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Our picks

Our pick – Scotland’s mountain corries

Corries are ice-gouged bowls carved into the side of mountains by glaciers during the last ice age. Often ringed by crags and sometimes cradling a lochan, corries are often known as cirques in the Alps and Pyrenees, combs in the English Lake District, and cyms in Wales; the Scots version comes from the original Gaelic word coire. There are hundreds of them all over Scotland; here’s our pick of some of the finest, including both some of the most celebrated and also some lesser known surprises. Coire Ardair, Creag Meagaidh This magnificent corrie is the great showplace of Creag Meagaidh,…

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Our pick: Glasgow’s street murals

Our latest new urban walk is an exploration of some of Glasgow’s stunning street murals. These impressive creations decorate blank end walls and vacant buildings and help to tranform otherwise less attractive corners of the city into striking public art works. The full walking route giving directions to see all these and more can be visited here: Glasgow Murals Trail. This new mural on High Street was created early in 2016 by the Australian born street artist Smug (Sam Bates) – renowned for his photo-realistic style. The Argyle Street Cafe mural is another work by Smug. It replaces an earlier…

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Locations from Roads Less Travelled: West Highlands Part 2

Many of you will have watched the Adventure Show Special programmes, Roads Less Travelled: The West Highlands, presented by Cameron McNeish. The programmes are currently still available on the BBC iplayer. This second of our galleries for the programmes features locations seen in the second episode. You can see the locations for the first episode on this link. Aird of Sleat, Isle of Skye The second episode began on the Isle of Skye, with Cameron travelling to the Aird of Sleat and cycling the track down towards the Point of Sleat – before wildcamping nearby. Kylerhea – Glenelg ferry Cameron…

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Locations from Roads Less Travelled: The West Highlands Part 1

Many of you will have watched the Adventure Show Special programmes, Roads Less Travelled: The West Highlands, presented by Cameron McNeish. The programmes are currently still available on the BBC iplayer. If you wanted to explore some of the locations in the programmes yourself, then have a look at the gallery below. Isle of Luing Cameron’s journey started at the picturesque former quarrying village of Cullipool on the Isle of Luing. He followed a walk around the coastline of the island past the quarries – this route is featured on Walkhighlands as our Isle of Luing and the Slate Quarries…

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Our pick – Boxing Day walks

With Christmas upon us, here’s our pick of Boxing Day walks that may help you digest all that over indulgence – or perhaps escape your least favourite relative! Allermuir Hill and Swanson, Pentland Hills, Edinburgh At the time of writing a white Christmas doesn’t look very likely, but whatever the temperature Allermuir Hill offers the most stunning views over Edinburgh. The nearest of the Pentland Hills to the city, Allermuir is within easy reach for a great many people for their Boxing Day jaunt. Benarty Hill, Fife Though it may be smaller than its neighbours amongst the Lomonds, Benarty Hill…

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Gallery: Scotland’s largest freshwater lochs

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond, its bonnie banks famously celebrated in song, is Britain’s largest freshwater lake by area, stretching over 71 square kilometres. The loch is at the heart of Scotland’s busiest National Park, and has many islands, including Inchmurrin – the largest on any loch – and beautiful Inchcailloch. The Highland fault line runs right through the loch and ensures a great variety of scenery, ranging from the placid Lomond Shores at Balloch, to the foot of towering Ben Lomond. The West Highland Way path follows much of the eastern shores of the loch. Loch Ness Loch Ness may…

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Our pick: Standing Stones and circles

Scotland’s first settlers arrived over 10,000 years ago, and even today there are incredible monuments to the peoples of long ago. Burial cairns, brochs, hut circles and other remains are abundant across much of the mainland and islands, but it is standing stones that perhaps draw the strongest reactions from visitors. For standing stones and circles the mystery is often around their purpose – something that has been subject to speculation by archaeologists for many years. Here’s a few of Scotland’s finest: Callanish, Isle of Lewis One of the most spectacular and celebrated monuments in the country, Callanish – set…

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Our pick: Scotland’s mountains from the roadside

For our latest gallery we’ve picked out some of Scotland’s most dramatic mountain landscapes that can be seen from the roadside. Inevitably this means many of these mountains rank amongst the country’s best known… but we’ve hopefully included a few surprises too! An Teallach, Dundonnell near Ullapool Many hillwalkers rank mighty An Teallach as Scotland’s finest mountain. Its two Munros and the Corrag Bhuidhe pinnacles are well seen from several roadside viewpoints; one classic view is a distant one from Loch Droma on the A835 Ullapool road, but the photo above is more up close and imtimate, from the ‘Destitution…

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Our pick: Mountain bothies

In Scotland, Bothies are a remarkable part of our outdoors’ culture. The word bothy can really mean any form of very basic accommodation, but to hillwalkers the term is usually applied to ‘open’ bothies – buildings which are left unlocked for anyone to use. This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Mountain Bothy Association, which was set up by outdoor enthusiasts Bernard and Betty Heath to try to save from ruin many of the uninhabited buildings in the wilder parts of Scotland, which had traditionally been used as dosses. Today the association maintains – entirely through…

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Our pick: Scotland’s great sea stacks

Scotland’s tortuous coastline stretches for almost 10,000km on the mainland alone – or up to 16,500km if the islands are included. As well as picturesque fishing villages and stunning sandy beaches, there are sections of fantastic cliff scenery, including huge natural arches, deep geos (inlets) and – our subject here – mighty sea stacks. Am Buachaille, Sandwood Bay, Sutherland Rising 65m (213′), Am Buachaille – meaning the Herdsmen – rises as a splendid sentinal at the southern end of the almost legendary beach of Sandwood Bay (walk description) in the far northwest corner of Sutherland. The stack was first climbed…

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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.