Loch Ness is well known and visited by thousands, but when you've tired of Nessie tartan gonks, there is a more beautiful and less visited landscape to the north.

Glen Affric has been referred to by those in the know as Scotland's most beautiful glen. It stretches for many miles upriver from the village of Cannich, becoming progressively wilder and more desolate. There are beautiful lochs, mountains and waterfalls, but it is the pinewoods that make this glen so special. You might think you've seen one forest, you've seen them all - but this is different. It is one of the largest remnants of the original ancient Caledonian Forest that once covered Scotland, and walking amongst the trees, it has a really special atmosphere and beauty. Look out for plentiful, incredibly cute red squirrels, pine martens and other wildlife.

This website features walks and accommodation.
www.walkhighlands.co.uk/lochness/glenaffric.shtml

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Torridon is one of the most dramatic areas on Scotland's west coast. The mountains here are not the rolling ridges seen elsewhere in Britain - these are completely separate and individual, gaunt, bare and incredibly steep and imposing peaks. The first time I arrived to camp, a herd of red deer swam across the deep river. The landscape is so otherworldly that I wouldn't have been suprised if dinosaurs came roaming round the corner. What a place.

At the foot of the glen is Loch Torridon, a great fjord, where the landscape is softened by ancient pinewoods.

This website has walking routes and accommodation options.
www.walkhighlands.co.uk/torridon/

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A couple of great websites giving free walks and downloadbale ordnance survey maps for walkers in Scotland. Both also contain accommodation guides for their respective areas.

Walks on Skye (www.skyewalk.co.uk) has almost 80 walks on the most spectacular of Scotland's islands.

Kintail & Lochalsh walks (kintail.walkhighlands.co.uk) is its sister site and offers similar information about the adjacent mainland.

www.skyewalk.co.co.uk
kintail.walkhighlands.co.uk

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Kintail and Lochalsh are easy to get to by Highlands standards (excellent buses from Glasgow or Inverness, train line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh). They offer some of the best walking in the highlands.

Kintail is particularly good for those wanting to get into climbing the Munros - there are heaps of them here, and nowhere else can you climb so many in a short time. The ridgewalking here is also tremendous.

Lower level walks enable exploration of pretty villages such as Plockton. There is fine woodland in Lochalsh, a very different landscape from much of the Highlands. Also, it's easy to pop across from Skye....

www.kintail.walkhighlands.co.uk

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Skye has Britain's most spectacular mountains by far, the Cuillin. But what is less well known is that it also has probably Britain's most beautiful coastline. Could there be a better walking destination? The following website has a good guide to walks.

www.skyewalk.co.uk

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