Advice Needed

[Nick Cannon]

I'm new to this website but it seems excellent for me to get more involved in hill/mountain walking.
I'm hoping I would be able to get some suggestions on good routes to take. I'm 17 and I've been involved in DoE(Silver) and the Cadets so my navigation skills are fairly competent. Wild camping is what I'm looking for and if possible routes accessible by public transport (not a necessity.) Any suggestions would be helpful

[jmarkb]

Welcome to WH!

Can you help us narrow down the options a bit? Where do you live? How many days walking are you looking for? Do you want low level walking or do you want to include summits?

I've been involved in DoE(Silver) and the Cadets so my navigation skills are fairly competent

I hope they are better than the average DoE candidate!

[Nick Cannon]

I live in the east end of Glasgow so obviously not in the heart of the country side. Walking time anywhere between 2-3days , not massive distances but something that I can challenge myself on as well as easier walks that I can take my time with. I would like to start off low level walking so I can build up my confidence and then gradually build up to bigger summits. I've summited Ben Macdui while on adventurous training, although it was mid October so I couldn't see 5feet in front of me because of fog. For my Silver qualifying walk we walked the infamous Lairig Ghru and then connected onto another route. Something similar to that (maybe a little less difficult) would great.

Hope that helps

[Caberfeidh]

The Cairngorms are great for long-distance hiking, with good paths and a drier climate than the west coast. Ryvoan, Loch A'an, Glen Derry, Glen Lui and Glen Feshie are all good places to go hiking and camping. Aviemore is the easy access point, with bus, train and car access. Once you are there you can hitch-hike out to the nice places for hiking. Arran has some good terrain but is a bit seriously high and cliffy for the new kid, likewise Skye. The Galloway Hills in Ayrshire have some wild places but are a bit tricky to get to with lousy public transport. A good book for some home study is "Hillwalking and Scrambling" by Steve Ashton, available from Amazon for much cheapness. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hillwalking-Scrambling-Steve-Ashton/dp/094628458X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529404399&sr=8-1&keywords=Hillwalking+and+Scrambling+by+Steve+Ashton

Buchaille Etive Mhor in the background, camping near Glen Coe.

Glen Luibeg, Cairngorms

[Nick Cannon]

Thanks a bunch I'll be sure to check them out and hopefully get some decent pictures. I'll also be sure to invest in the book as well, knowledge is power!!!

[thatweebirdie]

If you wanted to start with a bit of limbering up, we have the John Muir Way running from Helensburgh across to Dunbar with pretty good transport links, at least on our side of the country; and the Three Lochs Way; there's also the Southern Upland Way - you can get a train to Sanquar from Glasgow Central as a starting point. And there's the WHW of course, but that might be a bit over-populated if you're looking for something a bit more off the beaten track.

Good luck with it, my son is busting to start Explorers so he can get cracking on his DoE, unfortunately for him he's got another two years burning his shirt on a campfire in Scouts before they let him loose on a hillside.

[Fiona Reid]

As you're Glasgow based how about train to Spean Bridge then walk back to Rannoch Station. That's about 42km. It's all on roads or tracks but you'll be walking close to various Munros and Corbetts so could easily add one on if you fancied. You'd also pass several bothies and Corrour Station so would have options for shelter or bailing early, plus you would past Loch Ossian Youth Hostel so could book in there to guarantee a dry sleep. I suspect you could easily deo this over two days but if you added on hill or took your time then you could stretch to 3 days.

[jmarkb]

The Long Distance walks detailed on this site at https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/long-distance-routes.shtml would be a good place to start looking for inspiration: you can do as many or few sections as you like. The route finding on these is mostly straightforward, so it would be a good way to gain some experience and confidence. As said above, you might want to avoid the most popular ones (West highland Way in particular, possibly Great Glen Way too).

[Nick Cannon]

unfortunately for him he's got another two years burning his shirt on a campfire in Scouts before they let him loose on a hillside.

Let's hope that he doesn't burn his shirt over a campifire once he does start, otherwise he might find DoE difficult!

[Nick Cannon]

Thanks for all of the brilliant suggestions people!!