walkhighlands

Magazine

Five years of Radical Road closure marked with call for urgent action

Campaigners today marked the fifth anniversary of Edinburgh’s Radical Road closure with an urgent call for Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to “see sense”.  HES shut the iconic 200-year-old path on 11 September 2018 due to concerns about rockfall. It is one of the most popular ways up Arthur’s Seat – Edinburgh’s top attraction on TripAdvisor – yet five years on, it remains blocked and ringed by ugly fencing.  Stakeholders including Ramblers Scotland, Cockburn Association, Edinburgh Geological Society, Mountaineering Scotland and ScotWays are urging HES to make a more holistic assessment of risks.   They want HES to weigh the low risk

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Posted in Access issues, Magazine, News

Scaling a Kashmiri peak 45 years ago and literally walking all the way around Edinburgh

August turned out to offer plenty of Scottish walking opportunities with loads of great reports hitting the Walkhighlands forum. Every month, two winning Walk Reports are chosen, with the winner taking £100 of vouchers to spend at Highlander, with £50 of vouchers to the runner up, and this month’s winners are a bit different ….

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Posted in Features, Magazine, News

Exploring Scotland’s Wild Blue Spaces

Everest summiter, Antarctic adventurer and guidebook author Mollie Hughes explains how she came to love Scotland’s watery landscapes. It was in the dark depths of lockdown that the idea to write a guidebook to Scotland’s wild blue spaces first entered my mind. When access to the outdoors, to adventure, was taken away and I was restrained to my small flat in Edinburgh, I began to crave the open spaces of Scotland. My book, Blue Scotland, was born out of this craving for open, wild, blue spaces, it is an inspirational guide to adventures into Scotland’s waters, our coastlines, lochs, rivers

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Our picks: 10 walks you can reach by train

Whether you have no car, are trying to minimise your impact on the environment, or are just looking to save the stress of driving and instead enjoy the comfort of relaxing on a train rather than face driving home with tired legs, Scotland’s railways can help you reach some truly superb walks in comfort. In this article sponsored by ScotRail, we choose ten great walks you can reach by train, scattered all around the country. Birnam Hill (Dunkeld / Birnam) Walk the walk This superb circular walk climbs up over beautifully-wooded Birnam Hill. It offers superb views over the surrounding

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Deadwood: When are you going to tidy up?

“All those trees that were blown over. Are you going to do anything with them?” It’s a question I occasionally get asked by visitors to the ranger hut. Storm Arwen did for quite a few big old trees along the Dee, and almost two years later they still lie where they fell. Folk are always really nice about it, enquiring politely and sincerely, but you know what they’re essentially asking is: “When are you going to tidy up?” I do understand how, from a conventional aesthetic point of view, dead trees might look a bit jarring in an otherwise ‘ordered’,

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Wild History – Journeys into Lost Scotland

Acclaimed author and presenter of BBC’s ‘Scotland from the Sky‘ James Crawford introduces his favourite abandoned or ruined sites across Scotland, many of which can be visited as part of a walking exploration. Today, we live almost entirely among the physical impression and presence of the past. Often it emerges in the shapes of our towns and cities; in the ways our fields look; in the bare reaches of our sheep-wandered hills and moorlands. Some ancient or historical sites have even been afforded special status, segregated from the present to be offered up as preserved, curated ruins and tourist attractions;

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Gear Review: Waterproof Jackets for 2023

Waterproof jackets are one of the most important (and expensive) bits of outdoor kit. We’ve put a range of jackets through their paces during an increasingly wet Scottish spring and summer. All of them are made from layered fabric, basically an outer woven layer, usually treated with a water repellent coating, bonded to waterproof membrane (Gore-tex is the best known brand here; many of these products contain PFC/PTFE “forever chemicals”) – this construction is referred to as 2-layer and will normally have a liner to protect it. On 2.5-layer fabric an additional coating is applied to the membrane itself to

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Posted in Gear reviews, Jackets, Magazine

Gaelic and understanding Scotland’s landscape

Calum Maclean is a presenter, writer and film-maker, currently to be seen on SpeakGaelic on BBC ALBA. I grew up speaking Gaelic, first in the Isle of Skye and then Inverness. As a family, we spent many holidays walking in the hills and exploring Scotland. Maybe not that much has changed for me as an adult! I still remember a family trip walking the Làirig Dhrù, camping by a burn, getting eaten by midgies and drenched in a downpour on the last day. Great memories, which are still strong today. I think it was these opportunities that really instilled an

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Posted in Features, Magazine

Fisherfield highs and bagging error lows

Phew! June was quite the month weather wise across Scotland, and the seemingly endless sunshine led to you submitting a bumper bundle of 238 walk reports through the month. Every month, two winning Walk Reports are chosen from the Walkhighlands forum, with the winner taking £100 of vouchers to spend at Highlander Outdoors, with £50 of vouchers to the runner up. The June winner was jimbell21 for his report of a memorable wild-camp on Scotland’s most remote Munros – Fisherfield 6 – summit camp & inversion on A’ Mhaighdean. What a sensational trip – paid for by a potentially terrifying dunking

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Posted in Magazine, News, Walkhighlands news

Record for fastest Munro round smashed by Jamie Aarons

Hill runner Jamie Aarons has smashed the record for a continuous round of the Munros. She summitted her final Munro, Ben Klibreck just before 5pm today, 26th June – in a time of 31 days, 10 hours and 27 minutes. Jamie began her round on May 26 at 6:30am on the Isle of Mull. Her round was undertaken on foot, bike and kayak. The route involved 1,315km of running and another 1,249km of cycling, 11km of kayaking, with a total of over 120,000m of ascent. The previous record was set by Donnie Campbell who completed the round in just over 31

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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.