Stravaiging on eBothy Blog

Sidetracked into silence

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Where to begin? With the first step, as ever.

Anchors

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We all need anchors in life. Somewhere to retreat to, to look out on the world from our sanctuary. Something to hold us to an idea of who we are, or were, or should be. An idea that follows us through life and reminds us of a truth we need to believe, that shows us our roots in a changing world. In the way a cloud drifts aimlessly across the mountain landscape, looking down at its shadow slowly following, shapeshifting as it crosses glens, rivers, peaks, forests and seas. The shadow’s shape changes but its essence is to anchor the cloud, be its truth in its life that is always there in some shape, reminding it of its cloudness.

Touching the cold

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

With the wind swinging round to the north east and the freezing level dropping onto the highest tops, I thought it would be fun, amidst the mayhem, to recreate an old photograph I have from almost 40 years ago, of a stove purring on a summit, sending plumes of steam into the cool mountain air. I also thought it would be fun to touch the freezing level.

Return to the hills

Fri, 29 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

With Phase 1 of leaving lockdown announced yesterday, to start today and the guidance to stay near or within your local area, it was off to An Stac with Mrs. Stravaiger.

The great silence

Sat, 16 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The land is so dry it’s a relief to see grey curtains of rain wrapping the hills. Like chain mail hanging from a giant war horse jumping the Clach Glas ridge and trailing the over the Red Hills.

The daily exercise

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Deserted roads. Deserted skies. Deserted hills. With the country in lockdown for potentially the next three weeks, the rules allow one form of daily exercise. From the front door. No driving to anywhere. Only one form of exercise, either walking, running or cycling.

The hill at the end of the decade

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Walking up Beinn na Cro, a strong sun at my back, it felt like 4am on a midsummer morning. The softness of the light, the mildness of the air, the quiet road receding behind my bootsteps. It was weird.

Is the outdoors still great

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With the news that the world’s oceans are running out of oxygen while humanity makes land grabs on habitats in order to blanket forest a fig-leaf for their unabated, voracious consumption and pollution. With the endless noise and light pollution of increased fish farm traffic up and down the west coast, implementing the Scottish government’s requirement to double output by 2030, regardless of animal welfare and environmental destruction. With hydro roads up many glens, industrial fencing marching with the West Highland Line from Glasgow to Fort William, creating in effect two Trump-like walls for wildlife to die negotiating, I asked myself the other day, is the outdoors still great?

Winter winds

Sun, 10 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Minus three on the tops, thirty mile an hour winds raking the last of autumn colour from the Cuillin ridge, laying down a white carpet ready for the arrival of the Winter Queen. Blasting down from the north, she detours out beyond St. Kilda, raising storm-seas in the cold Atlantic before swinging round Mingulay, resting on the raucus cliffs of Barra Head before howling in tonight to claim the mountains for her winter home.

Stormbringer

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A day off, what to do? With hot weather and a fair forecast for the Monday, it had to be a bivi up in the hills. I’d always fanced bivying on Slat Bheinn summit where it looks across to the wild east face of Blaven and gives aeriel views of Coire Uaigneich and so it was decided, intending to wander around the top, composing poems and jotting down philosophical gems in my notebook. The forecast mentioned increasing wind overnight, low cloud, then clearing. Turned out a bit wilder than that!

Just like the old days

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The summer on Skye continues with temperatures in the mid to high 20s, not much rain, soporific midges in the incessant heat and mountain burns down to low levels. I can’t remember a summer like this on the island. The BBC are now calling it “global heating” but it feels like a Mediterranean climate these last few months. Torrential rain and flooding across the country but the north west Highlands have been positively tropical since late April.

The freezing spring

Sat, 11 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Misty Isle is feeling the effects of climate change I think, with practically no rain for the last six weeks, freezing north easterlies and to top it all, snow down to 400m a couple of days ago. It’s unusual to get snow down that low even in winter and it’s mid May. Where is the warmth of spring?

The quiet wilds of Skye

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With the winter starting at last as a cold blast came down from the north west and draped a white sheet over the mountains, we headed up the potholed main road, past the emerging crash blackspot at the Sligachan junction, through the quiet streets of Portree to a small car park just north of Loch Fada, our goal a bimble along the southern part of the Trotternish ridge to The Storr.

