Cow Hill Circuit and Summit

Cow Hill, the small hill with big views, is one of our guests (and ours) most popular walks for good reason. The walk is usually started from Balcarres and it’s not long before you end up wandering along a lovely track across open moorland with fantastic views of Loch Linnhe and Fort William. There are benches throughout the walk offering a chance to just take in the views.  There is also the option to wander into town for a coffee or lunch. The return route follows a forest track in Glen Nevis with more great views, tumbling burns with a few small waterfalls. The toughest part of the walk is next by following the peat track which winds it’s way up the hill, so called as it was used until recently for gathering peats from the hill above for use as fuel, it can be avoided by shortening the walk and following the yellow posts around the circuit instead. After the climb up the hill the track levels out again and returns to open moorland. Shortly a path to the right takes you to the summit where the best views can be found, with Loch Linnhe, Loch Eil and Fort William to the east and Glen Nevis and Ben Nevis to the west. After taking in the views retrace your steps back to the path where you turned up towards the summit, then turn right and follow the path which offers views towards Glencoe. Eventually the path meets up with your outward route and it’s just a case of retracing your steps.

This is one of the walks we provide in our information folder, laminated, with detailed instructions of how to get to the walk, directions and pictures of the walk