Believe it or not, this thing actually started as a place to convey site news and share trip reports as a means of a teaser for new additions to the photo gallery. Within months, it began to gain a life of its own with musings of outdoors activities such as hillwalking, cycling and photography all finding their way on here. The first of these is the major focus these days and never seems to fail to yield something new to be shared, whether it's an idea for a trip away, something new in the outdoors media, a new piece of outdoors gear or even mental meanderings induced by the weather or the wonder of nature. I hope that you find something of interest, whatever it might happen to be.

Bank holiday trek to the Scottish Highlands

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006

I took myself up to the Scottish Highlands for the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. 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!

In spite of 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 by the side of Loch Treig and Allt na Lairige all of the way to Spean Bridge. Along the way, I got to pass through some pretty wild country but all was pleasant in the sunshine.

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 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. I did take in the fine evening with a short stroll but, next morning, it was raining lightly and I didn’t feel like carrying a heavy rucksack to the top of an 841 m high mountain so I began a train journey home. Maybe one for another time then…

Topics: Hillwalking, Lochaber, Perthshire, Scotland, Trip Reports

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  1. Still going after three years… » Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer Says:
    May 1st, 2009 at 08:20

    [...] them at all. This is its third, not bad for an experimental venture started on a whim after a May Day bank holiday weekend spent travelling around Scotland’s Highlands. Last year, I remarked that my native Éire hadn’t seen a dedicated hill wandering [...]

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Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer: Copyright © 2006-2010, John Hennessy

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