First hill of the year

Wed, 02 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With a huge dollop of high pressure hanging over the highlands, the cloudless cold and clear sky could not be ignored and the three of us, myself, Mrs. S and Dr. A.H.B Man (more anon) left in a hurry bound for Banrigh an Eilein Sgiathanaich, Bla Bheinn, Queen of the Winged Isle.

A bit of a hoot

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The other weekend I headed across the water, with my lovely wife, to the wonderful island of Raasay for an ascent of Dùn Caan, the flat topped highest point where Johnson and Boswell danced a jig in 1773. I also brought an old friend.

Snow Stac

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I really should have been bivvying on the hill last night. A night of long moon and washed out starlight glinting on the Cuillin snow fields. This morning was stunningly clear and cold with snow patches lingering in the garden as we headed round to the Blaven car park for a bimble up An Stac.

New Skye snow

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I went to bed with the rattle of hail on the lum and the fast swish of storm driven snow on the roof, to awaken on Saturday morning to a bright and fresh world of newly lain white.

Sandwood

Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The first reports of snow in the Cairngorms were coming through shortly before I set off up the north west coast with Penguin, heading for Sandwood Bay and the bothy at Strathchailleach for a midweek visit. We’d decided to leave it until later in the year to avoid the hell of social media zombies moving from site to site in search of likes and shares.

The twa' cairns

Sun, 08 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A restful night at Glenmore Lodge on Tuesday after my day on Bynack Mòr saw me woken at 7 am on Wednesday morning by a chainsaw in the woods next door, so I popped down for a hearty breakfast consisting of an overflowing bowl of freshly made porridge, washed down with a mug of coffee and an orange juice and I was ready for the hill.

Back in the ‘Gorms

Fri, 06 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There’s nothing simpler in life than leaving behind the mad world and walking through a forest of native pines, the glint of a green lochan glimpsed through the trees and striding out towards a horizon of hills.

Walking with Clare

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

On the rellie trip to Shropshire each year I always like to get out for a walk through the green and pleasant land. Leafing through the leaflets with a local 1:25K map on my lap, looking for a gem of a route never disappoints and last year I spied a cracking walk from Ironbridge to Wellington over the Wrekin.

Before the storm

Sat, 13 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Rain pattered the window as I fell out of bed under a sky leaden with long exposure clouds smearing and mingling over the tops, not sure what to do. The forecast was a storm on the way, barrelling in from the Atlantic but a few hours of indecisive weather before it came in gave us a chance of a walk and some views. A jaunt up Ben Suardal with Mrs. Woman was just the ticket.

Winter in Kintail

Sun, 07 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday morning on dark, salt encrusted roads, a large moon riding high in the pre dawn sky as I drove across to Cluanie to make the most of the superb forecast of clear skies, light winds and lots and lots of snow. With the hotel car park locked I pulled up in the ice streams on the old road just past it, my nostrils freezing up as I pulled on big winter boots, slid the axe behind my neck and clumbed back along the road under the silver snow-shining mountains of Kintail.

In Search of Silence

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The end of an indifferent summer on Skye. The rowans in late July getting ready for winter, berries massing, ready for the arrival of the redwings. Leaves rattling like old hollow bones after the youthful swishing and dancing in summer storms. But this day is warm, sunny, humid. And strangely quiet.

A Winter Climb in Great Gully

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

After a few days of grotbags weather plastering the mountains in the first big snows of the season, Sunday dawned cold, clear and utterly enticing. So it was into the car and round to Blaven for a look around. As usual, I didn’t have anything specific in mind.

Wild Suardal

Sun, 25 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A wild night on Saturday as the autumn storm season began with a rattling roof, torrential rain and gushing winds roaring round the side of the local hills. The trees danced all night so they were pleased when it dawned bright and sunny though the wind was still high.

Autumn in the Skye hills

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 13:17:04 +0100

A three month photography exhibition with the John Muir Trust in Pitlochry, an article on Blaven in TGO, an upcoming feature in the John Muir Trust journal on connections between wild land and the Gaelic language and a book on Gaelic mountain poetry in the works.

