 posts

If you don't have lodging yet in Glen Coe, look into HF Holidays. They have a house in North Ballachulish (Glencoe) and do both guided and self-guided tours in the area. The guides are amazing. The house is very comfortable and the food very good. We were self-guided and the house has many step-by-step maps and instructions for various hikes. A bonus is if you don't have a car, the maps also tell you how to reach places by bus. The guides are also very happy to help self-guided folks with suggestions. Another important note is they have trekking poles to borrow and if you want, you can register your self-guided hike so they know to look for you if you don't return. https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/country-houses/locations/glen-coe-scottish-highlands

Posted by scotlandmac

Glasgow

02/06/26 08:48 PM

153 posts

For the Lost Valley hike, as long as you have a map, you really shouldn’t need a guide.The route is usually busy too and the path obvious.Same with the Devil’s Staircase.It’s a very clear path from `the Altnafeidh parking area, plenty of people going up.Try to get there early though because particularly on a weekend, those parking areas (which are not big at all) fill up very quickly.

The Visitor Centre offers nice little trails which from memory there is a map of in the centre and car park.

One of the best easy walks is along the now dis-used old road going through the glen, above the A82. I’ve described it in the link below - it is a stunner for such little effort, flat all the way though can be a bit boggy at the start before you land on the old road itself.Rarely a soul around!

https://annestravelsandhikes.com/2025/03/10/glencoes-easiest-most-spectacular-walk/