Scotland travel blog with advice for travelling Scotland

A Scotland Travel Blog, with a Local's Touch

Scotland is one of the most naturally beautiful countries in the world. It delivers for just about everyone, from powerful peaks to untouched beaches and ancient relics to spectacular golf courses. There's something in the air and it's a land that lives long in the soul of the travelers that make it to these shores. The whisky's not bad, either. No matter how much I explore, this journey has no ending. I’ll be forever proud to call it my home.

With my ever-expanding Scotland travel blog, I provide nationwide coverage with my writing, photography, and videos. There's a decade's worth of articles buried in this website with every region covered extensively. Working with some of the country’s best brands, I have carefully considered how to find the very best standards for my readers and followers. Followed by 70,000+ across the social media networks that I use, Travels with a Kilt is where I share my adventures and guidance with Scotland fans worldwide. Based in Glasgow and in the Highlands, I am regularly on the road scaling our peaks, studying our castles, marveling at our coastlines, and connecting with our traditions. You're welcome to join me.

Scotland Podcasts

While writing will always be my main focus and passion, you can join me on audio as well as I now host a variety of podcasts. All focussed on the homeland with my usual themes, I work with VisitScotland and others to reach audiences on this growing medium. Listen along in the or on the usual hosting platforms.

SCOTLAND’S SPECTACULAR NORTH WEST AND THE WALKS OF SUTHERLAND

Lochinver Walks – The Heart of Sutherland

The truth is there’s something about our mountains. If Scotland was an animal, there’s no doubt it’d be a lion. But not any old lion and not just because there’s one in our unofficial flag. It’d be a wise, elderly beast, one carrying the weight of a lifetime of effort and relentless contemplation. And a big soul, Scotland’s all about soul. I don’t think this soul is embodied any more intensely than by our mountains. And, based on my recent trip to Lochinver, I’m starting to conclude that nowhere does them better than Sutherland.

So I’ve been enjoying something of a reflective period about our mountains. Last month’s travels in Sutherland unfortunately saw me receive some tragic news – the life-changing kind that takes your breath away and crushes you with sadness and heartbreak. The details of that are personal and certainly have no place in a travel blog but I just so happened to be hiking at Loch Maree when this news reached me. I suppose the instinct in such circumstances is to retreat – generally to your home comforts and a familiar, warm environment. But it occurred to me as this news started to sink in that, perhaps, I was already in the best place for me at that moment. I was in my beloved hills. Scotland’s hills, holders of centuries’ worth of secrets and pain. In my years walking them and blogging about them, I’ve felt a strong attachment and, strangely, I sense that they are on my side.

This is the strength of the Scottish Highlands. A strength is particularly fierce in Sutherland. These are landscapes and atmospherics that made Walter Scott a legend and, while they spend most of their days slumbering and pensively monitoring, they can’t half roar when they want to. Which neatly sums up the typical personality of your average Scot, come to think of it. Cautious, stoic, and reserved, by and large, our paradoxical alter-egos scream passion. Just go to a rugby game at Murrayfield, watch an Old Firm derby, or look back at the recent rallies for independence or against Brexit. Complex, flawed, and lovable. That’s us. And it’s our mountains too, except for the flawed part.

But while I’m away off gab-shiteing about parallels between Scots and their natural environment and what the mountains really mean to me, here they are in action. Sutherland, and the Lochinver area specifically, is home to several of the best hillwalking trails in the world, and here’s a look at some of my favorites.

Stac Pollaidh

For those who have never climbed a Scottish mountain before this, along with the Trossachs’ Ben A’an, is probably the most logical place to start. Its fabulous effort vs reward ratio will ensure that you’ve caught the bug in no time, and our countless more challenging peaks will instantly seem much more appealing. A bit like Ben A’an, this guy is much easier than he looks. From its car park starting point it appears a cragged and inaccessible mound. Jagged peaks dot the ridge and its isolated and exposed nature leaves you open to the elements. The reality is much less intimidating – Stac Pollaidh (Stack Polly) is only 613 meters, the straightforward and pathed ascent is from the other (not originally visible) side of the mound and it’s popular enough that you’re unlikely to be doing it alone. Oh, and the views throughout repay every step, with interest.

Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail

South of the bulk of Sutherland’s walking highlights, this walk overlooking Loch Maree is a stunner. Widely regarded as maybe the most beautiful of all of Scotland’s lochs, its shape, mountain-backing peaks, and ancient pinewoods give it a majestic appeal. Scots pines are stunning trees and the clearly waymarked route takes you through the highly forested area before ascending onto rougher quartzite as you approach the summits. This was Britain’s first National Nature Reserve and, despite periodic steep stretches is do-able for most abilities. The true peaks of Beinn Eighe (Ben Eh-uh) and Meall a’Ghiubhais (Me-al a ewe-ish) are not included in the route but the views from the plateau over the Loch and the mighty Slioch on the other side are nuts. My visit was also regularly interrupted by accompanying rainbows as if it needed any further visual support.

Inchnadamph Bone Caves

At the easy end of the scale for exertion in the list of Lochinver walks, the journey out to the caves represents a great way to spend a couple of hours outdoors without much effort. Starting just off the A837 between Elphin and Inchnadamph, the route is a tranquil stroll up until the final ascent to the caves themselves. Even then this is only mildly challenging as the fairly steep valley below calls for careful walking. Surrounded by silent limestone it holds an evocative appeal all of its own.

Cave excavations have unearthed remains of humans and animals, some dating back to around 2600 BC. The likes of reindeer, Arctic foxes, wolves, and even Polar Bear have been found within. Whether they were washed in there by glacier meltwater or taken there by man or beast remains a mystery. What remains now are spooky and eerily remote pits that will forever hold plenty of secrets.

The number of opportunities for Lochinver walks is simply massive and, even going at my typically breakneck pace of travel, repeat visits are simply essential. Slioch, Ben Alligin, Canisp, Quinag, and more will one day be added to this list. But these guys give a diverse range of options to get anyone started.

Scotland is not the only place with beautiful mountains, far from it. I’ve been fortunate to have taken my hiking boots all over the world and seen the beauty of a type that words and photos will never do justice to. South Africa, New Zealand, China, Brazil, and Sri Lanka….all have regions of exceptional beauty, sometimes in even more obvious ways than Scotland’s. But, it’s in their uneasy atmosphere and deeper presence that our peaks stand apart. Whatever impact hills and mountains have had on you in your life, I challenge you not to feel something uniquely moving about our very special Highland giants. I’ll forever be grateful to them.