Scottish Highlands Weekend Itinerary: Fort William & Glencoe

I just completed a six-week pastry course in Edinburgh, Scotland. On my weekends, I scoped out the top places to go (that I could reasonably make it to). This meant renting a car and leaving straight after school on Friday afternoons to drive to these destinations, coming back on Sunday. While there are many spots to see, this Scottish Highlands weekend itinerary is one of my favorites.

The Highlands and wide open spaces of Scotland are, in my opinion, the bread and butter of the country. In a word: stunning. I also didn’t realize quite how vast the Highlands are relative to the country as a whole. 

I spent two nights with Fort William as my home base and then spiderwebbed out from there across the weekend. Besides the dreary weather, which does add to some of the moody allure that is Scotland (though I would have appreciated some reduced cloud coverage), the landscape was incredible. Keep in mind that I traveled here the second weekend in December, so I was chasing daylight, which sadly did shorten how much I could literally see with my own eyeballs. 

Without further ado, here’s how I spent a weekend in the Scottish Highlands:

Day 0.5: Edinburgh to Fort William

I left school around 4:30 PM and drove the three hours up to Fort William. It was full nightfall basically once I hit the M9, and I veered off onto winding “country”/”small town” roads pretty quickly.

Let me just say, the Scottish drive like villains. I mean, are the cops chasing you, Cruella? The speed limit is quite high, 60mph,  for low visibility – aka not many street lights – not to mention wet and curving roads. Plus, VERY LITTLE room for error.

So, stay safe out there if you’re driving these roads, especially at night. I made it to my stay for the night in one piece, a cozy wee “shack” with very friendly hosts.

Day 1: Fort William to Steall Waterfall to Loch Ness to Fort William

Day one of my Scottish Highlands weekend itinerary held a lot of driving. Mapped it out to cover my Google “saves” as much as possible. The list may look lean but again, chasing daylight and extra time on the road made for fewer stops. Here’s what I saw:

• Steall Waterfall hike (with views of Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis)
• Fort Augustus and Loch Ness
• Fort William

My hosts recommended the Steall Waterfall hike in Glen Nevis to me, so I started there, in case of hike stank, for my first full day. This is where the constant reminder of “people have different hiking abilities” held true. It was supposed to take 30 minutes one way to get to the end with a breathtaking waterfall. I, however, made it 30 minutes, and I don’t know that I was even halfway.

The area surrounding is beautiful, so it wasn’t a wasted morning by any means, but it’s slippery, some parts are scrambling at points, and I ended up turning back before making it the full way. I had places to be and things to see that day! The drive to and from this point was so beautiful, though, and I did find some highland coos (cows) on my way out. ‘Twas a very happy gal.

From my hike, I headed up to Fort Augustus, where I booked a boat ride on Loch Ness. It was a bit of a drive, comparatively speaking, but I wanted a glimpse of the famous loch while I was so close. The town was a bit tourist-facing, more gimmicky than I like. Overall, I would say you probably could save yourself a ticket and just drive some of the rim of the loch for the same views. It probably strongly depends on where you get on the loch. Maybe there is more to be seen from the middle or higher up. Slight bummer since I do love a good boat ride.

After a brief walk around Fort Augustus, I drove back to Fort William, where I headed into the town center and strolled about for a bit. Ya girl loves a good bookstore, so I perused through The Highland Bookshop ahead of dinner at a nearby pub. After grabbing a bag of crisps from the town Tesco, I headed back to my wee shack for a cozy Harry Potter night.

Also, Cadbury hot chocolate HITS THE SPOT on a cold night.

Day 2: Fort William to Glenfinnan to Glencoe to Edinburgh

This was one of my favorite days in Scotland. One of those days where the dreary weather makes the landscape *pop* because the gray skies make the oranges, reds, and greens showstopping. Here’s what I covered:

• Glenfinnan Viaduct 
• Hagrid’s Hut
• Three Sisters Viewpoint
• The Meeting of Three Waters
• James Bond Skyfall Road
• Kingshouse Hotel

Once again, today was a lot of driving, but oh so worth it.

Starting off day two of our Scottish Highlands weekend itinerary with the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Even if you aren’t a Harry Potter fan, this spot is a beauty. After parking, you can walk up to the overview to look out at both the viaduct as well as the Glenfinnan Monument, which looks out on Loch Shiel. Honestly, stunning.

From there, you can walk down to the viaduct to wait for shots of the magical Hogwarts Express – sadly, I got my timing wrong and missed it. Learn from me! You can walk right under the viaduct as well as to a viewpoint above. From there, take the time to walk over to the monument. It’s so pretty and peaceful. The pictures speak for themself while at the same time not doing the place justice. Even though there were plenty of people visiting, it still managed to be quiet and easy to get around. 

Afterwards, I headed toward Glencoe and, after a recommended (by a classmate) stop in Crafts & Things for a peruse and a quick bite (more for sustenance than anything highly recommendable), I headed towards Hagrid’s Hut. I’m not sure that this was actually filmed for the movie or if someone on TikTok is just tricking me into believing it was. Of course, I stopped, and yeah, it definitely could be the location of our beloved half-giant’s home. No dragon eggs in sight, though.

From there, this part of my day was more of a drive, stop, walk a smidge, appreciate, photograph, and then get back in the car. The Meeting of Three Waters is really cool and quite a powerful flow of water. Be careful when you are getting out of your car! Cars are coming by fast, and there isn’t much space between the pulloff and the road (see note above about Scottish driving). 

HIGHLY recommend driving Skyfall Road, honestly, some of my best shots of Scotland came from this strip off the main road. The colors, the mountains, the water… It’s beautiful. 

My last official stop was in the hopes of seeing some Scottish wildlife, which came true at the Kingshouse Hotel. You’re not supposed to feed the deer, but that, of course, doesn’t stop some people, though it did allow me to see one of these beauties up close. Talk about a picture-perfect moment! 

From there, I started my drive back to Edinburgh. This is where, if I’d had more daylight, I would have done at least one hike. Sadly, dusk was already starting to settle in, and I wanted to have road visibility from Mother Nature for as long as possible on my drive back. I did close out my Scottish Highlands weekend itinerary with one recommended pit stop at The Green Welly Stop. Seems to be a popular trip spot. I grabbed some gas, snacks, and a potty break before heading non-stop back to the capital.