Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

In a previous post, I mused over the idea of visiting the Western Isles and walking there. Leafing through my copy of this month’s TGO, I spotted a book review that caught my attention: Peter Clark’s The Outer Hebrides: The Timeless Way. The review seemed favourable so I might just pick up a copy myself. Below, you will find links to websites that tell you more; the first introduces the book itself while the second is that of the publisher, where you will find an order form (in spite of the London-sounding name, the firm is based in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.

The Outer Hebrides: The Timeless Way

Northampton Square

Being an avid hillwalking type, I have had a penchant for adding to my bookshelf over the years: they help when it comes to planning outings. Here are a few of the ones that I have pertaining to Scotland:

SMC Hillwalkers’ Guide: The Munros

SMC Hillwalkers’ Guide: The Corbetts and Other Scottish Hills

These are volumes that I consult when I encounter a "what hill is that in the photo" moment. The reason for that is that they comprehensive and very well illustrated with photos of the featured mountains. I recently had a read in the Lochaber when reorganising that section of the photo gallery and loads of ideas cam into mind for a weekend in Kinlochleven. They’re not cheap but well worth having. Neither are they light so they tend to stay at home to be used for planning.

Pocket Mountains

For £5.99 each, you are getting a lot here and it is far too easy to acquire a whole set. Illustrated with maps and photos, the short punchy route descriptions do what is required of them. My collection includes The Central Highlands, The Cairngorms, The Islands, The Southern Highlands and The Southern Uplands.

Walking on the Isle of Arran

The Isle of Skye: A Walker’s Guide

Walks from the West Highland Railway

These are Cicerone Guides, a publisher for which there is a lot of respect. Comprehensive route descriptions and mapping are very much part of the package.

Isle of Skye

Ben Nevis & Glen Coe

Both of these Collins Rambler’s Guides are written by TGO’s Chris Townsend. That hallmark of quality is supplmented by Harvey mapping.

Walking in Scotland

Scottish Highlands: The Hillwalking Guide

Both of these are useful for getting a taste of what Scotland has to offer walkers. The first is a Lonely Planet offering while ever present Trailblazer publishes the second.

Scottish Hill Tracks

Due to a quirk in Scottish law, public rights of way usually are not marked on Ordinance Survey maps. That means that this offering from the Scottish Rights of Way Society is invaluable. Many of the tracks were old livestock droving routes and you need to have good navigation skills because the line of a track may not always be obvious on the ground.

For now, these do all that I ask of them but I cannot rule out the possibility of needing more if I want to move on to explore other parts of Scotland. Nevertheless, I will continue to make the best of what I have.