walkhighlands



I’m recruiting for Team Toad

Frogs or toads? A simple choice, one that I put to Twitter last week to gauge people’s feelings towards these two amphibians. I was motivated partly by the fact that the spring amphibian emergence is underway and I very much welcome their return, but mainly I was motivated by a desire to see to what proportion of people shared my preference. Just for the record, I do of course acknowledge that this is an absurdly reductionist way of looking at these two wonderful creatures. But yes, I hereby declare I am a fully paid up member of Team Toad. I…

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Nature

18 months of mildness – erm, is this normal?!

December. Oh thank goodness for December to end 2022!! Cold and icy, it offered up a truly memorable snowshoe excursion up Glen Derry and over Beinn Bhreac. -17C, alpenglow, sparkling hoar frost and not a breath of wind. Yep, December was marvellous. Okay, so the pipes in our house froze, but December’s icy breath was a welcome return to something approaching vaguely normal. By ‘normal’ in this sense I mean the traditional weather patterns of old, where we’d get colder than average months as well as warmer than average months. It seems incredible, even now, but if you’d told me…

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Posted in Features, Magazine

The Fife Coastal Path – it only took me 12 years!

It’s funny how moving homes motivates you to visit the things you thought you always would, but somehow never did. Those famous local places that you assumed would always be on your doorstep, but then one morning you wake up to find you have a completely new doorstep, and those hitherto local places…..aren’t. Earlier this year, after 12 years in Fife, I moved to Braemar. Obviously, I love my new doorstep. It’s the Cairngorms for goodness sake! But it’s also about as far from the coast as you can get, and I do miss having the sea close by. True,…

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Posted in Features, Magazine

How Mar Lodge very nearly became a ski resort

I recently had the good fortune to be working in Glen Quoich on three consecutive days. And on each of those occasions I took time to sit quietly among the veteran pines, with my coffee and lunch, and take-in the atmosphere of regenerating Caledonian woodland. It’s one of the most restful places I know. Indeed when we were released from our local authority lockdown limits during the Covid pandemic, this is the first place I visited. Now managed by the National Trust for Scotland, where better to be restored than the very place where restoration hangs in the air? Given…

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Nature

Midges and Keds, Clegs and Ticks. Oh my!

As the summer progresses and my skin plays host to various biting beasties, I find myself pondering which of them is the most infuriating. Which of them is most likely to sabotage my outdoors enjoyment? I have my own personal torments, but I’m curious what other people think about our wee beasties. Time therefore, for a famously unscientific poll to see how you, the outdoorsy folk, feel about them. I asked…. Which of these lovely wee critters traumatises you the most when you’re trying to enjoy Scotland’s great outdoors? There are of course a whole host of annoyances out there,…

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Nature

I’ve struck oil in the hills!

Everyone has their favourite Scottish animal, the one they’re always on the lookout for, the one that stops them in their tracks. But while I love a white-tailed eagle or a red squirrel as much as the next person, my favourite Scottish animal isn’t big, fluffy or familiar. It’s small, it’s uncommon and it’s downright weird. Erm…..it’s a beetle. Yes, I can hear your inward groans, but bear with me. It’s actually surprising to encounter something utterly alien. By that I mean, we’re all generally aware that insects are enormously varied in appearance but we nevertheless expect the ones we…

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Nature

In Between Days – the cure for winter blues?

As something of a winter enthusiast I have a hard time letting go of the coldest season, even when…as this winter has been…..it’s the warmest, least frosty and most snow-starved winter I’ve experienced since moving to the Lomond Hills in 2010. Under those trying circumstances I stubbornly ignore the exit signs for as long as possible, not least the big patch of snowdrops that appears outside the house. For weeks I have to pass it every morning, but I make a point of looking in the opposite direction as I do so because I’ve no interest in looking at flowers…

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Red Alert: Aurora Likely!

If any four words can make me spill my mug of tea on my legs as I leap up from the sofa, it’s these. If any four words can, in so doing, make me scald my delicates without stopping to check they’re okay, it’s these. If any four words can have me tripping over the death-trap of boots at the front door as I stumble blindly outside into the darkness whilst screwing my camera to its tripod with one hand, tying my laces with the other and simultaneously trying to pull a woolly hat down over my head…..yep, it’s these.…

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Posted in Features, Magazine

National Nature Reserves – Scotland’s Showrooms

I recently found myself stuck between a week’s holiday in Argyll and a week’s holiday in Glen Cannich. Between getting kicked out of one cottage and being able to check in to the next were seven long (and very soggy) hours. Factor in a 3.5hr drive and an hour faffing about in a Fort William supermarket and I’d be left with about 3 hours to kill. Now, if you’re an outdoorsy person then killing three hours on the west coast is unlikely to be a chore or a challenge. You’re spoilt for choice, but I really wanted to continue the…

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Posted in Features, Magazine, Nature

Go on. Give moths a chance

On a warm dark night this summer, I found myself sat next to a glowing bright white ball in the garden, sunglasses over my eyes, watching moths of all sizes disappear into a big black box. Yes, I was getting eaten alive by mozzies and midges but I really didn’t care, because this was one of the undisputed wildlife highlights of my life. That might strike you as odd, given moths’ underwhelming reputation, but bear with me! Until relatively recently I have no memory whatsoever of peering closely at a moth or even being remotely motivated to do so. What…

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Posted in Magazine, News


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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.