Over Rannoch Moor to Glen Coe — the great road west

Over Rannoch Moor to Glen Coe — the great road west

A Hymer motorhome parked on the empty moor road across Rannoch Moor with a faint rainbow over the golden bog.
The camper alone on Rannoch Moor, a rainbow over the bog — this is what the road west is all about.

⚙️ This page is growing — we’ve more photos coming from this run, and we’ll fill in the exact stops and our own notes as we do. What’s here is the drive as we took it, west out of the Loch Tay and Trossachs country.

The drive — from the Trossachs to the coast

Leave the head of Loch Tay or the Trossachs and point west, and within an hour the country changes utterly: the woods and lochs give way to one of the biggest, wildest, emptiest landscapes in Britain. The road runs up through Crianlarich and Tyndrum, over Bridge of Orchy, and out across Rannoch Moor to the jaws of Glen Coe — the classic Highland drive, and one we never tire of.

View from a motorhome cab crossing the empty A82 over Rannoch Moor in autumn, low cloud on the hills, flowers and a toy Highland cow on the dashboard.
From the cab — the Highland cow rides shotgun as the moor opens out.

Rannoch Moor — one of Europe’s last great wild places

Rannoch Moor is roughly 50 square miles of blanket bog, lochans and peat, sitting over 300 m up and ringed by mountains — a National Nature Reserve and one of the largest and least-touched wild bogs in Europe. The A82 skirts its western edge and the West Highland Railway famously floats across it on a raft of brushwood and ash, but step a few yards off either and you’re into country that has barely changed since the ice left. In autumn the whole moor turns tawny gold, and the light and weather change by the minute — we caught rainbow after rainbow.

A rainbow over the wide golden expanse of Rannoch Moor, distant hills beyond, on a showery autumn day.
Showers and sun trading places over the moor — rainbow weather.
The tawny autumn bog and pools of Rannoch Moor stretching to distant hills under a big changeable sky.
Golden bog to the horizon — Rannoch Moor in its autumn coat.
The A82 running across open autumn moorland and forest on the drive west, hills under a broken sky.
The A82 threading the moorland — big country, empty road.

Bridge of Orchy & Glen Orchy

The moor’s southern gateway is Bridge of Orchy, an old staging point on the military road north and now a landmark on the West Highland Way. From here the single-track B8074 down Glen Orchy is a beautiful quiet alternative, following the River Orchy — a famous white-water river — past falls and old bridges toward Dalmally and Loch Awe. We came down off the moor this way on the run west.

Glen Coe — the most famous glen in Scotland

Ahead, the moor narrows and the mountains close in: this is the eastern entrance to Glen Coe. Guarding the mouth of the glen is the great pyramid of Buachaille Etive Mòr (the “Great Herdsman of Etive” — we’ll confirm the exact peaks in our photos as we caption them), one of the most photographed mountains in Britain, with the Three Sisters ranged along the glen beyond.

Glen Coe wears its history heavily. It was here, on 13 February 1692, that the Massacre of Glencoe took place — government soldiers, quartered as guests among the MacDonalds of Glencoe, turned on their hosts at dawn and killed some 38 people, with more dying in the winter hills. The glen has never forgotten it, and the sense of that history still hangs about the place. Today most of it is cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, with a visitor centre near the village.

View from the cab approaching a deep mountain glen, steep peaks rising ahead, toy Highland cow on the dashboard.
The mountains close in — the approach to Glen Coe from the moor.
A classic steep pyramidal Highland peak guarding the mouth of Glen Coe under a bright sky.
The great pyramid at the mouth of the glen — one of Scotland’s iconic peaks.
Misty, cloud-wreathed mountain peaks above a deep autumn glen on the road into Glen Coe.
Cloud on the tops — Glen Coe rarely does anything by halves.
Rugged mountains rising steeply on either side of Glen Coe in autumn, moorland in the foreground.
Steep walls on both sides — the heart of the glen.

Nearby — where this drive begins and ends

  • Killin — the Falls of Dochart and the head of Loch Tay, our jumping-off point to the north-east.
  • Callander — the Trossachs gateway town, the other end of this run.
  • Loch Katrine — the heart of the Trossachs, on the way through.
  • Loch Lomond — the A82 comes up its west shore before Crianlarich.
  • Oban — carry on west from Glen Orchy and Loch Awe for the seafood coast.
  • See it in context on our Lochs of Scotland guide.