Glen Docherty is a glen

Glen

A glen is a valley, typically one that is long, deep, and often glacially U-shaped; or one with a watercourse running through such a valley. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower than a strath."...

 (valley) in Wester Ross

Wester Ross

is a western area of Ross and Cromarty in Scotland, notably containing the villages on the west coast such as:* Lochcarron* Applecross* Shieldaig* Torridon* Kinlochewe * * * Aultbea* Laide* Ullapool* Achiltibuie...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, between Loch Maree

Loch Maree

Loch Maree is a loch in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. At long and with a maximum width of , it is the fourth largest freshwater loch in Scotland; it is the largest north of Loch Ness. Its surface area is ....

 and Kinlochewe

Kinlochewe

Kinlochewe is a village in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. It is in the parish of Gairloch, the community of Torridon and Kinlochewe and the Highland Council area. It lies near the head of Loch Maree in its magnificent valley, and serves as a junction between the main Ullapool...

 to the west and Loch a'Chroisg and Achnasheen

Achnasheen

Achnasheen is a small village in Ross-shire in the Highland council area of Scotland. Despite the size of the village, Achnasheen is also the name of a postal district which covers several much larger communities. This dates from the time when the village railway station was an important stop on...

 to the east.

The A832 road runs through the glen, which runs between the peaks of Carn a'Ghlinne (539 metres (1,768.4 ft)) to the north and Carn Loisgte (446 metres (1,463.3 ft)) to the south. Until recently this was a single track road

Single track road

A single-track road or one-lane road is a road that permits two-way travel but is not wide enough in most places to allow vehicles to pass one another . This kind of road is common in rural areas across the United Kingdom and elsewhere...

 with passing places, but 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) of the road has now been upgraded to double track.

Formation

Volcanic activity in this region ceased about 50 million years ago, after which the landscape was shaped by glaciation from about 1.8 million years ago to the end of the Great Ice Age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

 about 10,000 years ago. The U-shaped glen of Glen Docherty is typical of a glen formed by the action of glaciers.