Scotland Off the Beaten Track

Argyll & Bute | Black Mount | Full day walk | ★★★★

Between Glen Coe and Bridge of Orchy lies the Black Mount: a rough and wild hill group comprising four Munros linked by fine high-level ridges. At 1090 metres above sea level Stob Ghabhar is the highest of the quartet, a natural focus for the southern half of the range, but fairly easily climbed by its southeast ridge from Victoria Bridge. The superb circuit described below uses this route in descent, instead adding in 945-metre Stob a' Choire Odhair as an energetic warm-up. Travelling between the two summits requires climbing the northern flank of the Aonach Eagach; this is unrelentingly steep and involves simple scrambling, but is much more straightforward than its narrower namesake above Glencoe village.


📌 Walk: Stob Ghabhar - Black Mount Magic ★★★★
Start / finish at car park at minor road end near Victoria Bridge, 2 mi northwest of Bridge of Orchy, G.R.: NN 271419 ///crank.stammer.shine

▶ 16 km / 10 mi | ▲ 1240 m | ⌚ Full …

City of Edinburgh / Midlothian | Pentland Hills | Half day walk | ★★★★

The spine of the rolling Pentland Hills comes abruptly to an end with Allermuir Hill and Caerketton Craigs, with only the Edinburgh City Bypass separating the moorland of Muilieputchie from Oxgangs cul-de-sacs. This half day walk therefore offers big contrasts: the curious dichotomy of a spacious, underpopulated southern vista accompanied by the rumble of road traffic 300 metres below - no doubt a strange world for the resident red grouse! The beginning of the route climbs around the chairlift and ski runs of Midlothian Snowsports Centre, eventually leading to easy ridge walking across the tops. The descent has a further surprise in store however: the exquisitely pretty, conservation hamlet of Swanston, where 18th century thatched cottages enjoy a rural idyll barely half a mile from the city limits.


📌 Walk: Allermuir Hill - prow of the Pentlands ★★★★
Start / finish at car park just off A702 at start of access road …