Outdoor Discoveries

New Lonely Planet book on Scottish Hillwalking

When passing through Leeds on my Easter Yorkshire Dales excursions, I popped into Waterstone’s and spotted that Lonely Planet has finally updated its guide to walking in Scotland; the previous edition dated from 2001 so it might have been time for an update. Being easily persuaded, I acquired a copy to see what’s in the new one. There are changes to the routes featured but I’ll hang on to my copy of the first edition as there seem to be a number of changes to the featured walking routes and I might find some use for it yet.

On the surface, not much has changed with the included walking information apart from updates to the text and changes to the presentation. These include putting the walking information chapters at the back and adding glossy sections at the front containing a good supply of colour photos. But dig deeper and the changes appear. The recently enacted Scottish access legislation must surely have had an impact as walks in the Campsie Fells and Ochill Hills are now headline inclusions. New routes such as the John Buchan Way now get a mention. Some previously featured routes now find themselves in the Other Walks sections at the end of the chapters along with new additions such as the Rob Roy Way. Another fate for previous headline routes is that they find themselves in boxes sitting outside the main text. Classic routes such as the Aonach Eagach ridge or the ascent of Ben Nevis via the Carn Mor Dearg arête find themselves in this position.