8 of the best hikes in Scotland

Rain, bog and midges be damned: Scotland is insanely lovely no matter what hand the weather and wilderness deal you.

Any list of Scotland’s best hikes is bound to cause outrage at the ones that have been missed out. Because this land ignites the true passion of the hill climber and the mountaineer, with tough terrain and heart-breakingly beautiful landscapes that can never be captured in words – not even those of Robert Burns.

Nobody, however poetic, can ever do justice to these brooding lochs and disorientating moors, the angry seas that beat the living daylights out of coast and island, and the moment when on a dreich day the sun bursts through the clouds with a light so piercing it’s as if the world has been made anew. Its munros don’t seem too intimidating on paper, but up close, they are gnarly monsters that leap directly from the sea.

From epic climbs to escapades in the footsteps of outlaws and long-distance hikes over moor and mountain, these are our favorite eight hikes in Scotland. Rant away: we know you’ll have your own, as hiking here is highly personal – and no matter how many times you return, you can only ever hope to scratch the surface.

1. Liathach, Glen Torridon

Best munro climb
7¼ miles (11.5km), 8-10 hours, demanding

The munro that sorts the casual walker from the hard-core hiker, Liathach (“The Grey One”), is a beast, punching a burly fist high above the fjord-like depths of Loch Torridon. But if ever you are going to bag a peak, make it this one. It’s wild, rough and otherworldly up here, with near-vertical terraces of rock, tawny summits to surmount, boulders to scramble over and elating views over a thrillingly remote slice of the northwest Highlands. So remote, in fact, that the only other souls up here might be red deer, snow hares and golden eagles.  

These mountains are ancient, partly formed by two-billion-year-old Lewisian gneiss (some of the oldest rock on the planet), and spectacularly buckled and contorted during the last Ice Age.

Starting at the car park near Glen Cottage in remote, river-woven Glen Torridon, the hike eases you in gently enough – ach, but don’t be fooled! After crossing a stream, you soon begin to climb. And climb. And relentlessly climb the brutal…