You don’t get to call yourself the Outdoor Capital of the UK for nothing. If you can ski it, climb it, paddle it or hike it, you’ll find it in Lochaber. Nowhere else in Britain boasts such a range of adventure sports in so compact an area - and it’s all thanks to Lochaber’s geography. This diverse region stretches form the rocky crags of Glencoe in the south to the knobbly wilds of Knoydart in the north; the icy fastness of Creag Meagaidh in the east to the Cuillin of Rum in the west – an island scrambling paradise. Within these extremities is a tangle of sharp peaks and narrow ridges, marching in ranks to every jagged horizon, with trench-like glens and sea lochs biting deep into the land. The vivid greens and blues of summer can be replaced, in winter, by the pristine gleam of sunny snowbound summits; on such days (less unusual than you might think) Lochaber looks like a mini Himalayas. Lording it over the rest is the giant Ben Nevis, but there are hundreds of other superb mountains too, and with so much on offer it’s tricky to decide where to walk next.
If hard hillwalking, multi day wilderness hikes or testing scrambles are your bag you could pass a happy lifetime here without ever leaving; but there’s more to Lochaber than high excitement. Magnificent glens, complex shorelines and mossy native oakwoods provide an abundance of low level options too, family-friendly strolls in rich natural settings.
Major calendar events
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Walk Lochaber
3-7 August 2008
An attractive programme of guided hikes and spin-off events makes this a must-do.
Mountain Bike World Cup
7-8 June 2008
Two days of white knuckle races, trials and displays – a real spectacle of world class riding. Great fun, and very popular.
Ben Nevis Race
6 September 2008
Up and down the Ben in under an hour and a half? Are they mad? Luckily, you can just watch.
