New Year's Day 2025

Caol Beach sunset in the Outdoor Capital
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Attractions and Museums around Fort William & Lochaber

Visitor attractions and leisure activities in Fort William include a whisky distillery, a museum, a geological gem centre, Inverlochy Castle Ruin and the Caledonian Canal

Fort William and Lochaber has a good number of museums, visitor centres and leisure and fitness centres.

The West Highland Museum is located in Fort William town centre and is an excellent resource of our local history and particularly about the Jacobites. Other museums worth visiting are The Clan Cameron Museum at Achnacarry, The Commando Museum, The Glencoe Folk Museum in Glencoe village; Land and Sea Centre at Arisaig, and the West Highland Line Museum at Glenfinnan Station.

Visitor centres in the area include Treasures of the Earth at Corpach, an amazing collection geological specimens, NTS Glencoe and NTS Glenfinnan; Inverlochy Castle Ruin; The Aluminium Story in Kinlochleven, Highland Soap & Coffee Shop, Ardnamurchan Natural History Centre and of course The Ben Nevis Distillery and Visitor Centre in Fort William.

For indoor leisure and exercise, The Lochaber Leisure Centre has a swimming pool, squash courts and fitness room. Take the kids to Three Wise Monkeys climbing wall.  The Ben Nevis Hotel has its own swimming pool, sauna, steam-room and gymnasium which is open to guests and visitors. The Nevis Centre offers 10 Pin Bowling and regular activities and events. Lochaber High Schools sports facilities are also available to members of the public after school hours.

Our outdoor attractions are numerous and located all over Lochaber. Nevis Range is Fort William's premier outdoor visitor centre located 5 miles north of our Highland town, below Aonach Mor. Nevis Range began life as a winter ski centre and has developed into an all year round outdoor visitor attraction with mountain bike paths and trails, rope climbing activities, cafes and mountain shop not forgetting the superb mountain gondola ride which leads to scenic walks with fabulous views. We have mentioned a few of these in this section of our website, but there are many others to discover from the Area Guide section. The walk along Caol beach for example is a very scenic walk and introduces the Caledonian Canal as one of the main features in the landscape.

For other great walks around Fort William browse our Ben Nevis Guide section where you'll find information about the Glen Nevis Lower Falls, Steall Falls and Dundeardill, an Iron Age vitrified stone fort which has amazing views.



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