walkhighlands

Features

Brown Hares – My Companion Animals

I’ve had my trail camera out at home recently. Now it’s getting colder, I’ve been investigating what creatures are milling about outside the house, in search of warmth or food. Last winter there were various rodents and shrews sneaking under the porch door, so I rather expected to see something similar this time. Maybe a red squirrel foraging nearby. Tawny owls on the fence posts. Or, given they have left conspicuous scat on the road, pine martens. But no. After the first night, I looked through the new videos and they all showed one of two brown hares, nibbling grass

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Nature

What’s your favourite coire in Scotland?

“We need a couple of volunteers next week to walk into Garbh Choire”, said our conservation manager. My ears pricked up. It would doubtless be a tiring day, as we’d be retrieving some 1t bags, wooden stakes and rolls of wire netting. But I jumped at the chance because, for some reason, I’d never actually visited An Garbh Choire. To my considerable shame, I might add, given its reputation as a grand and wild place, the home of the Sphinx (Scotland’s most famous snow patch), and it simply being the gnarliest, farthest flung corner of my office. Sandwiched between Braeriach

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Our picks: Glasgow walks by public transport

Tips for using Walkhighlands Whether you are using the free Walkhighlands app that lets you download our detailed route descriptions and GPS mapping for use offline, or just using the website, when doing any walk search you can specify if you are looking for walks that are accessible by public transport – just tick the ‘advanced search’ box to bring up the option. You can search for walks in any specific area, but here are our ideas for 10 walks you can reach from Glasgow. Walking using public transport in Scotland does take a bit more effort to plan your

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Our picks

Scaling a Kashmiri peak 45 years ago and literally walking all the way around Edinburgh

August turned out to offer plenty of Scottish walking opportunities with loads of great reports hitting the Walkhighlands forum. Every month, two winning Walk Reports are chosen, with the winner taking £100 of vouchers to spend at Highlander, with £50 of vouchers to the runner up, and this month’s winners are a bit different ….

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Posted in Features, Magazine, News

Exploring Scotland’s Wild Blue Spaces

Everest summiter, Antarctic adventurer and guidebook author Mollie Hughes explains how she came to love Scotland’s watery landscapes. It was in the dark depths of lockdown that the idea to write a guidebook to Scotland’s wild blue spaces first entered my mind. When access to the outdoors, to adventure, was taken away and I was restrained to my small flat in Edinburgh, I began to crave the open spaces of Scotland. My book, Blue Scotland, was born out of this craving for open, wild, blue spaces, it is an inspirational guide to adventures into Scotland’s waters, our coastlines, lochs, rivers

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Our picks: 10 walks you can reach by train

Whether you have no car, are trying to minimise your impact on the environment, or are just looking to save the stress of driving and instead enjoy the comfort of relaxing on a train rather than face driving home with tired legs, Scotland’s railways can help you reach some truly superb walks in comfort. In this article sponsored by ScotRail, we choose ten great walks you can reach by train, scattered all around the country. Birnam Hill (Dunkeld / Birnam) Walk the walk This superb circular walk climbs up over beautifully-wooded Birnam Hill. It offers superb views over the surrounding

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Deadwood: When are you going to tidy up?

“All those trees that were blown over. Are you going to do anything with them?” It’s a question I occasionally get asked by visitors to the ranger hut. Storm Arwen did for quite a few big old trees along the Dee, and almost two years later they still lie where they fell. Folk are always really nice about it, enquiring politely and sincerely, but you know what they’re essentially asking is: “When are you going to tidy up?” I do understand how, from a conventional aesthetic point of view, dead trees might look a bit jarring in an otherwise ‘ordered’,

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Wild History – Journeys into Lost Scotland

Acclaimed author and presenter of BBC’s ‘Scotland from the Sky‘ James Crawford introduces his favourite abandoned or ruined sites across Scotland, many of which can be visited as part of a walking exploration. Today, we live almost entirely among the physical impression and presence of the past. Often it emerges in the shapes of our towns and cities; in the ways our fields look; in the bare reaches of our sheep-wandered hills and moorlands. Some ancient or historical sites have even been afforded special status, segregated from the present to be offered up as preserved, curated ruins and tourist attractions;

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Gaelic and understanding Scotland’s landscape

Calum Maclean is a presenter, writer and film-maker, currently to be seen on SpeakGaelic on BBC ALBA. I grew up speaking Gaelic, first in the Isle of Skye and then Inverness. As a family, we spent many holidays walking in the hills and exploring Scotland. Maybe not that much has changed for me as an adult! I still remember a family trip walking the Làirig Dhrù, camping by a burn, getting eaten by midgies and drenched in a downpour on the last day. Great memories, which are still strong today. I think it was these opportunities that really instilled an

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Duncan Chisholm interview: music and a sense of place

Duncan Chisholm is perhaps the best known Scottish fiddler of his generation. With an intense personal connection to the Highland landscape that so deeply inspires him, Duncan instils pride and passion into recording music influenced by Scotland’s wild places – most recently on his latest album, Black Cuillin. We were lucky enough to catch one of Duncan’s recent concerts with Hamish Napier earlier this month, and asked Duncan about how the landscape and such a strong sense of place feeds into his work. Three of your albums – Farrar, Canaich and Affric – form the Strathglass trilogy, all being close

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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.