The route leaves Oban past the working harbour – CalMac ferries, fishing boats and island views across the Firth of Lorn. A purposeful send-off from the WC300’s first major town.

The A828 crosses Loch Etive at Connel via a cantilever bridge built in 1903. Below, the Falls of Lora form as the tide forces water through the narrows – one of the few tidal waterfalls in Scotland and most dramatic at low tide.

The A828 through Appin runs close to the shoreline with Loch Linnhe opening to the west and the hills of Morven across the water. One of the quieter and more rewarding stretches of the segment – unhurried, coastal and consistently scenic.

A 15th-century tower house on a small tidal islet in Loch Laich. Privately owned and not open to the public, but the view from the road and the shoreline is among the most striking on the entire WC300. The castle appears suddenly from the road with no advance warning.

The crossing of Loch Leven at Ballachulish is a significant transition point. The view from the bridge approach – Loch Leven reaching east into the mountains, the hills of Glencoe closing in – gives a first clear sense of the wilder country ahead.

East of Ballachulish, Loch Leven reaches deep into the mountains toward Kinlochleven and the Mamores. The loch is narrow, enclosed and dramatically framed – a foretaste of the Glencoe landscape visible in the distance.

The final miles follow the shore of Loch Linnhe closely. The loch is broad and tidal, the light across the water changing constantly. Ben Nevis grows on the horizon with every mile driven north.

Ben Nevis dominates the arrival into Fort William. At 1,345 metres, Britain’s highest mountain rises directly above the town, giving the whole setting a scale and drama that can easily catch first-time visitors by surprise. Fort William sits where Loch Linnhe, Loch Eil and the Great Glen meet, but it is the mountain — vast, changeable and impossible to ignore — that gives the town its real sense of place.