Introduction:

The West Highland Way is 95 miles long, linking Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow to Fort William. It passes from the lowlands, across the Highland Boundary Fault and into the Scottish Highlands. Much of the Way follows ancient and historic routes of communication, and makes use of: The drove roads along which highlanders herded their cattle and sheep to market in the lowlands, Military roads built by troops to help control the Jacobite Clans and Old coaching roads and disused railway lines from the more recent past. If you are lucky whilst walking the Way you may also see some of the wildlife of the area. The Feral Goats left behind following the clearances, the magnificent Red Deer and, away over the high tops, soaring Golden Eagles. (Extract abridged from West Highland Way)

The best web sites for General Information and Planning:

West Highland Way Dedicated site providing all one needs when planning the walk.
Undiscovered Scotland Introduction to the walk with a host of links to useful resources.
John Butler Detailed route guide with a host of pictures.

The best web sites for Guided Walking:

Macs Adventure A dedicated service that also provides a self guided option.
Lomond Company specialising in providing guided walks in Scotland.
CNDO Scotland A Scottish company specialising in experienced guided walking.

The web sites that organise your accommodation and baggage transfer:

Make Tracks Full range of walking services provided for the West Highland Way.
Transcotland Another Scottish company providing a full service for self guided walkers.
Contours Full range of self guided walking services. Very good web site navigation.
Discovery Travel Full range of self guided walking services.
Easyways Dedicated accommodation booking service.
Travel Lite Dedicated baggage service.
Sherpa Walking Holidays Full accommodation service with baggage transfer.

The best web sites for you to plan your accommodation:

S H Systems Excellent range of accommodation. Just type in the location to bring up a list of accommodation in the area. You can sort them by price, postcode or rating.
West Highland Way  The most complete web listing of accommodation for the walk.

(Note - finding suitable walkers accommodation on the web is a minefield. It is best to search for accommodation by searching for it in a specific place. If you don't then you will spend ages wasting your time trawling large databases and getting nowhere fast. I have done so many times. In my experience S H Systems has proved to be most useful)

The best personal journals of the walk:

Jo Allen and Alan Beattie A fantastic journal of an inspired personalised WHW walk.
Shane and Becky Dougher As Becky puts it "We've created an account of our 2006 hike on the WHW - heavy on pictures, but has some links to B&Bs we stayed at and some practical tips and musings". It's a good job well done.
James Mattison A superb site with James journal plus lots of practical information.
John Butler Part of an end to end walk of Britain. Lots of photographs of the walk.
John Armitstead A detailed journal with accompanying photographs.
Ian Fisk Ian provides a good report on the walk with some useful information added.
California Walkers A super report accompanied by splendid photographs.
Robert Nugent A short report with photographs.
Alistair and Janice Another short report with photographs.

The sites for safety advice and emergency services:

Ramblers Association Practical walking advice including a guide to map reading, navigation and a detailed list of the essential gear required on a long distance walk.
Ramblers Association Essential safety guide with clear web site navigation.
Mountain Rescue UK You may need them so take their advice.

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