Stravaiging The Lakes

Fri, 08 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I like to get down to the Lakes now and then, usually involving a very long and complicated public transport journey but this time I drove to Ambleside as I had to return via Pitlochry to pick up what was left of my photography exhibition with the John Muir Trust’s Wild Space visitor centre and gallery. That’s another story though. A rollercoaster of a ride and outrageous success even if I say so myself!

Queen of the Winged Isle

Fri, 15 Apr 2016 14:01:26 +0100

It’s oot! The May 2016 edition of TGO Magazine is in the shops with my feature on Blà Bheinn along with photographs I’ve created over the years when visiting Bàn-rìgh an Eilein Sgiathanaich, the Queen of the Winged Isle.

Chasing the sun

Sat, 02 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There had been high pressure over the UK for a few days and I’d been enjoying some great cycling in 17C, t-shirt and summer gear when the weather finally broke on the Saturday a couple of weeks ago. It was that kind of feeling though. The cloud was very low, 200m in places. The grey ceiling wasn’t producing any rain and it was lighter than it should be with that amount of cloud. It all screamed “inversion” and coupled with reports from a friend of an inversion in the Cuillin the day before and a forecast of cloud tops being around 1050m I headed out, making for the biggest hills in the area. The north Glen Shiel ridge.

On Caer Caradoc

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 14:23:58 +0000

Being in Shropshire over the ho ho holidays, I had a chance for a bimble up Caer Caradoc above Church Stretton. So parking in the layby just north of the town, I squelched across the sodden fields and up into wonderful countryside.

Redwings and ravens in the Red Cuillin

Sun, 08 Nov 2015 12:02:23 +0000

“It’s a bog”, I said, in response to Graeme’s “should I wear gaiters” question and here we were, up to our necks in glour and gloop. The path from Sligachan starts off good but as soon as you branch off into the trees it becomes a quagmire until you get to the bottom of Druim na Ruaige.

The Simplest of Things

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 16:35:58 +0100

The forecast was good but the hills were clagged with atmospheric drifting vapours, so I just went out for a walk. I didn’t mean to end up on the top of Blaven.

the dark heart of the cuillin

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

There were a couple of conflicting forecasts for Saturday. MWIS pointed to clearing conditions and cloud above 900m by afternoon, while the BBC had it deteriorating into the afternoon, with roving bands of heavy showers. The BBC won. But I didn’t realise this until the afternoon arrived, by which time I was sitting on the summit of Sgurr na Banachdich in the Cuillin mountains of Skye. My local hills.

summer on sgritheall

Sun, 05 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Ah the blog. I have a blog I suddenly remembered! What with stravaiging, cycling, writing (a bivvy article in The Scottish Mountaineer), preparing for a photography exhibition and what not, it’s been quiet in the eBothy but this weekend was a cracker as I met up with an old friend at Suardalan bothy for his final Munro. It was to be Beinn Sgritheall by the north ridge. The connoisseur’s route.

revisiting an old friend

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Ah yes, it’s that time of year, when I let loose a sigh of relief that the incessantly soft and deep snow has gone and the spring flowers and birds are returning to my old friend, Blaven.

stravaiging on coll

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Easter! Dust off the Brompton, fill up the 120L sac and head for the Armadale ferry, train down to Oban then cycle down the road to the Gallanach campsite, ready for the early ferry on the Saturday morning to the Isle of Coll.

beginnings

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Quite often, reading someone’s autobiography, especially if it has an outdoors theme, it makes you think back to your own beginnings. Where you started and where you’ve ended up, so far. So it was with me as I sampled Ray Mear’s tales of early wanderings and thought back to a particular day, thirty years ago this year.

Standing on the platform at Bridge of Orchy station, looking to a black cloud banked west crammed with rugged mountains, rushing torrents and wild moorland, a scraggy seventeen year old with his head full of the Gaelic language, highland romance and mountaineering exploits prepared for a walk into the wilds.

sgurr nan each se ridge scramble

Sun, 16 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Continuing with the very mild weather, I fell out of bed, had a nice coffee and a read through the outdoors mag then out the door and round towards Torrin for a day scrambling. And what a morning it was. Blaven was stupendous.

south skye moors

Sat, 15 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

What a strange autumn it’s been so far. Temperatures in the mid teens, not a sign of snow after the first dusting at the start of October and quite a lot of warm sunshine. Sums up today’s wander across the wild moors of south Skye.

a night on the mountain

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It seems summer has fled for another year up here. The rowans are heavy with berry and the bracken is brown and wilting. The meadowsweet has turned the colour of rusted iron and there’s an ochre tint to the landscape, blotched with the purple of heather. So before the snow comes I thought I’d scratch a long held itch to camp on the summit of Blaven. Before, in the words of that worthy, self styled average mountaineer, Quintin Hogg, my wine would run to ruin.

