Product Description

This second edition of the popular guide to the West Highland Way provides an updated and current description of the route from Milngavie, Glasgow, to Fort William. The 95 miles (152km) of the route, which was opened in 1980, passes through the lowlands to the highlands, accompanied by the bucolic splendour of the glens flanked by great mountains, the loveliness of Loch Lomond and the wild remoteness of Rannoch Moor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63804 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
A writer and photographer since 1978, Terry Marsh specialises in the outdoors, the countryside, walking and travel worldwide. He is the author of over 45 books, including the award-winning Cicerone guides to the Northern Coast to Coast Walk (1994) and the Shropshire Way (1999), as well as guidebooks to the Pennine Way, the Severn Way and the West Highland Way. Terry has a particular interest in Cumbria and the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, Lancashire, the Peak District, the Scottish Islands (especially the Isle of Skye) and the Isle of Man. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (FSA Scot), and a Member of the Society of Authors, MENSA, the NUJ and the Outdoor Writers' Guild.

Customer Reviews

No Stars
Inside this book there is a potential guide pamphlet which, for some reason or other, has been padded out with photographs and touristy information. Surely the author as an experienced walker should have known better. Delete all the padding and then perhaps it just might get on to the stars ladder. As for the publishers; have they forgotten those school textbooks that they must have read? I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that they had placed photographs opposite maps and relegated the relevant text to pages overleaf, just what one does not want when standing in the rain and consulting one's 'guide-book'.

completely useless on the trail
To put this review in context, I wanted a guidebook, that:
a) works as a map
b) helps to plan the walk
c) contains background info to read when I finish a section too early

I think this guidebook fails in all these aspects. Let me go through the above points:

a) As a map, this guide uses some old version of the OS 1:25000 maps. This seems to be the only highlight of the product.
- Unfortunately as I said, its kindof old, so some campsites are not listed on the map (but talks about it at the back of the book -> inconsistent).
- The other very annoying problem is that the map is scattered through the book. I saw guides (of other routes) of similar style (like walkthrough and map) where one section of talk is not interrupted by a map, but rather the full map is presented in several pages after the description of the section. This way when you walk a section you just open at the map, and there you go, but with this guidebook you have to hunt the pages.
- This will be a funny comment, but after completing the walk, I can say: there is no need for a detailed map. Its so well waymarked, one can walk it without any kind of guidebook.

b) Now this is where a guidebook could help, however this one does not.

- The author thought that its a good idea to first present the walkthrough, and then present all the accomodation listings based on their TYPE and not their location (!). I think its a bad idea. When planning, and also on the trail, I always instinctively opened the book at the current section, and wanted to find what accomodation do the various places along the walk provide. And then had to flip to the back, and then find the right type and then the place. Its not simply tedious, but since Inverarnan, Inveroran and Inversnaid is kindof easy to mix up in the beginning, it was really hard to find out where is what. I definitely think it would have been better to start a section like:
secition X, lentgh, altitude difference, average walk time, stops with accomodation and type, shop opportunities.
- Oh yeah the next thing the shopping opportunities. It does not say in an easy to find way WHERE can one buy and WHAT. Like there is a little shop in Inverarnan... where you can buy chocolate and canned food. Ok, I know its kindof maximalism to give a full product list, but at least indicate that if there is a shop or not, one cannot plan a walk like that.
- And the most most painful: NO PROPER OVERVIEW MAP. There is an overview map at the back of the front and back cover, but its like an illustration. No proper distribution of kilometers or anything on the map. Absolutely missing thing.

c) The talk on history and whatever is first of all not really exhaustive, although interesting, but the author sometimes places walk based info into the "history" sections, and interesting notes to the walking sections... annoying.

SO.
Verdict: DONT BUY THIS.

After completing the walk I suggest to go for the Footprint one or the TX map, I saw other people using it, and they are much better and no talk is really needed to plan this walk. The footprint map is really handy indicating the miles on the road, excellent one.
For the historical account I assume the official guide have much more to say.