Walking And Munros From Loch Duich
boots by the door…A Walking Base In Kintail
the hill starts behind the house…We sit on the north shore of Loch Duich with Sgùrr an Airgid rising straight behind the house and the Five Sisters of Kintail across the water. The Morvich trailheads are a few minutes along the road, so there’s no long drive before the walking starts.
What follows is an overview of the walks we point guests towards, from flat glen tracks to the big Munro ridges. It isn’t a route guide. Each walk links to its full Walkhighlands route description, and that’s what to take on the hill, along with a map and a forecast you trust. Mike will happily sit down with you in the evening and help you match a walk to the weather.
Walks That Start Near The House
Sgùrr an Airgid
The hill directly behind us. The path leaves from Clachan Duich, the old Kintail parish church and burial ground just along the road, and a zig-zagging stalkers’ path takes most of the sting out of the climb. From the trig point you look down the whole of Loch Duich, with the Five Sisters across the water and Skye out to the west. A good half day.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsGleann Lichd
The easy one, and one of the best. A track runs up the glen floor from Morvich between Beinn Fhada and the backs of the Five Sisters, with thousand-metre walls on both sides and the River Croe for company. Walk as far as suits you and turn round; there’s no summit to feel guilty about.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsDùn Totaig
A short walk through the trees at Letterfearn, on the far side of the loch, to an Iron Age broch that looks straight across the water to Eilean Donan Castle. One for a lazy morning or a rough-weather day.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsFalls Of Glomach
One of the tallest waterfalls in Britain, dropping 113 metres into a narrow cleft in the hills. The walk in from Morvich is a full day over a mountain pass, and the ground around the gorge is steep and unfenced, so keep well back from the edge and save it for a clear day.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsThe Five Sisters Of Kintail And The Big Ridges
the Five Sisters
These are the days people come to Kintail for: long, steep and high. Take the full route description, a map and compass, and a good forecast.
The Five Sisters traverse is the skyline you’ll watch from our garden. Folklore says the peaks are five sisters turned to stone while they waited for Irish princes to come back. The ridge takes in:
- Sgurr nan Spainteach – 990m
- Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe – 1,027m
- Sgurr na Carnach – 1,002m
- Sgurr Fhuaran – 1,068m
- The twin peaks: Sgurr nan Saighead – 929m and Sgurr na Moraich – 876m
Next door, the Brothers of Kintail gives you three more Munros with far fewer people on them, and across the glen the South Glen Shiel Ridge links seven Munros in a single day; once you’re up, you stay up. The Saddle is the mountain everyone photographs from the glen, climbed by the hands-on Forcan Ridge, and Beinn Fhada is as big as several of the Sisters put together and much quieter, reached by an old stalkers’ path from Morvich.
Hills That Fit Between Breakfast And Dinner
Not every day needs seven Munros. These are the hills we suggest when someone wants a summit and still wants to be back for a shower before dinner.
Sgùrr Mhic Bharraich
Starts near Shiel Bridge on the south side of the loch. A steady climb through grass and heather to a summit cairn with a close-up look at The Saddle and the whole South Glen Shiel Ridge, without joining them.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsBeinn Sgritheall
Worth the drive over to the Glenelg peninsula. It’s a steep pull, but the summit looks out over Knoydart, the Sound of Sleat and the Cuillin on Skye, and the road there is a day out in itself.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsEasy Walks By The Sea
When your legs need a day off, the coast west of us has short walks through old oakwood, croft land and beaches that ask very little of you.
Plockton
Coille Mhòr And Loch Achaidh na h-Inich
A trail through mossy old oak and birch on the Balmacara Estate, part of Scotland’s temperate rainforest, ending at a quiet loch with the remains of a crannog, an ancient island dwelling, out in the water.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsPlockton Coral Beach
A short croft-track walk to a white beach that isn’t sand at all but maerl, a calcified seaweed. Take a picnic and watch for seals.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsPlockton Crags
Up through the forestry to the crags above Plockton, with the harbour and its yachts below you, Loch Carron beyond, and the Torridon hills across the water.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsSandaig (Camusfearna)
A forest track down to the bay Gavin Maxwell wrote about in Ring of Bright Water. Otters still work this shoreline, which feels right, given the name of our house.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsDornie, River Glennan And Carr Brae
A circuit from Dornie, five minutes west of us, climbing to the Carr Brae viewpoint above Loch Duich. This is the classic photograph of Eilean Donan Castle with the loch and the hills behind it.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsBalmacara To Kyle Of Lochalsh
An up-and-down path through croft land and moor along the coast, with Skye across the water most of the way. Get the bus back from Kyle, or arrange a pick-up.
Route guide on WalkhighlandsWalking through history instead? The site of the 1719 Battle of Glen Shiel, where Jacobite clans and Spanish troops faced a government army on the mountainside, is a few minutes up the glen, and the Affric Kintail Way, a waymarked 44-mile trail from Loch Ness, finishes at Morvich just along the road.
Back At The House
Breakfast is served 7am to 8:30am, and if you want an earlier start for a long ridge day, tell us the night before. Every room has a radiator that earns its keep after a wet day, and the garden runs down to the loch for the stiff-legged evening sit-down. The Kintail Lodge Hotel at Shiel Bridge does bar food a few minutes away.
Two small things worth packing between late May and September: midge repellent for still evenings (any breeze shuts them down), and the habit of a quick tick check after a day in the bracken. Keep an eye up while you walk, too; golden eagles hunt over the glen, and there’s more on the wildlife page about what lives here.
the Sisters in winter
Loch Duich
the aurora, some nights
evening over the loch
“A great place to return to after being out on the hills, which I was.”
Guest From Oban · July 2026“We had an amazing time at Otterburn, exactly what we needed after a long hike.”
Guest From Amsterdam · April 2026“We left the following day feeling thoroughly refreshed and ready to continue our hike.”
Guest From Leeds · May 2023Book A Walking Stay In Kintail
Breakfast is included, the trailheads are minutes away, and Mike will help you plan your days in the evening.