I’ve travelled a fair bit around the world and the one thing I keep encountering again and again, no matter what country I’m in, is the superlative settlement. That is to say, those tiny towns or villages with superlative claims to fame. The tiniest church, the longest slide, the highest chimney, the angriest lama. Often they’re dreamed up or made in a deliberate attempt to get people to stop in a town, but some lucky wee places are blessed with the genuine article. Fortingall in Perthshire is one such place but frankly you’d never know it if you were just…

I spend a lot of my time outdoors alone, and I wouldn’t want to change that. I value the solitude, even the loneliness when it comes, it allows me to process some of the flotsam and jetsam I don’t pay enough attention to ordinarily. It also allows room for personal challenges – changing what’s achievable on my own terms. But after I met a few more like minded reprobates on a Mountaineering Council of Scotland course recently, I was prompted to think about all the people I’ve met through hillwalking, and what a huge difference they’ve made. The hills have…

Come autumn, the hills in Scotland look as empty of snow as anywhere else in Great Britain. And yet, there are some special places hidden from view where winter stubbornly hangs on despite the passage of summer. And, quite unexpectedly, the snow that falls in those places only rarely melts. These long-lasting ghosts of winter, which vary in size from mere pin pricks to enormous things the size and volume of buses, are Scotland’s famous snow patches. They’re a source of fascination and curiosity for most folk who wander the hills during the warmer months, and I’m no exception. I’ll…

IT began as a minor irritant at the end of a great day on Bidean nam Bian. It was the beginning of summer as I wandered down through Coire an Lochan and became aware of an irritating pain on the inside of my knee. Within a couple of days the pain had reduced to a dull ache. A couple of weeks later I was filming with the BBC on the Isle of Arran. As part of the programme we climbed Goat Fell and such is the nature of filming that we took our time, stopping every so often to position…

Linda Cracknell is an-award winning writer based in the Scottish Highlands and known for her creative approach to exploring wild places and man’s interaction with them. Walkhighlands will be publishing a specially-commissioned piece emphasising the cultural aspects of the Scottish landscape on a quarterly basis. ‘I think I’ve fallen in love,’ Kate said, less than 24 hours into our enchantment. We were sitting on a small hill on the island’s south east corner, looking north towards the village, the ferry plying to and fro from Fionnphort, the abbey sunlit and watchful beyond. To the south-east the archipelago of islands and…

On one of my days off last week I went to the beach. That’s not unusual in itself, seeing as I live in Fife. We have 117 miles of coastline right here with glorious sandy beaches and wide open vistas. But sometimes, when I know the sun will be shining and the skies will be blue, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than on the west coast with its irresistible mix of beaches, hills, rocks and islands. My destination for the day was therefore the stretch of coastline between Arisaig and Morar. A long drive from Fife I admit, but as…

A number of years ago I made a television programme with the late Chris Brasher. The idea was that we’d take a multi-day walk in the Cairngorms and discuss how wild landscapes had affected his life, an extraordinary life as an athlete, Olympic gold medallist and an enthusiastic mountaineer and hillwalker. Shortly after he arrived in Aviemore Chris asked if we minded if he disappeared for a day during the week. He had a horse running at Punchestown races near Dublin and he wanted to go and see it. As you can imagine this posed considerable problems for our filming…