Category: Scotland
Hillwalking and me: a history
6th May 2006 I started hillwalking relatively recently. The idea never even dawned on me when I lived in Ireland. Even when I lived in Edinburgh, I thought that it was an activity for other people. In any case, I thought then that cycling was more to my liking. In 1998, the idea came into my head that I'd better see a bit more of Scotland than just Edinburgh and Loch Tay. The reason for this? I was coming to the end of my degree in Edinburgh and I didn't know then what the future held.
That took me on day trips to Fort William, Inverness and Loch Ness. 1999 saw me head to Oban, Mull and the Isle of Skye. Back then, my walking was only done on roads when I couldn't bring a bike. My 1998 trip to Fort William would have involved me carrying a bike but for the fact that Scottish Citylink wouldn't carry it (Bus Éireann in Ireland probably would have and I thought that things were the same in the UK: they aren't). My trip to Skye had me cycling a rented bicycle around the island and I had been known to cycle around Loch Tay.
What changed all this? A bicycle ride from Macclesfield to Buxton on a late August evening in 2000. Admittedly, I couldn't get the bike into first gear, which wasn't a help on the hills: they weren't half steep in places. I got to Buxton but I caught the train when I was going home. There had to be another way to get out and about in hilly country. It was coming, though. I had cycled around the Yorkshire Dales when working there and, while going up was not too bad, it was the descents that gave me the heebie-jeebies. I loved being out in the countryside so thoughts turned to walking it...
2001 was blighted by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease but my explorations had begun. I got myself some trail shoes and some OS Landranger maps and started to head off road in the Peak District. 2002 saw me buying hillwalking boots and moving on to OS Explorer mapping, my staple ever since. The Yorkshire Dales saw a lot of me, even though I was (and am) working in Cheshire. My annual Scottish ramble saw me take in Callander, Fort William and Portree: for their proximity to attractive countryside rather than for the places themselves.
However, it was 2003 that really had me walking. There was a bountiful amount of sunshine that year and I got out and about loads of times. For me, it was the year of the Lake District with loads of walking trips in and around Keswick. The only bum note was that I holidayed in Oban and Fort William in the worst week of the summer!
I didn't get on too badly around Oban because I got to walk along the shores of Loch Etive in pleasant sunshine (pity about the fact that I didn't bring enough colour film with me!). However, it was Fort William that really left me down, though I did walk the final section of the West Highland Way northbound from Kinlochleven on a cloudy but dry day. For the rest of the time, there were ample amounts of drenching rain. Nevertheless, all was set right with bright sunshine for my visit to Lochaber on the last weekend of August. I wasn't to be deterred yet.
If there was a year that could put paid to my walking ambitions, it would have been 2004. When it came to weather, it was a washout in comparison to the previous year and I didn't get out much at all. I suppose that we had to make up for the glory of 2003 sometime... It was very telling when Trail magazine featured an article that hillwalking need not be fair weather activity. It has to be said that fair weather helps, though! Surprisingly, my annual visit to the Scottish Highlands didn't suffer too badly: I managed to get some decent weather in Lorn and Lochaber. I got down to Bridge of Orchy on the West Highland Way. It was all down to very careful timing, though. Other opportunities did present themselves and these were taken enthusiastically: a traverse of Fairfield horseshoe in Cumbria, explorations of the Ogwen Valley in North Wales.
In contrast, 2005 was more like 2003 and allowed plenty of opportunities to get out and about without getting soaked through. I got to spend several weekends exploring around Dolgellau (pronounced dol-ge-thl-eye, I believe) in the south of the Snowdonia National Park. Plenty of walks with views of Cader Idris and the Rhinogs were undertaken. At one point, I ended up on the foothills of Cader Idris itself. Nevertheless, its ascent remains on the to do list. The hills around Llangollen (try pronouncing it as thlan-go-thl-ann) also attracted my attention. Along with visits to my usual haunts of the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, I also made visits to Mull, Lorn and the Isle of Skye. My hillwalking had continued apace.
All of this brings me to 2006. To date, this year has had its share of fine weather. However, the past winter has been colder than those of late: this has meant that I have encountered more snow than I usually do. I even got walk on crisp snow in a yomp among the hills lining the Cheshire-Derbyshire border. Snow or no snow, I have managed a few visits to Scotland: Lochaber, Arran and Perthshire. I hope that I am not spoiling the allure of Scotland for me! In addition, Yorkshire has featured on my list of "adventures". Having ascended Pen-y-Ghent last year, I completed Yorkshire's "Three Peaks" by walking Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent. Will it go on like this? I have no idea. Only time will tell...
A bank holiday trip to the Scottish Highlands
3rd May 2006 The prospect of fine weather meant that I took myself up to the Scottish Highlands for the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. To make the most of time, albeit at the expense of a sound sleep, I got there thanks to the overnight National Express 336 service to Glasgow and then the 07:00 Scottish Citylink departure to Fort William. Thanks to congestion on the motorways, the National Express service left Manchester an hour late but was only 15 minutes late when it got to Glasgow!
Despite a load of bikers descending on Fort William for the weekend as they traditionally do, I managed to find somewhere to stay on Saturday night. Once I dropped off some of my stuff at the B&B, I caught a train from Fort William to Corrour. From Corrour, I walked along hill tracks skirting Loch Treig and Allt na Lairige all the way to Spean Bridge. Along the way, I got to pass through some pretty wild country, but all was pleasant in the sunshine.
The next day, I left a cloudy Fort William on another Citylink coach and headed towards a sunnier Inverness before stationing myself in Pitlochry for the night after a train journey. My planning hadn't got to booking my Sunday night accommodation on the Saturday and got a surprise when I found Inverness tourist office shut! The Fort William office was also shut, but I already knew about that; Inverness though was unexpected, especially considering its recently gained city status. In the event, a quick call to Visit Scotland wasn't long in sorting things out.
When in Pitlochry, I did consider walking to the top of nearby Ben Vrackie, but I arrived at my hotel at around 18:30, and I usually don't start that kind of expedition at that hour of the evening. In the event, I did take in the fine evening with a short stroll but, the next morning, it was raining lightly, and I didn't feel like carrying a laden rucksack to the top of an 841 metres high mountain, so I began the train journey home. Maybe one for another time then...
