[4] The A87 Road to the Isles runs the full length of the glen, reaching a high point of 271 metres (889 feet) two miles (three kilometres) west of the Cluanie Inn.

[5] The remnants of the military road connecting Fort Augustus to the Bernera barracks in Glenelg built between 1750 and 1784 by William Caulfeild, the successor to General Wade, can be seen 1⁄4 mile (400 metres) west of the Cluanie Inn.

John Macleod writes of the glen that: The descent of Glen Shiel, on the road to Skye, takes you through one of Scotland's most spectacular mountain passes: it is almost a cliché of Highland scenery – foaming river, burns streaming white, crags frowning from on high, often mist, generally rain.

[12] The glen contains native tree species such as common alder, downy birch, sessile oak and rowan.

[16] It is "Scotland's only battle site with contemporary remains still visible – including the stone dyke enclosure where the Jacobite munitions were stored".

[22] This "highly accurate"[23] painting, which hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, was originally catalogued as The Battle of Killiecrankie, 1689.

[23] The steep south-west slopes of Sgùrr na Ciste Duibhe contain a large boulder known as "Prince Charlie's Stone", where Charles Edward Stuart, known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie", spent a day in the summer of 1746 hiding from Government troops once he had left the Isle of Skye.