The village is at the south-east corner of the
Beinn Eighe national nature reserve, centred on the mountain of that name, which includes some surviving areas of natural forest, the majority of which was cut down from the 16th century onwards for iron smelting which was the major industry in the area. A short but steep woodland trail runs through pine forest on the lower slopes of the reserve, giving fine views over
Loch Maree and the mountain of
Slioch on the other side of the loch. A longer, rougher mountain trail climbs further up the slopes of
Beinn Eighe. The area is well known for its spectacular
mountain scenery, especially the
Torridon Hills which includes such peaks as
Beinn Eighe and
Liathach. Although many peaks in the North-west highlands exhibit Torridon
geology, the Torridon hills are generally considered only to be those in the Torridon Forest to the north of Glen Torridon. Specifically, these are: •
Liathach •
Beinn Eighe •
Beinn Alligin •
Beinn Dearg The Torridon Hills exhibit some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the
British Isles, surpassed in grandeur probably only by the
Cuillins of
Skye. The landscape around the village is dominated by the
Torridonian sandstone, a
Precambrian and very old rock formation. Each of the Torridon Hills sits very much apart from each other, and they are often likened to castles. They have steep terraced sides, and broken summit crests, riven into many
pinnacles. There are many steep
gullies running down the terraced sides. The summit
ridges provide excellent
scrambling, and are popular with
hill walkers and
mountaineers. However, like many ridge routes, there are few escape points, so once committed, the scrambler or hillwalker must complete the entire ridge before descent. ==Roads==