Author Topic: So tell me about Scotland...  (Read 10718 times)

barewirewalker

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #15 on: 12:57:05, 25/06/15 »
I read somewhere that the Isle of Arran is Scotland in miniature, it was one of my ambitions from boyhood to visit there. Whilst enjoying a remote ridge somewhere west of Goatfell an avid collector of peaks came trundling past us, breathlessly telling us we could bag something or other if we were to divert down another ridge. An alteration in route means missing something else, walking down Glen Sannox in twilight was worth more to me than completing a list.  


Scotland to me was about route finding, staying in the Trossacks we took the steam boat across Loch Katrine to climb Beinn Venue and then find our own route back, no signs that this was a tourist trod. Gave Ben Lomond a miss, but found our own view point of Loch Lomond from somewhere on the ridge of Beinn a' Choin, did we actually get to the summit, I think we did but does it really matter because the real gem of that route was the way we took of the hill, back into Glen Gyle.


No list told me to do it, just looking at the hillside from ridge of Meall Mor and another hill we probably climbed, but the quality of way was 5 star and endless mile of it.


Climbed Arthur's Seat too, took the tour bus to the Scottish Parliament, had a bit of time to spare, so somehow landed up on the summit in city brogues carrying an umbrella, descended a different way and found a route through woods and side streets back into the city centre.


I suspect that the statement to ignore anything south of Glasgow is nonsense, one of my favourite books from my youth was Ian Niall's Poachers Handbook written in the 1940's about his childhood. As much about putting an illicit meal on the table the book is about exploring the countryside, I always thought it to be set in the English Shire counties, but by the power of the internet I find that Ian Niall grew up in Galloway.


Plenty to do in Scotland apart from Munro's

Arrrrr.......nearly forgot. You can't trespass in Scotland.
« Last Edit: 13:04:14, 25/06/15 by barewirewalker »
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Slogger

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #16 on: 17:10:18, 25/06/15 »
Too true, but if completing a 'list' is the motivation to get you up there in the Highlands, then that's a good thing. You cover an awful lot of ground getting to the base of some of those on that list, and more ground in between too, it's not all about the summits.

vizzavona

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #17 on: 10:48:13, 26/06/15 »
The gentleman who was a bit concerned about it being all 'too mountaineering'?  Perhaps when applied to getting about the hills in winter yes but then that will also be the case down South.
Many of the Scottish hills and these would include all three of the main 'listed ones' are mostly hill-walks and only a few, definitely a minority of these, would need some scrambling skills.
One of the Scottish sites for hill-walkers has several sections within for all types of walking activities from canal/coastal walks through all sorts of day-walks and multi day trips.  A bit like here I guess.

phil1960

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #18 on: 12:21:18, 26/06/15 »
The gentleman who was a bit concerned about it being all 'too mountaineering'?  Perhaps when applied to getting about the hills in winter yes but then that will also be the case down South.
Many of the Scottish hills and these would include all three of the main 'listed ones' are mostly hill-walks and only a few, definitely a minority of these, would need some scrambling skills.
One of the Scottish sites for hill-walkers has several sections within for all types of walking activities from canal/coastal walks through all sorts of day-walks and multi day trips.  A bit like here I guess.
Who's concerned?
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mike knipe

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #19 on: 17:33:09, 28/06/15 »
Welll.... I'd say that there's a huge variety of hills available from rocky beetling craggy things in the North-West and on the islands, to rounded grassy but huge lumps in the East - and I'd say that the Angus glens, for instance look a lot like Kentmere etc but with fewer people and slightly bigger hills. If you like High Street and the Eastern Lakes, you'd love the Moffat hills (hart Fell, White Combe etc) and other hills in the Borders - Ettrick for instance  are just like Lakes hills but without the hordes of people - and, as Scotland has different bank hoidays and school hols than England, Moffat is a cracking place to go on an English bank holiday as an alternative to the over-crowded honey-pots of Cumbria and the Dales. You'd be lucky to meet anybody else on the hills, in fact. Galloway has some beautiful granite hills but with stupidly rough and tussocky bits in between them and the Lammermuirs are Scotland's answer to the North Yorks Moors.
I've just returned from a few days in the Southern Highlands - around Killin and Glen Lyon and the hills there vary from 2500 footers to 3900 feet but are mainly grassy - and there's still patches of snow to play on. Its well worth the five hour drive.
Then there's the midgies...
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Charlieslater

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #20 on: 11:05:00, 30/06/15 »
Compare the Lakes / Dales to Middlesbrough, then make the same comparrison jump between the Lakes and The Highlands.
Then you are somewhere near.
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Owen

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #21 on: 21:36:09, 30/06/15 »
There's only one way to really find out about Scotland, that's to come. There are many different areas to explore many of them as big or bigger than the Lakes. Each area has it's own special character so saying tell me about Scotland is a bit of a wide question. What do you want? Wide open wild spaces, spectacular steep ridges and Fjord like sea Lochs, remote moorlands or easy gentle rolling hills, we have the lot.

mike knipe

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #22 on: 21:53:45, 30/06/15 »
Compare the Lakes / Dales to Middlesbrough, then make the same comparrison jump between the Lakes and The Highlands.
Then you are somewhere near.

