The not quite but almost naked rambler

[Graeme D]

I know if was fairly warm in the Ochils today, but coming off the summit of Whitewisp Hill in the direction of Innerdownie we were passed by a gentleman wearing nothing but his boots, a navy blue baseball cap and a pair of matching navy blue budgie smugglers!

[Hillbeback]

Living in Falkirk the Ochils are my local hills. I've been up Innerdownie etc many times but never been graced with such a sight as you got today Graeme So we have a naked rambler amongst us. Wonder if he went to the Tormaukin Inn afterwards for a drink

[Dave Hewitt]

It might or might not be this chap back in action - a well-known Ochils character over many years:

https://www.scotsman.com/news/naked-rambler-who-roamed-ochils-admonished-indecency-1455014

[Plug]

In 2020, I passed a naked rambler with rucksac at the head of the Glenwinnel Burn path. He was coming down to join the path off Craighorn and I suspect he had not seen me ascending the path.

Anyway, our paths crossed, we exchanced 'Good mornings' and went on our way. This is my only experience of such a thing in 50+ years of walking the Scottish hills. It was not threatening or dangerous, just unusual.

[HalfManHalfTitanium]

Living in Falkirk the Ochils are my local hills. I've been up Innerdownie etc many times but never been graced with such a sight as you got today Graeme So we have a naked rambler amongst us. Wonder if he went to the Tormaukin Inn afterwards for a drink

I wonder how much winter walking he does!

[Graeme D]

Aye. That's our chap. The description fits - clothing colour, age profile e.t c. He did have that air of wealthy eccentricity. I was with my daughter and the dog as well as my friend Bruce and his young son. The kids didn't know where to look! The chap seemed quite at ease and happily responded to my cheery "Grand day for this kind of thing eh!?" The only thing that fazed him was when Luna barked and ran towards him with hackles raised and I had to call her in. Can't imagine why she reacted in such an unusual manner! We actually saw the guy later, fully clothed and on an old bike down in Burnfoot near the end of the walk.

[denfinella]

A bit different, but I once came across a barefoot walker with no rucksack on Braid Cairn - a mostly pathless, 887-metre summit east of Mount Keen. It was a baking hot, summer's day, and we were miles from the nearest road. No idea how he kept hydrated or looked after his feet!

[Caberfeidh]

It's all very entertaining and "eccentric" when these guys do it, but apparently when I do it, it's all "You are no longer welcome at the Kingshouse Hotel/Clachaig Inn/Sligachan Hotel, etc."

[Giant Stoneater]

A few years ago we encountered a naked rambler who was in their late fifties/sixties on the Glen Douglas Hills who seemed quite a eccentric person and going by the tattoos he had did indicate something out the ordinary.
I had a look inside his campervan and when i got home done some research, i found out that he was updating the Graham's book for Cicerone Press, i also found out that he had been walking naked throughout the countryside at home and abroad for a number of years while updating the Cicerone Press guide books, cannot recall what his name was.

[ChrisButch]

My only experience of this kind (though it was enough to last a lifetime) was many years ago on the Pyrenean Haute Route. We were slogging, heavily laden, up a pass on a hot day. Rounding a hairpin we were suddenly confronted by a lady 'of a certain age' in boots and sunhat, carrying an iceaxe in one hand and a bunch of alpine lilies in the other. No other artefact of any kind about her person.

[denfinella]

It's all very entertaining and "eccentric" when these guys do it, but apparently when I do it, it's all "You are no longer welcome at the Kingshouse Hotel/Clachaig Inn/Sligachan Hotel, etc."

It's a bit different when you're wielding a large axe and lurching out at passing guests' limbs

[nigheandonn]

Obviously he should have had a bunch of lilies in the other hand!

[Colin1951]

It's all very entertaining and "eccentric" when these guys do it, but apparently when I do it, it's all "You are no longer welcome at the Kingshouse Hotel/Clachaig Inn/Sligachan Hotel, etc."

I seem to remember the Kingshouse used to have a sequence of photos of a (American, I think) climber soloing something on Rannoch Wall of the Buchaille, naked apart from boots and crampons….in those days they might just have given you a towel to cover the critical bits!

[EmilyD]

A few years ago, OH and I were having a leisurely lunch on the ridge atop Sgurr Dearg, next to the Inn Pin, not far from the bottom of the abseil, before ambling downwards to climb it. Suddenly, a man wearing nothing but approach shoes and Y-fronts appeared at the top of the Inn Pin, soloed down the VS that's in line with the ab in a matter of seconds, then ran off towards Sgurr na Bannadich.

Baffled, I said to OH, "I think I just saw a naked man downclimb the Inn Pin and run away."

He said, "I saw him too," which confirmed that I wasn't hallucinating.

[EmilyD]

It's all very entertaining and "eccentric" when these guys do it, but apparently when I do it, it's all "You are no longer welcome at the Kingshouse Hotel/Clachaig Inn/Sligachan Hotel, etc."

I seem to remember the Kingshouse used to have a sequence of photos of a (American, I think) climber soloing something on Rannoch Wall of the Buchaille, naked apart from boots and crampons….in those days they might just have given you a towel to cover the critical bits!

That photo is in the Clachaig now, titled "Five points of contact."