I kept the best wine till the last, only to find that I had lost my capacity for enjoyment

So yesterday afternoon I headed up that oh so familiar path and into blasted rain and lowering black clouds. Damn the forecast! Up into the coire, load up with water and make my way to the south summit, as intermittent heavy rain and low cloud drifted round the crags. Nothing to see, so keep moving.

the anonymous mountain

Sat, 02 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a quiet old time lately, hillwise but today I went out for a walk. Nothing much in mind, just a wander, to see where I ended up. On days like these I like to head up into the coire on Blaven and explore. There’s anticipation in the air as a storm is forecast to trundle in around three o’clock and ghostly wraiths wrap the summit now and then and my imagination takes me into another world.

tramping on ben hope

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Hot foot from Ben Klibreck on the Monday night, we searched in vain for spot I’d camped at by the loch shore nine years ago. In the end we plumped for a nice spot just off the road under the trees but eventually had to abandon the attempt to put up the tents due to the midges. I’ve never seem that many before. I could barely breathe at times they were so thick and I stumbled around choking and coughing, watching Penguin get madder and madder as he couldn’t get his tent up and get out of the swarm.

In the end we had to camp in the Ben Hope car park which had the only breeze around and even then, not that much. But at least we could get the tents up largely unmolested. In the morning we were woken by the rumble of cattle running along the road a couple of feet from the tents!

tramping on the mountains of kintail

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The great north run with Penguin had seen us climb Ben Klibreck, Ben Hope, overnight at the fantastic Sango Sands campsite at Durness (a personal favourite), make an abortive attempt on Conival and Ben More Assynt (horrendous rain and thick cloud) and finally stagger back to Skye for a breather. Breather over, we headed down the road to the north Glen Shiel ridge to climb Carn Ghluasaid, Sgurr nan Conbhairean and Sail Chaoruinn.

tramping on ben klibreck

Mon, 02 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Exploring the far north with my oldest pal Penguin, we met up in Inverness on the Monday and drove up to just beyond the Crask Inn, dumped the car and hit the hill.

spring in the cairngorms on sgor gaoith

Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

With the Easter weekend set fair, warm(ish) and dry, I drove across country to Kincraig to meet up with my oldest pal, Penguin. Our objective a day on the hill, climbing Sgor Gaoith, ‘rocky peak of the wind’, on the western edge of the Cairngorm plateau.

adventuring on clach glas

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday morning I finished off my TMA for the OU music course I’m doing, looked out the window and saw it was easing off. A wild morning had given way to a short lull in the storms rolling in off the Atlantic. I needed out. I needed some adventure after all that studying so headed round to Blaven, intent on not much other than wandering around.

the first snows on sgurr na feartaig

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Sunday dawned completely cloudless with a winter sun slowly rising from behind the snowy Knoydart peaks so I crammed everything into the ‘sac, gobbled down some porridge and hit the road, bound for Craig, up by Achnashellach.

anti bagging or sod yer hills if ye cannae see them

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

So said my old friend Cap’n Bob of coastalwalk and bing climbing fame. He’d done all the Munros several times so was want to utter this sage remark in front of the bothy fire with a vodka and creamola foam in his hand. Seems it’s catching though. This month’s TGO has an article about climbing Skiddaw, or not as the case may be. The author turns back as the cloud is too low. Is this the start of a new trend? Anti-bagging? “Nope I’m not going to the top for XXX reason”.

seana bhraigh

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I had a day off work on Thursday and the forecast was good, with a large high over the UK, light winds from the NW, swinging round to the SW with high cloud well clear of the tops. There had been sleet and snow on the highest tops, above 1000m on Wednesday and the forecast was predicting near freezing temperatures at 900m. Sounded to good so I decided on carpe diem and headed for Seana Bhraigh.