Well, y'see, Charlie  The OP said "Tell me about Scotland" not "Tell me about the Highlands". Scotland has much more to it than the Highlands and some of those bits are quite like similar areas in England (in my view) - and my point, which maybe wasn't explicit, was that if you've done a lot of walking in England, there's places in Scotland you can go which are similar and , therefore, are on the same level of difficulty. Most of the places I mentioned aren't actually in the Highlands, as it happens (Moffat, Galloway, Lammermuirs)
Maybe he meant "Tell me about the highlands"....? But that's not what he said. Owen understood it!
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agentmancuso

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #23 on: 23:44:15, 02/07/15 »
In terms of hills, Scotland is simply a lot bigger than England; the Database of British & Irish Hills has more than twice the number of hills listed in Scotland than it does in England (and that's despite every single tiny bump in the Lakes appearing). Hills are (or feel, even when they're not) far more remote, and there are far less people. Mike mentioned Ettrick: I was out for 7h30 today in the Ettrick hills, covering various prominent landmarks and crisscrossing the SUW several times. I saw nobody; not one single person. Carlisle is less than an hour's drive away; if those very same hills were transported a short distance across the border, there would have been dozens of walkers around today.

Mel

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #24 on: 00:23:40, 03/07/15 »
Don't mean to hijack this topic but ... well... it's sort of relevant ...
 
Scotland's been on my "places to visit" list for yonks but one thing that makes me hesitate is the lack of walk routes shown on the map, barring national trails.  I'm guessing this is because it's all right to roam (within reason) but it does make planning some walks in any given area a challenge in itself.  All the routes up hills and mountains of note are well documented but it's much harder to find walk route info on much else, barring walks around the lochs and town/city visits.
 
Am I worrying about nothing because there are plenty of tracks and trails on the ground or is it a case of make it up as I go along and pray to God my map/compass skills are as good as I think they are?  :D   :-X   :-\

barewirewalker

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #25 on: 08:56:17, 03/07/15 »
Mrs BWW and I went to the Isle of Arran a couple of years back. All I took were the 2 OS 1:25k map files on my laptop and a sheef of printed out A4's with prospective routes. When we arrived the owner of the cottage told us we could not trespass as it was impossible to do it. So we set out and explored.


I had checked out things on the internet like stone rings, famous caves and my own reading gave me the wish to climb Goat Fell and some of the ridges. Later looking through the guide books in the cottage we had done everything, except go to the places to spend money. Guide books and walking guides are a leftover from and age when maps were too expensive for the average mortal, unless they are well written and worth reading for the prose they rarely tell you more  than what's on the map and with the internet today you can research all the flora, fauna and antiquities etc etc. Just got to avoid the pitfalls set to make you part with the unnecessary buck or two.
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Peter

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #26 on: 09:07:47, 03/07/15 »
Well, y'see, Charlie  The OP said "Tell me about Scotland" not "Tell me about the Highlands". Scotland has much more to it than the Highlands and some of those bits are quite like similar areas in England (in my view) - and my point, which maybe wasn't explicit, was that if you've done a lot of walking in England, there's places in Scotland you can go which are similar and , therefore, are on the same level of difficulty. Most of the places I mentioned aren't actually in the Highlands, as it happens (Moffat, Galloway, Lammermuirs)
Maybe he meant "Tell me about the highlands"....? But that's not what he said. Owen understood it!


Actually I wanted to know about the stuff I couldn't see on reoprts, telly, films etc..
I do want to know if I can walk (not climb or scramble), whether it can be compared to English ground conditions (boggy to the same extent or not).
Would I find the same sort of conditions as I might in the Lakes and Dales from a walking perspective. And the midges? How do they actually affect things?
We see a safari scene on TV and it looks great, but we can't see the flies, the heat, the 'feel' of the place.
Don't mean to hijack this topic but ... well... it's sort of relevant ...
 
Scotland's been on my "places to visit" list for yonks but one thing that makes me hesitate is the lack of walk routes shown on the map, barring national trails.  I'm guessing this is because it's all right to roam (within reason) but it does make planning some walks in any given area a challenge in itself.  All the routes up hills and mountains of note are well documented but it's much harder to find walk route info on much else, barring walks around the lochs and town/city visits.
 
Am I worrying about nothing because there are plenty of tracks and trails on the ground or is it a case of make it up as I go along and pray to God my map/compass skills are as good as I think they are?  :D   :-X   :-\


This was/is my other big worry. Being able to walk anywhere is great, but as a new area I still want to know where TO walk. If I can't see a path on my map how do I plan a route? Do I drive around until I see somewhere to start?



Peter
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vizzavona

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #27 on: 14:12:20, 03/07/15 »
Hello,
If needing information on walks and starting points in Scotland I would try the Walks Forum based in the Highlands which was set-up and run by two enterprising folks from South of the border.  I think that I am correct in stating this but anyway they are firmly based now on the edge of the Cairngorms. Since it is a business I guess that they earn some sort of living from the advertising of accommodation suitable for walking folks. I must say however that this is definitely not 'pushed into your face'.
Walks of all types and grades with bags of information on where and how to get started on the walk and has both descriptions written by the Forum organizers  and also plenty of members written up reports and with images of their walks.
Membership is free and if signing in as a member you are now opened-up for 1:25,000 O.S. maps for each walk or to use if planning a walk.
Well worth a look if considering a visit to the rough old North. :)
For those worried about the legality of walking along paths indicated on the O.S. maps.  Well in 60 years of walking in the North I have only ever been asked once to quit an 'on map path' on account of stalking taking place in the Fisherfield Forest. Perhaps should have known better, 1968, in the middle of August. :)

altirando

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #28 on: 18:20:04, 03/07/15 »
The point about ignoring southern Scotland is that there is so much better terrain further north that could take you a lifetime to explore. 

Mel

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Re: So tell me about Scotland...
« Reply #29 on: 19:30:33, 03/07/15 »
Just noticed Country Walking mag have got a "walker's guide to munro bagging" feature in July's issue.  Gives a route, parking and local info for each hill  O0
 
 

 

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