Experience the best of Fort William

Fort William lies on the shore of Loch Linnhe in the western Highlands, with Ben Nevis, 1,345 metres high, rising behind it. The town grew around a military fort and is now a busy base for hillwalking, climbing, cycling and skiing, and the long-distance West Highland Way, from Milngavie near Glasgow, ends here.

Glen Nevis has the Steall Falls and a long, wild gorge. West of town, the curving stone arches of the Glenfinnan Viaduct carry the railway to Mallaig past the monument where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in 1745, and at Banavie, Neptune's Staircase lifts boats up eight locks on the Caledonian Canal. The mountains of Glencoe, scene of the massacre of 1692, lie to the south, and the Great Glen runs north-east to Loch Ness and Inverness.

Venison, salmon, haggis and the smoky malt whiskies of the Highlands feature on the menus of local inns, along with cullen skink, a thick smoked-haddock soup. Rain can fall in any month, and snow lies on the summit into spring.