Reflecting on the Great Glen Way

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

An Incomplete Feeling Journey

When we arrived into Inverness and completed the Great Glen Way, it did not end as we had expected - reroutes and detours in the busy city centre had complicated what should have been a simple final approach. Even reaching the final trailhead became a challenge owing to castle renovations.

Because of all of this, the sense of completion never quite arose. This wasn’t the result of any single moment, but reflected the accumulation of disruptions en route.

Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t angry, just exhausted, and disappointed – I admit it is possible to walk a route fully and still have it feel unfinished. So we chose to end it differently. Rather than stopping where the route told us to, we continued on - out toward the coast, to finish the walk on our own terms, at the edge of the water.

This feeling may also have been the result of when we trekked the Great Glen Way – we were tired well before we arrived at this trail. More than forty days on foot had begun to settle into us – Wainwright’s Coast to Coast, the Pennine Way, the West Highland Way, and now the Great Glen Way, all walked back to back in quick succession. The accumulation of distance, of days, of constant movement and few breaks, was no longer something we could ignore.

With that said, despite the frustrations we experienced, the Great Glen Way, while not necessarily dynamic in terms of nature or topography, was perfect for us at this moment. It gave us space to walk without the strain of crowds on the pathway, it allowed us to trek without constantly struggling, and we enjoyed decent weather conditions. In these ways, our time on the Great Glen Way gave us space to recover and reflect.  After everything that had come before, that mattered more than we would have expected.

Thoughts about the Great Glen Way

There is no denying that the Great Glen Way is not a trail defined by peaks or dramatic shifts in landscapes. It is a geological, hydrological and human-engineered corridor – ice carved it, water shaped it, and engineers have sought to control it.

To set out and walk it or hike it is not so much to move through wilderness as it is to trace a line along that corridor. Much of the route follows the infrastructure that now occupies the glen - forestry tracks, logging roads, canal towpaths, locks, and bridges. Generally, the path is clear, consistent, and often linear - either running alongside the water for extended stretches or weaving through forests without. In this sense, the experience is less about navigating varied terrain and more about moving easily through a landscape that changes gradually rather than dramatically. Because of this, the physical demands of the trail are modest.

Certainly, there are now climbs and variations, but for long sections of each stage, the route remains flat and predictable. Compared to other trails we had recently completed, it required less sustained effort and fewer moments of real physical exertion.

That, for us, proved to be one of its strengths. It also reminded us that not every day on the trail has to be dramatic and a physical accomplishment. Trails can be about time in nature and easy days on the way.  In that way, the Great Glen Way stood apart from the other trails we had walked, both recently and in the past. Not because it was more challenging, but because it arrived at exactly the right moment.

Challenges on the Great Glen Way

It is difficult to assess the Great Glen Way without first acknowledging that our experience of it was shaped heavily by circumstance. Over the course of four days, three were affected by reroutes, forestry work, or detours that pulled us away from the route we had expected to follow. What might normally have been a continuous line through the landscape instead became fragmented - redirected through cleared hillsides, temporary paths, and sections that bore little resemblance to the trail as described.

The interruptions were not isolated or limited to the trail itself.

Early on, access around the castle near Fort William was restricted. In the days that followed, forestry operations led to repeated diversions, often routing us through areas that had been recently cut, where the landscape was reduced to stumps and exposed ground. By the time we reached Drumnadrochit, the experience shifted again - this time to congestion, with the area around Urquhart Castle both crowded and costly to access. Finally, in Inverness, further re-routes through the city and the closure of the castle at the traditional endpoint reinforced the sense that the trail, at least in its current form, was in transition.

Taken together, it makes the route difficult to evaluate. Much of what we encountered felt temporary, shaped by ongoing forestry work and broader changes to the trail itself. In places, it appeared that the path was gradually being altered - shifting away from the original flat canal-side path toward higher ground, with more elevation and variation. That may, in time, change the character of the walk entirely. It certainly seems to be a change that many in the UK will favour.

For now, however, large sections remain affected by these transitions, and it seems likely that parts of the trail will continue to reflect this for years to come.

