ML refresher course

Posted by & filed under Mountains & hills, May 3 2010.

Last weekend I went on an ML refresher course at Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms. This course was to enable me to have another go at some of the skills that are required as part of the ML award syllabus (and which are initially covered in the ML training course, which I also did at… Read more »

Wellington wreck in Glen Affric

Posted by & filed under Military/Aircraft, Mountains & hills, April 29 2010.

On Sunday last weekend I walked to Glen Affric from Glen Shiel (see my blog post ‘Glen Shiel’) . About 9km from Glen Shiel, not far from the Alltbeithe hostel, on the north-western slopes of the Munro summit of Mullach Fraoch-choire lies the site of an RAF Wellington bomber that crashed in the Glen in… Read more »

Glen Shiel

Posted by & filed under Mountains & hills, April 28 2010.

I spent Saturday and Sunday last weekend in Glen Shiel, staying on the Saturday night at the Cluanie Inn, which I think is one of the best places to stay in Scotland for hillwalking – it sits right in the middle of an enormous area stuffed full of fantastic mountains and remote landscapes. Late April… Read more »

Snowdonia

Posted by & filed under Mountains & hills, Travel, April 20 2010.

Last week I travelled to Wales for a short hillwalking holiday in Snowdonia. On Friday I walked up Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales at a height of 1085m (and the highest mountain in the British Isles outside Scotland) with a couple of friends, Kate and Martin.

NNAS Gold Award assessment

Posted by & filed under Mountains & hills, April 12 2010.

On Saturday last weekend I undertook the NNAS Gold Award assessment, with C-N-Do (I had done the Gold award training with them back in November). This involved some classroom tests of walking route preparation and map reading, but the majority of the day was spent navigating along a route in the Ochil hills (coincidentally in… Read more »

Cairn Gorm winter walk

Posted by & filed under Mountains & hills, April 2 2010.

Last weekend I travelled to the Cairngorms, and walked from the busy Coire Cas ski centre up to the Cairn Gorm – Ben Macdui plateau. A lot of the winter snow had gone from below about 700m altitude, but above that height the snow cover was complete and on the plateau itself there were full… Read more »

Air crash memorial in the Ochil Hills

Posted by & filed under Military/Aircraft, Mountains & hills, March 24 2010.

Last Sunday I went for a short walk in the western Ochil Hills at Sheriffmuir (nor far from where I went to school). This area of the Ochils has historical associations with William Wallace and also the Jacobite uprising of 1715. Near the start of the walk was an interesting ancient alignment of stones, that… Read more »

Glas Bheinn Mhor, Glen Etive

Posted by & filed under Military/Aircraft, Mountains & hills, March 12 2010.

On Wednesday I travelled to Glen Etive and climbed to the 997m summit of Glas Bheinn Mhor. Conditions were absolutely perfect on the walk, with little wind and clear skies. The route up to the summit ridge from Glen Etive is a fairly punishing climb from sea level along the Allt Mheuran into Coire Odhar…. Read more »

Skiddaw

Posted by & filed under Mountains & hills, March 9 2010.

Last weekend I travelled to the Lake District in England and walked up to the 931m summit of Skiddaw. This was the first time I’d been hillwaking in the Lake District, so I thought I’d do a straightforward walk, and indeed the summit of Skiddaw, despite being one of the highest in the area, is… Read more »

Winter mountain walk in Balquhidder – and no Munros!

Posted by & filed under Mountains & hills, February 23 2010.

Last week I went walking in the Balquhidder area of the southern Highlands. I walked up Kirkton Glen through fir plantations and to the col at the head of the glen where there is an impressively large rock called Rob Roy’s Putting Stone below the crags of Leum an Eireannaich. From there I walked along… Read more »