walkhighlands



Start and End at Home

With Scotland’s mountains resplendent in their white winter coats, David Lintern looks at winters past. Did he make good decisions, or was he just lucky? I love winter. I love everything about it – the challenge, the wild weather, that light, a land made strange and alien under snow. And yes, the extra risk. But in 2018, I was confronted with the less palatable side of that fascination. My friend Stef suggested a 3-day trip around some of the harder to reach bits of the Highlands – a few Corbetts and Munros in Monar, including Lurg Mhòr and Bidein a’

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Culbin Sands of Time

David Lintern investigates the beaches and forests of Culbin Sands, a perfect place for family adventures with a fascinating past. Unsurprisingly perhaps, Walkhighlands spends a fair amount of time in Scotland’s high lands, but you can’t be in the mountains every day of the year, and the Highlands is about far more than hills. Our nearest coastline stretches out from Inverness along the Moray firth, somewhere my family and I are slowly learning more about. My other half loves the wide horizons and the sound of the sea, especially. There’s a quiet and curious mix of fishing villages, heavy industry,

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Cape Wrath Trail photobook launched to benefit Ukraine appeal

A new book mixing landscape and portrait photography with stories from one of Scotland’s longest walks is to be published, with all proceeds donated to refugee relief efforts in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Thunder Road – voices from the Cape Wrath Trail features portrait and landscape images that photographer and writer (and Walkhighlands regular) David Lintern made while walking the trail in May 2021, alongside the personal testimonies of those he photographed – both visitor and resident. The 240 mile Cape Wrath Trail begins in Fort William and ends at the lighthouse at the most north-westerly point of Scotland, Ministry of

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Photography

Heavy Whalley – a life of service

Heavy Whalley has spent a life in love with the hills and in the service of others, holding key roles in Mountain Search and Rescue over several decades. David Lintern met up for a chat. Please introduce yourself. My name is David ‘Heavy’ Whalley. I was born in Ayr and brought up to love the mountains and wild places. I was a bit of a wild kid and there were very few jobs about in Ayrshire at that time. I joined the RAF in 1971. Where did your passion for the mountains start? My Dad and Mum gave me a huge love

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Posted in Features, Magazine

A rich mix

David Lintern rounds out the weirdest of years with a quiet walk through a multi-storied landscape. Today, I’m hitting the pause button. There’s a brief lull in my schedule that coincides with a break in the weather, a benign day between early winter storms, with slowly clearing skies and a thaw after the first big dump of snow. Maybe even a glimpse of sun? After the year we’ve had, I’ll take it. I’ve long had an eye on a giant cleft on the map, a sort of secret doorway to the plateau of the central highlands. Given the recent access

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Telling your trees from the wood

Enjoy forest bathing but don’t know your mountain ash from your downy birch? Never fear – fellow botanical ignoramus David Lintern has a beginner’s guide. Over the summer, we went camping with the kids on the moors, pitching up for a couple of days near a small burn. After a brief but rigorous interrogation that any parent will recognise, I realised I had no clue what the slightly scrappy looking trees that lined the banks were. It’s embarrassing to admit, but no surprise really – I grew up surrounded by bricks and concrete, far from where I stay now, and

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Nature

Safe as Houses

David Lintern celebrates the humble mountain shelter, past and present. As intimated in the close of my last piece here, I found it impossible to walk from Fort William to the Cape without reflecting on the past inhabitants of the glens we walked through. On the way, we passed many bothies I’d not yet visited; real highlights of the walk for me. While these buildings were officially closed due the pandemic, doing a long walk like the Cape Wrath Trail reiterates just how important these shelters are from a mountain safety point of view – there were days when we

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Lessons from the Cape Wrath Trail

In May 2021, regular Walkhighlands columnist David Lintern walked over 200 miles from Fort William to Cape Wrath. Here’s a few things he wished he’d known at the start. The long walk to the Cape means different things to different people; a challenge, a pilgrimage, a journey of discovery, an escape from the norm, a test of endurance, willpower and fitness. People generally start in Fort William and finish at the Cape Wrath lighthouse, although we met a fair number who were heading in the opposite direction. Is it the toughest trail in the UK, as it’s often billed? I’ve

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Posted in Features, Magazine

The colour of spring

David Lintern walks out of lockdown with a Black Dog. (What shall we doWith all this useless beauty?The stuff that can’t be harnessedTo the yoke of productivity,Or another ideology.) With restrictions relaxed, I’m content to head north and camp again. I’ve unfinished business in the Fannichs, and want to catch the last snows. This time, I’m ‘extreme camping’. I have forgotten the hot drinks bag, so it’s snowmelt only; a suitable beverage for this particular pilgrimage. It’s been a year since I was last here. My friend and I left in a hurry, as high winds and lockdown stopped us

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Going further: Planning for long distance walks

Getting your head around preparation for a big trip can be confusing. David Lintern takes it step by step… Over the coming months, we’re all looking forward to a little more freedom to travel and more outdoor exploration, but where to start, after what might well be a year away from the hills? A brief glance at the Long-Distance Route page on Walkhighlands is more than enough to whet the appetite, and the first and most obvious to say is not all long walks are created equal. Some require lots of logistical wrangling, others are more straightforward. Walkers on the

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Posted in Features, Magazine


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You should always carry a backup means of navigation and not rely on a single phone, app or map. Walking can be dangerous and is done entirely at your own risk. Information is provided free of charge; it is every walker's responsibility to check it and to navigate safely.