The Great Glen and Strathspey

The Great Glen and Strathspey are in the central Scottish Highlands. These two valleys are natural transport routes converging on Inverness, which became the region's chief town.

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Photo: Graham Lewis, CC BY 2.0.

Essential Destinations

Top destinations include Inverness and Loch Ness.

Inverness

Photo: Avarim, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Inverness is a city in The Great Glen and Strathspey area of the Scottish Highlands, at the point where the River Ness flows out into the Moray Firth. Inverness is the only town of any size in the Highlands, and is the region's commercial and administrative centre.

Loch Ness

Photo: Jjtkk, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Loch Ness is a lake or loch which runs for 23 miles along the fault line of the Great Glen in the Scottish Highlands. It's a mile wide, very deep, and dark with peat.

Fort William

Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Fort William is a town at the foot of the Great Glen, on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. It's the main transport, commercial and visitor hub for the area: its attractions include Ben Nevis, Nevis Range ski resort, the Caledonian Canal, and "The Jacobite" steam train.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Aviemore and Glencoe.

Aviemore

Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Aviemore is a town in the Spey Valley of Highland Scotland. It's the main base for skiing and other outdoor activities in Cairngorms National Park. It's the largest of a straggle of villages including Rothiemurcus and Coylumbridge, also described here, and in 2020 had a population of 3230.

Glencoe

Photo: Meho29, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Glencoe is a hauntingly scenic valley in the western Scottish Highlands, a branch of The Great Glen which carves coast to coast. It's also the name of the village at its foot, where the glen meets the sea at Loch Leven.

Cairngorms National Park

Photo: Wikimedia, CC0.

The Cairngorms are a range of mountains between the Highlands region and Aberdeenshire, plus smaller areas of Angus, Perth and Kinross, and Moray. The national park, established in 2003, is by far the largest in Britain – it's named for the Cairn Gorm…

Nairn

Photo: Peter Bond, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Nairn is a seaside resort east of Inverness in The Great Glen and Strathspey Region of Highland Scotland. In 2020 it had a population of 10,190.

Mallaig

Photo: Dbx54, Public domain.

Mallaig is a ferry port and fishing village on the west coast of The Great Glen and Strathspey region of the Scottish Highlands, with a population of 660 in 2020. The name is Norse, Mel vik, sand-dune bay.

Fort Augustus

Photo: Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, CC BY 2.0.

Fort Augustus is a village in The Great Glen, the fault line that traverses the Scottish Highlands. It's at the south end of Loch Ness, midway between Fort William and Inverness, and in 2023 had a population of about 650.

Glenfinnan

Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Glenfinnan is a village in the Western Highlands of Scotland, between Fort William and Mallaig. Standing at the head of Loch Shiel, it's famous as the place where "Bonnie Prince Charlie" launched his 1745 Jacobite rebellion.

Drumnadrochit

Photo: Immanuel Giel, Public domain.

Drumnadrochit is a village in the Great Glen, the fault line that traverses the Scottish Highlands. With a population of 1130 in 2020, it stands on the west shore of Loch Ness at the outlet of the River Enrick.

Kingussie

Photo: Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Kingussie is a town in Speyside in the central Scottish Highlands, with a population of 1470 in 2020. The Spey valley here broadens into a "strath" as it emerges from the hills, and turns north.

Grantown-on-Spey

Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Grantown-on-Spey is a town in the Spey Valley in the central Scottish Highlands, 20 miles southeast of Inverness. To the west is the "strath" or broad valley of the River Spey, which here narrows to descend east through the Cairngorms towards the coast in Moray.