Images

Trip

Ullapool area Our wedding anniversary trip to the far north west. We managed to potter up Ben Ghobhlach in very windy conditions but with grand views up the north west seascape.

Isle of Skye The Storr and Ben Attow, Glen Shiel A fairly wet late summer weekend to the west of Scotland. We climbed the Munro Ben Attow with Gavin - only 6 Munros to go! When the rain cleared for a while we had windswept views along the craggy ridge and saw some wild goats (well actually it was the smell we noticed first!) The previous night was spent visiting the rock spire of The Storr on Skye- part of an art event where the rock face was lit up at night with voices, song and poetry wafting across the hillside. This was an NVA production.

Glencoe 'Crypt Route' A rock climb with a difference near the summit of Glen Coe's highest peak, Bidean nam Bian. Crypt route climbs up to an impressive arch which provides the name of the cliff - Church Door Buttress - then follows a subterranean crawl into the depths of the mountain before emerging back out via a squeeze hole into daylight. We huffed and puffed our way up some very wet and slippery rock out onto the summit of Bidean to see some tremendous views with clouds floating around the peaks and below us.

TartanHeart festival near Inverness A non walking camping weekend(!) with Martina , Louise and I to this music festival in the north of Scotland. It was a damp weekend and the crowds braved the rain to watch bands such as The Proclaimers, Peat Bog Fairies, Alabama 3 and Emialia Torrini on the main stage.

Aonach Beag Munros, Ben Vorlich, Limekilns rock climbs A backpacking trip to the Aonach Beag hills near Ben Alder with Gavin provided lots of cloud and a nice remote camp. Ben Vorlich sits to the west of Loch Lomond and has a short stiff climb up its knolly slopes - we went via the 'Little Hills'. Limekilns is a small but well formed limestone crag set in lovely forest above the village of Charlestone. Our climbing was a bit poor but Martina and I had a fun 'chillout' day.

Lochnagar Eagle Ridge We took the tent up to the mountain Lochnagar with Gavin to climb the classic route 'Eagle Ridge'. A superb day out on good quality granite with the mist skirting the summit plateau. We walked across to the summit of Lochnagar and descended back down the atmospheric Black Spout gully to our camp by the loch. The next day, Gavin and I walked around the four munro summits nearby from Lochnagar to Broad Cairn while Martina went to Ballater to poke around used-book-shops. Mist shrouded to start with, the day cleared to our delight and we had panoramic views all round. Five Munros bagged, a great rock climb and camp!

Bracklin falls We visited these nice waterfalls to cool down from an unseasonably hot spell. Brian has been back bagging four Grahams in the Cairngorms area.

Cycled 85 miles out to Blair Atholl on the national cycle network and 75 miles from Stirling, Callander, Aberfoyle, Drymen, Balloch, Dumbarton to Glasgow.

G8 Summit Gleneagles Brian cycled out to Gleneagles and back to take part in the demo. Photos here

Arisaig Have managed to do a lot of cycling since Auchinstarry including a visit to St Andrews with Martina. However this weekend I hired sea kayaks from local outdoors shop Tiso's and we drove up to Arisaig near Mallaig on the west coast. The sun was out and the scenery was magnificent- even the increasing north-west wind on the Saturday didn't put us off too much. We paddled around the sandy islets (or skerries) offshore from Arisaig on Saturday surrounded by basking and swimming harbour seals. Martina had an inquisitive pair of seal pups around her kayak- and with the clear, clear water we could see them swim underneath then pop back up again. We camped nearby at Gortenachullish by the sea looking out to the islands of Skye and Rum and on Sunday kayaked round the headland of Eilean Ighe and stopped off at the village of Arisaig itself for coffee before returning.

On the drive back to Stirling we put the kayaks into Loch Leven at Glencoe and spent a pleasant but windy couple of hours there. A great fun weekend.

Auchinstarry Quarry An afternoon climbing trip to this disused quarry near Glasgow turned into a bit of an unlucky event! After some climbing at the back of the quarry (in which a boulder fell off just missing Gavin and Gavin's rope got cut running over sharp rock), I fell off the bottom of a route called 'After the Grave Dig' and sprained my ankle. Thanks to Gavin for the soft landing and Craig for the first aid!

Ardnamurchan Back to normal Scottish summer rain on Saturday as Gavin and Brian drove out to the most westerly point in the British mainland with the intention of rock climbing. The cloud barely rose above sea level during the day so we abandoned climbing, pottered around the coast and eventually camped on the northern side of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Were rewarded with views to the isles of Muick, Eigg (last weeks destination) and Rum with gannets soaring past the tent. On Sunday we did some climbing in cold windy conditions on the Ardnamurchan ring dyke.

Isle of Eigg More sunshine on this small island off the west coast of Scotland. We took the MV Shearwater boat from Arisaig out past the lovely sandy skerries to Eigg itself. Gannets and puffins were seen from the boat. After setting up our tents by the sea near the jetty we toddled up the prominent spire of An Sgurr which dominates the bay. Fantastic views all round out to the western isles and back to the mainland. We descended south past the weird pitchstone columns of the Sgurr and down along the coast to one of the big caves by the sea.

On Sunday we walked out to the north of the island along the high ridge bounded by crumbly basalt crags. Even better views today- particularly to the islands of Rum and Skye. Then we made it down to the 'Singing Sands' beach and we explored around here for the afternoon. The beach made more of a squeaking sound than a singing one - but it was a superb spot with turquoise sea and Rum looming in the distance.

More photos here.....