Walking/Climbing
With its stunning and varied scenery, this area is a walker’s paradise. There is a collection of different level-of-dfficulty walks around lochs and hills, ranging in length from 3 to 30 miles. There are also delightful coastal routes as well as climbs on the famous ancient sandstone hills of Stac Pollaidh, Cul Mor, Suilven and the munros of  Ben More Assynt and Conival.

Twenty-one miles away on the cliffs at Reiff is some of the best rock climbing in Scotland. The cliffs are well known in climbing circles and many people come to this area for the challenge. The area offers an amazing array of steep sandstone sea cliffs, many of which are non-tidal. There are several different areas, with walk-ins ranging from 5 minutes to one hour.

There is a self catering cottage, Naismith Hut, used by climbers & walkers in the north of Elphin village.

Trout & Salmon fishing
Elphin is a celebrated trout fishing location, surrounded by such famous lochs as Veyatie, Cam Loch, Urigill and Borralan. Loch Veyatie and Cam offer the opportunity to catch the elusive Ferrox and Artic Char whose population has survived intact since the last Ice Age. Some of the lochs, for example Cam Loch, Veyatie, Ailsh and Awe, are fished on the Assynt Angling Group permit. Further information (including handy maps) can be found here.

Caving
Situated on limestone, the areas around Elphin (and north to Inchnadamph) are littered with caves. The Grampian Speleological Group has a club hut and caving centre, Taigh nam Famh, in Elphin.  The Centre has self catering accommodation for up to 20 people at very reasonable rates. More information can be found on the GSG website.

Archaeology
The May 2009 the find of a Pleistocene bear skeleton in the Inchnadamph caves has revealed brown bears were still active in the region 23,600 years ago. This is the earliest brown bear remains ever discovered in Scotland. It was previously considered to be too cold for brown bears still to be in the area however now it appears they were trapped there by ice-covered mountains to their south.

There is also more recent archaeological evidence to see around the area.