Gear Review: Alpkit Ranger Ventile Jacket

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Helen Webster

Recommended Price: £349.99Weight: 720g (women’s size 10) Originally developed in the late 1930s, clothing made of Ventile is said to have saved the lives of countless RAF pilots who ditched into the sea. A very tightly woven cotton, it was created to be cool and practical when worn in the cockpit but warm and impenetrable when it came into contact with water. Later used both during the first ascent of Everest in 1953 and by Sir Ranulph Fiennes to cross the Arctic, it has continued to be championed especially by polar travellers, but largely fell out of favour as other…

Posted in Gear reviews, Jackets, Magazine

The Oa

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Katie Featherstone

Islay resident Katie Featherstone takes readers on a long and rugged walk to discover both the wild nature and the harsh human history of the Oa peninsula. A curiously round protrusion, the Oa forms the most southerly part of Islay. Far from the gentle hills and long sandy beaches for which the rest of the island is known, this peninsula towers above the sea with eroding, rocky cliffs, dramatic sea stacks, and hidden coves. With half the landmass run by the RSPB as a nature reserve, it’s known for its birdlife, particularly choughs, hen harriers, and nesting golden eagles. Only…

Posted in Features, Magazine

Our picks: Scotland’s most remarkable paths

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Paul Webster

The Silver Walk, Moidart Undoubtedly one of the truly special paths of the Highlands, this fascinating route cut out of the rock through picturesque scenery. The eastern end of the Silver Walk near Kinlochmoidart is currently diverted, but this isn’t the finest part in any case. The best outing is a circuit from stunning Castle Tioram, taking in a deserted hamlet, pine-fringed hill lochs and a view out to the Isles. It’s a stone-cold classic half-day walk – surely one of Scotland’s finest. Kinloch Hourn to Barrisdale Bay, Knoydart The Knoydart landscape ranks amongst Scotland’s most rugged, to the extent…

Posted in Access issues, Features, Magazine, Our picks

Hebridean Way guide launched on Walkhighlands

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Paul Webster

We’re delighted to launch our new guide to the Hebridean Way, the unique 253km walking route which begins on the island of Vatersay, and visits Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, Grimsay, North Uist, Berneray and Harris and Lewis, finishing in the capital of the Western Isles, Stornoway. Our full guide: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/outer-hebrides/hebridean-way.shtml We’ve fully detailed descriptions of the route in 12 stages in our usual style, all illustrated with photography and full Ordnance Survey mapping. If doing the route in stages, you can record your progress stage-by-stage. You can also record your own experiences of walking the route and read those…

Posted in Access issues, Magazine, News, Walkhighlands news

Exclusive endurance race accused of vandalism on Goatfell

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Paul Webster

The exclusive Highland Kings race – which charges entry fees of £15,000 per person – has been accused of vandalism after daubing yellow arrows on rocks where the route heads over Goatfell on Arran. Local mountain guide Lucy Wallace – a contributor as Walkhighlands and a member of the local mountain rescue team – raised the issue on her Facebook page: “Last night while I was having a brilliant time on Goatfell with my friends, (yet somehow leaving no trace of our presence), we saw that the mountain had been daubed in hundreds of these sprayed on yellow waymarks. I…

Posted in Magazine, Nature, News

Lynx to Scotland research – “Not now, but not never”

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Helen Webster

There is sufficient appetite from a diverse cross-sector of rural stakeholders to examine whether potential barriers to a trial reintroduction of Eurasian lynx to Scotland can be overcome, says the first detailed study into the social feasibility of the species’ return. The research, commissioned by the Lynx to Scotland project, spent a year consulting a wide range of national stakeholders and local communities in the Cairngorms National Park and Argyll. It was organised by charities SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, Trees for Life and Vincent Wildlife Trust. Previous research suggests the Highlands has enough habitat – and roe deer, the animal’s…

Posted in Magazine, Nature

Cape Wrath Trail photobook launched to benefit Ukraine appeal

Posted on April 13, 2022 by David Lintern

A new book mixing landscape and portrait photography with stories from one of Scotland’s longest walks is to be published, with all proceeds donated to refugee relief efforts in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Thunder Road – voices from the Cape Wrath Trail features portrait and landscape images that photographer and writer (and Walkhighlands regular) David Lintern made while walking the trail in May 2021, alongside the personal testimonies of those he photographed – both visitor and resident. The 240 mile Cape Wrath Trail begins in Fort William and ends at the lighthouse at the most north-westerly point of Scotland, Ministry of…

Posted in Features, Magazine, Photography

In Between Days – the cure for winter blues?

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Ben Dolphin

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…

Posted in Features, Magazine

First eagle nest camera feed in the UK opens at Loch Garten

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Helen Webster

In what has been hailed as a first for the UK, a new live camera feed at RSPB Scotland’s Loch Garten Nature Centre is giving visitors an up-close look at Scotland’s largest bird of prey. A pair of white-tailed eagles, Shona and Finn, have established a nest in the vast landscape of the Cairngorms Connect partnership, of which RSPB Scotland is part, with their activities beamed live to the Loch Garten Nature Centre at the charity’s Abernethy nature reserve. Using methods successfully trialled in other countries including Estonia and Latvia and under special license from NatureScot, experts from Wildlife Windows…

Posted in Magazine, Nature, News

Scottish Nature Photography Awards winners revealed

Posted on March 30, 2022 by Paul Webster

The Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2021 winners have been selected by the judging panel, photographers Kit Martin, Rebecca Nason and Niall Irvine. Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2021 is landscape photographer Darren Cole, whose winning image portrays a dramatic scene of a muirburn fire below snow-covered peaks near his home on the Isle of Harris. Ice and Fire won the Environmental category before being chosen as the overall winner against stiff competition from a range of abstract, botanical, wildlife and landscape categories. Kit Martin said: “Ice and Fire is stunning. The competition was fierce in the Environmental category, but…

Posted in Magazine, News, Photography