Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail

The Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail is widely regarded as the toughest waymarked nature trail in Scotland, climbing from the shores of Loch Maree through ancient Caledonian pinewood to a bare, glacier-scraped plateau of quartzite high above — a route that showcases the full range of habitats within Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve, Britain's first, designated in 1951.

The route starts at the Coille na Glas-Leitir car park on the A832, where a picnic site, interpretation boards, and a machine selling route leaflets mark the start. The path climbs gently at first through birch and pine woodland — Coille na Glas Letire, the "wood of the grey slope," a forest that has stood here for at least 8,000 years and remains one of Britain's few truly natural landscapes. Some of the older "Granny pines" seen along the way began growing after fires cleared competition for light, while many of the finest trees nearby were felled during the Second World War for ammunition boxes. The gradient steepens as a bridge crosses the Alltan Mhic Eoheim burn, with the path engineered through increasingly precipitous, quartzite-crag terrain and views back to Loch Maree and the brooding form of Slioch improving with every step.

The trail eventually eases onto an extensive, undulating plateau of quartz scraped bare by ancient glaciers, reaching its highest point at the large Conservation Cairn around 560 metres — from here, the ridges of Beinn Eighe are seen close at hand, with the peak of Meall a' Ghiubhais further right and Slioch dominating the view back across the loch. The path continues past a series of small lochs, the last aptly named the Lunar Loch, before descending via a glen that eases the steep drop, following the edge of a fenced gorge past the first great lone pine back down towards the woods and the car park.

The Mountain Trail's engineered stonework and marked cairns make navigation straightforward in good visibility, but the terrain is genuinely steep, rocky, and exposed on the upper section — sturdy footwear and full waterproofs are essential, and several visitors specifically recommend walking the route clockwise so the steepest ground is climbed rather than descended.

The Coille na Glas-Leitir car park is free, with a picnic site and toilets; a limited bus service runs between Inverness, Kinlochewe, and Gairloch.