I love Scotland, mainly for its landscape. I like walking, and it’s a great place to go hiking. ~ Toby Stephens

Happiness in the Highlands

So now that my life seems to almost certainly spinning into plan b, my sights are fixed on Scotland. I’ve got the time off at work, I have plenty of vacation time, but now I need to make up my mind what I want to do. I’ve hiked in Scotland twice on the Great Glen and the West Highland Way. Both are beautiful hikes. The Great Glen is a more beautiful walk along the New Caledonia Canal including some time along Loch Ness. For the majority of the hike you are up on the mountains looking down over the canal. Hiking in Europe is different than hiking in the US, these are hikes are typically done hut to hut, or in this case B&B to B&B. On the glen, the places you stay have a tendency to be several miles off of the trail. This means extra miles every day and some days, meaning to contact the place for a ride or finding a local taxi. I’m sure it’s easier now with smart phones, my hikes were pre smart phones and at times rides were pay phone dependent. This was the only part of the glen that I didn’t really enjoy.

The West Highland Way was much more accessible, the walks typically ended within a mile or two of the towns or even in the town you were sleeping at for the night. And the high was lovely, just not as pretty as the glen. So I’ve been thinking that I’d really like to check out the Isle of Skye or some other region in the north. So I’ve been playing around with Skye hikes and tours so we’ll see what I end up doing, if that doesn’t work my fall back will be a repeat of the West Highland Way. Below a few photos and links to my posts about the Great Glen and West Highland Ways.