Shetland isles

While the rest of Scotland was sweltering in hot weather mid July, a bank of low cloud hung over these most northern isles! This necessitated a few tweaks to our planned walks but we still enjoyed a pretty packed programme, walking on Muckle Roe, Papa Stour and St Ninian's Isle.
Sadly our flight to Fair Isle was cancelled (only 1 flight went out that week!) but we substituted a long circular walk to Fethaland, visiting the old haaf fishing station instead (photo attached). A real treat!
The cliffs of Hermaness proved unwalkable due to high winds, heavy rain and bad visibility, but there were plenty of photogenic puffins at Sumburgh Head the next morning to compensate.
Eventually the sun shone on our last day on Mousa, where we had the island to ourselves, and continued to shine as our ferry home passed Fair Isle which was looking splendid in the evening light.

The Small Isles

I love these islands and was thrilled to be asked to guide a group here again this year. The skies grew darker as our train journey from Glasgow to Mallaig progressed, and by the time we sailed the rain was horizontal. Disembarking on Eigg was a very wet affair!
The sun was shining on a glorious day the next morning and so it continued all week.
The girls at Eight Bread catered magnificently for us on the island, as did Ivy Cottage on Rum. We managed to walk most of Eigg, with fabulous views from the top of An Sgurr out to Muck and over to Rum. 3 days on Rum followed and our hikes took us into the heart of the Rum Cuillin on to Hallival, north onto Bloodstone Hill where we watched golden eagles soaring, and out to Kilmory Bay and the red deer project.
We stayed at the new temporary hostel at Kinloch Castle which is pretty good and definitely needed.

Galloway and beyond

These last few months have been crazy with work, with hardly a moment to draw breath let alone settle down to any admin.
June started with a beautiful week in Galloway, tackling the 4 Corbetts of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, Shalloch on Minnoch, Corserine and The Merrick from our base at Minigaff Youth Hostel. This is a great wee hostel - such a pity it's being considered for closure.
Then it was on to Orkney and Shetland for 10 days work with About Argyll, guiding an archaeology and walking tour. We had an archaeology lecturer with us as part of the group, and it was fantastic to get professional insight into the sites we visited - Ness of Brodgar, Maes Howe, Guirness Broch, Mousa and many more. We saw plenty of puffins on the cliffs at Hermaness and even caught some filming of a climb on the Old Man of Hoy, which was exciting

Islay + Jura

Took a lovely trip to Islay and Jura week before last with 2 charming couples from Virginia. I was working for About Argyll and our programme included a couple of distillery visits along with an exploration of these beautiful islands. The sun shone, though the wind was pretty cold, and we managed to tackle some coastal walks as well as getting up close and personal with the Paps of Jura just 3 days before the annual hill race. Finlaggan, ancient seat of the Lord of the Isles, is always a special place to visit and did not disappoint this time either - there is certainly a real sense of history here.
My companions were i charmed by the islands and the people - I suspect they will return to the Hebrides before long.

Glen Lyon

In contrast to Knoydart, our outing last Saturday to climb Carn Gorm, Meall Garbh, Carn Maury and Meall nan Soybean was not quite so idyllic!
The sun was shining as we headed north up the Invervar Burn to climb northwest up grassy slopes to the summit of Carn Gorm. The strong wind forecast for later in the day was already blowing, carrying with it flurries of snow, and we trudged on in deteriorating visibility. Snow ceded to rain, and the views which make this high level circuit a joy were sadly non existent. By the time we reached the summit of Carn Mairg the wind was blowing around 35-40mph, so we decided to descend by Allt Coire a Chearcaill to Invervar over sodden ground. I think we all enjoyed ourselves, despite the challenging conditions!

Knoydart

The weather recently has been pretty dismal so I thought I'd cheer everyone up with a couple of photos taken in Knoydart at the beginning of April. Perfect conditions for a brief trip to this glorious part of Scotland to climb Ladhar Bheinn. At sea level the sun was warm though quite a cold breeze blew, and from the top we had a wonderful 360 degree vista of snow topped mountains, interspersed with plumes of smoke rising from many small hill fires.

Beinn Chabhair

Yet another beautiful day at the end of February saw Richard and I toiling up the side of the Ben Glas waterfall in warm spring sunshine en route to Beinn Chabhair. There was real heat in the sun which was already beginning to melt the frosted moorland and the ice in the burn by the time we stopped for a breather
at Lochain Beinn Chabhair. A steep climb took us on to the north west ridge of the mountain where deep pockets of hard packed snow and some icy sections on the north facing slopes meant a careful progression to the summit cairn. Blue skies, pristine snow and sunshine, and fantastic views! We descended along the ridge to Lochain a' Chaisteil and back down the side of Ben Glas waterfall where we had the pleasure of meeting Benji, a handsome ginger and white cat, taking a stroll up the hill with his two young companions. Safe on a lead, he seemed to be enjoying his day just as much as we had.