West Highland Way Gear List: 154 km Milngavie to Fort William

The West Highland Way runs 154 km from Milngavie, on the edge of Glasgow, to Fort William, and most people walk it in six to eight days between May and September. This list is built for camping that whole window, which in Scotland means treating rain as a certainty rather than a risk.

Two conditions shaped almost every pick. First the water: all-day rain, bog on Rannoch Moor, and burns running across the path. The shell is a Patagonia Torrentshell 3L, twice the weight of an ultralight rain jacket and worth it, because 3-layer fabric survives day-after-day soakings under pack straps. Everything sleeps inside a pack liner. Second the midges: from June to August they own the glens at dawn and dusk, so a fine-mesh head net and a bottle of Smidge ride near the top of the pack, and the budget Lanshan 1 got picked over lighter shelters for its full mesh inner.

Wild camping is legal along most of the route under Scottish access rights, with one exception you have to plan for: the camping management zone on Loch Lomond's east shore between Balmaha and Inversnaid. From March through September you camp there on a permit (£4.50 per tent per night, bookable four weeks ahead) or you keep walking. North of Inversnaid the restrictions end.

Villages every day keep food carries short. Two days is the worst case, which is why the pack is a 40-liter Kakwa and the food bag stays small. No satellite communicator either; phone coverage and passing walkers make it dead weight here.

Base weight: 6.3 kg (13.8 lb) before worn clothing and consumables. Copy this list and bend it to your dates: May walkers can drop the midge kit, July walkers should not.