The River Spean flows from Loch Laggan in a westerly direction to join the River Lochy at Gairlochy in the Great Glen in the West Highlands of Scotland.

The river is accompanied by the A86 road for almost its entire length, running from (upper) Loch Laggan west to Spean Bridge.

The West Highland Line crosses the river near Tulloch Station and follows its north bank before re-crossing one mile (1.5 kilometres) east of Spean Bridge.

[1] At the end of the last ice age, Glen Spean and Glen Roy contained lakes dammed by ice with a surface elevation of 260 metres (850 ft) at one point.

The ice dam collapsed catastrophically around 11,500 years ago and five cubic kilometres of floodwater appear to have drained along the line of the Spean gorge occupied by the modern river.