And yet, even within that, there was much that stood out.

The trail was noticeably quieter than the West Highland Way, offering longer stretches of solitude and a greater sense of space. Around Fort William and Inverness in particular, the birdlife along the canals and coastlines was unexpectedly rich. In addition, the combination of canal-side paths and forest tracks, when uninterrupted, offered a route that was more varied than we had anticipated.

In addition, for us, there were also moments of connection that extended beyond the trail itself. Walking alongside the Caledonian Canal gave way to comparison with other waterways we had known, recalling, in particular, our time spent along the Rideau Canal on the Trans Canada Trail.

Practical considerations, however, were more difficult to overlook.

Camping proved manageable, but staying indoors and finding meals along the route does likely require advance planning, particularly during busier periods. Costs throughout the region were consistently high, reflecting a broader shift that was not limited to the trail itself. In several places, local residents spoke to this change directly – describing areas that had once been open and accessible, but which now struggled to accommodate the volume of tourists passing through it.

In this regard, there are tensions along the Great Glen Way – between expectations and realities, and between access and costs.

Comparing Treks

As we have written, even after finishing the trail, the Great Glen Way did not entirely feel complete.

That sense lingered, not as frustration, but as a question - one we found ourselves returning to as we tried to understand why the experience had felt conclusive the way it normally does. The route had been walked in full, and yet the feeling of completion, so familiar on other trails, had not quite taken hold.

Part of this, perhaps, lay in the scale of the walk itself. At just under 120 kilometres in length, the Great Glen Way is trekked and completed in a relatively short span of time. Compared to longer routes we had undertaken - the Bruce Trail (40 days), the Camino Francés (35 days), or the Trans Canada Trail (565 days so far) - the experience is more contained – by the time you find your rhythm and get a handle of the nature of the route, you are done. There is less time for the gradual build that often leads to a stronger sense of conclusion.

But length alone does not fully explain it.

The character of the trail plays an equally important role. The Great Glen Way is, by its nature, a continuous corridor where in each stage is often very similar to the others. As such, the hike becomes one of watching for subtle shifts – flowers, wildlife, bird song, and daily experiences on the way. These defined the experience more than trekking through different landscapes and physical challenges. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that the physical demands of the trail are rarely central to the experience of hiking the Great Glen Way.

With that said, there is definitely a place for this type of trail. One that does not distract you from being in the moment, promotes having space to walk, think and observe while simply being in the outdoors. In this regard, the Great Glen seems like a necessary quiet reprieve in a chaotic world.

As such, setting out onto the Great Glen Way requires one to shift their expectations. To approach this trail search of dramatic change or a sustained physical challenge is to risk missing what it offers.

Final Reflections

Writing about the Great Glen Way is not difficult because the landscape lacks beauty, but because the trail itself seems, at present, to be in transition. Originally established as a low-level route following the natural line of the glen, it now reflects a range of overlapping influences - forestry operations reshaping sections of the terrain, ongoing adjustments to the route itself, and the pressures of increased visitation. Rather than presenting a single, consistent experience, the trail appears to be pulled in multiple directions at once.

Our time on it was shaped by those conditions.

The reroutes, closures, and altered sections we encountered do not necessarily define the trail as it is meant to be, but they do reflect how it existed when we walked it. In that sense, what we experienced may not represent the Great Glen Way at its best, but it does offer a view of it as it is currently evolving.

Amid which, the landscape itself remains compelling. The glen undoubtedly holds a quiet, sustained beauty – the hills, the lochs, and canals all offer a sense of uncomplicated continuity that defines the experience. The trail, in its present form, may not always highlight those qualities clearly, but they are there.

For those with a few days to spend outdoors, the Great Glen offers a steady and simple way to move through that environment. It is not a demanding route, and it does not require constant effort, which in itself gives space to settle in and enjoy the walk. For some, that may make it a suitable introduction - both to longer-distance routes and to the nature of time spent outside.

And for that, it remains a trail worth walking.

See you on the trail!