LOCH ETIVE, Highland

WITH ITS HEAD in the high mountains and its foot in the sea, a change of course half-way down, and a 10 mile roadless middle section (leaving it magnificently serene next to its neighbour, busy Glen Coe), Loch Etive is a crash course in Scotland connoisseurship. Loomed over by Mordor-shaming Munros Ben Starav and Ben Cruachan, and slab-topped Corbett Beinn Trilleachan, in Glen Etive it gives on to one of the most beautiful valleys in the Highlands. Plus with a tidal special-effect called the Falls of Lora creating a pop-up set of rapids at its western end twice a month, it doesn’t just sit there and look pretty.