On On the day that much of England was ‘paralysed’ by snow, northern Scotland didn’t see so much as a flurry. With an afternoon to kill, I ventured south from Inverness, following single-track roads before leaving my car at the small RSPB car park on the shores of Loch Ruthven. Trail shoes on, I waded through prickly heather, which…
Cairngorms
On the weekend that three climbers were killed in an avalanche on Buachaille Etive Mor, it was timely that I and 10 others were learning how to assess avalanche risk, albeit 100 miles to the north-east in the Cairngorms. We were taking part in a two-day Jonathan Conville Memorial Trust course, based at Ardenbeg Outdoor Centre, in Grantown-on-Spey. Aged 27,…
Ben Hope
Ben Hope is like Muckle Flugga, Cape Horn or Vladivostock; places that are supremely appealing because they lie at geographic extremities. While Ben Hope may not mark the start or end of a continent, it has the honour of being the most northerly of Scotland’s 284 Munros. It’s not the hardest, highest or prettiest, while it is one of the most…
Ben Klibreck
It had all started so well. It was a great-to-be-alive day. For two hours, from the Crask Inn to the 808m summit of Creag an Lochain, the world had been sun-drenched and still. The view was astonishing. There was the deep blue of the Atlantic in the distance and the snow-capped Ben Hope, Ben Loyal and…
Ord Hill
The frustration of Ord Hill is that its dense cover of trees hid what I knew to be a fabulous view across the Moray Firth in one direction and snow-capped Ben Wyvis in another. At least as I climbed from a layby on the east side of the A9, the dual-carriageway vanished from view, although the constant drone of vehicles refused to…
Craig Dunain
Craig Dunain
Heights of Madness 