West Affric

Wild mountain landscape with peatlands, moorlands and woodlands, home to black grouse, golden eagles and water voles

Planning Your Visit

Planning your visit

West Affric can be visited all year round but the Alltbeithe Youth Hostel (SYHA) operates from late April to September only. You should book your bed at the hostel before your visit.

Stay at the unique Glen Affric Youth Hostel, the remotest of those run by the Scottish Youth Hostels Association.

Camban Bothy is a public bothy and is open all year.

West Affric is also a wonderful place to wild camp – but be prepared for the midges, ticks and horseflies, which are at their worst in July and August.

Visitors should be suitably equipped for the remote mountain environment. Please be aware that the main paths to West Affric involve crossing streams, which can be extremely difficult during periods of intense rainfall – check the weather forecast before you go.

For more information about planning your visit please see our frequently asked questions.

If you’d like to speak to us we can be contacted by email: kintail@nts.org.uk or telephone 01599 511231.

Facilities & access

The trails in West Affric are not advisable for wheelchairs.

We have an ongoing programme of accessible content development. Detailed accessibility guides for the most visited Trust places are available on our Accessibility pages as well as links to useful resources.

We’d love you to visit the Euan’s Guide website to review the accessibility of Trust places and tell us (and others) what’s good and where we need to do better.

Bike facilities

Dogs welcome

Guided tour

Our rangers offer a 3-day guided walk of the West Glen Affric Munros - three of the remotest hills in Scotland. This includes 2 nights spent in the Glen Affric Youth Hostel, one of the remotest hostels in the country. Please telephone 01599 511231 for more information.

Walks

Walk the 44 miles of the Affric-Kintail Way, from Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness to Morvich in Kintail. (This route can also be mountain-biked but the section from Camban Bothy to Glen Licht House is extremely challenging, and bikes will need to be pushed along most of this section.)
Take a dip in the River Affric – on warm summer days the water is heated (slightly!) when passing through the surrounding peatland.
Climb some of the remotest Munros (mountains over 914m/3,000ft) in Scotland, including the magnificent Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan, using paths maintained by the National Trust for Scotland.