Climbing the steep path and numerous uneven stone-slab steps through deeply moss-covered Puck’s Glen on the Cowal Peninsula, it is easy to imagine I have been transported to another world. Is that the hushed voices of mischievous sprites casting their devilish magic or simply the wind whispering through the tall forest trees? Perhaps I might hear a little better – and learn more of the mysteries – in this fairy-tale location if it was not for the background of burbling and splashing water from the many waterfalls that cascade through the gorge. Of course, these thoughts are purely fantasy, although…

Of all the traumas that summer inflicts upon a pale, midge-and-tick-attracting ginger who is forced to skulk around in the shadows for months on end, hay fever is by far the worst. But while I’ve had my fair share of horrendous seasons in the 38 years since I was diagnosed I can’t remember experiencing anything quite like I’ve experienced this year. Is it just me or is 2017 a really bad year for hay fever? Given the individual nature of the condition I’m well aware that my own experience might not be representative, so I’ve resorted to one of my…

‘Now I see the secret of making the best persons, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.’ Walt Whitman ‘Here’s a question,’ the Geography teacher leading our group said. ‘How many words can we think of for the sound a burn makes?’ We now had something to focus on as 14 teenagers and four adults picked our way silently up a steep section of the burn from the shore of Loch an Daimh (Glen Lyon) towards the corrie where we’d eventually find Lochan na Cat reflecting a bright disc of blue,…

The insect world is a bit marmite really. I’ve met a good number of people who adore insects more than they adore the furriest, softest koala bear. But then I’ve met plenty of people who loathe insects with every fibre of their being, who would purge the entire planet of every last creepy crawly if they could. Of course, the entire planetary ecosystem would collapse if they got their way so let’s just be thankful that none of them have found a genie in a lamp and wished all those bugs away. But my general impression is that the majority…

Cameron McNeish discovers that a head knock had much more serious consequences than he first thought. IT all seemed fairly innocuous. The gutters on our house needed clearing and I figured it would be an easy job to stand on a ladder with a hosepipe and get the job done. I cleared the gutters and was about to descend the ladder when whatever happened next happened. I had fallen off the ladder (the ladder had actually slipped and I came down with it) and on the way down I banged my head off the harled wall, which tore the skin…

In my opinion, there are few glens in Scotland as dramatic as Torridon and a drive along the road that winds through the base of the glacier-eroded valley is always breath-taking. No matter the season or the weather – and in this wilderness area of Scotland it can be fast-changing and fickle – the steep-sided, rugged mountainscape of ancient Lewisian gneiss, white quartzite and red Torridonian sandstone offers magnificent views. It is a place, too, where the pace is more old-fashioned and relaxed. Both locals and visitors willingly pull into passing places on the smoothly tarmacked singletrack A896, which winds…