Walking in Scotland
Wherever you are in Scotland there is usually good walking, accessible from nearly all of the many self catering cottages in Scotland's countryside.
Munros and Corbetts
Mountains over four thousand feet are called Munros, after the nineteenth century compiler of the first exhaustive list. There are two hundred and eighty four of them.
With one exception they are all accessible without mountaineering equipment. Precipitous, rocky and dangerous slopes often stand in contrast to easily walked paths to the tops on the other side of the mountain. Glaciation is often the key to this contrast � the steep slopes and cliffs being found in�corries� which used to lie at the heads of glaciers, and in the near vertical sides of the U-shaped valleys gouged out by the same glaciers. The weather can make both walking an climbing hazardous, with thick fog, strong winds, driving rain and freezing temperatures in summer and winter. In fact the ascents of certain Munros in winter are accepted to provide the most challenging ice climbs in Europe.
A later list compiled by John Rooke Corbett in 1930, covers the hills between two and half and three thousand feet. Lower and smaller the nonetheless rival the Munros for walking and climbing.
So summer and winter, Corbett or Munro, walkers and climbers must be prepared for extreme weather conditions on the exposed tops.
Long distance Walks
There are five, offering a great variety of scenery. All require at least one overnight stay, a �rwo centre� holiday (for example one of Wilderness Cottages' Loch Ness self catering holiday cottages) or special travel arrangements. All offer a great sense of achievement in completing them.
Great Glen Way - 118 km (73 m). Between Fort William at the northern end of the West Highland Way and Inverness following the Great Glen Fault. It follows Loch Ness until Drumnadrochit, and then passes through moorland, until finally crossing the Caledonian Canal and the River Ness near Inverness.
Southern Upland Way - 341 km (212 m). From Portpatrick (Dumfries and Galloway) on the west coast to Cockburnspath on the east coast. It passes through pastoral valleys, forests, and rugged uplands and so requires fitness and endurance.
Speyside Way - 68 km (42 m). Between Spey Bay on the Moray Firth coast and Tomintoul, one of the highest villages in Scotland. It passes through the Cairngorms National Park and along the old railway there.
St Cuthbert�s Way - 100 km (63 m) From Melrose in the Scottish borders to the island of Lindisfarne just off the Northumbrian coast. It covers ground which is associated with St Cuthbert including a variety of delightful and unspoilt countryside: Tweed valley, the Cheviot Hills and the Northumberland coast.
Westhighland Way - 153 km (95 m). Between Milngavie, on the edge of Glasgow, and Ben Nevis, passing along the shores of Scotland largest loch, Loch Lomond. A superb walk across the Highland Fault, thereby providing both the Lowlands and Highlands scenery, and walking that is part pleasant and relaxing, part strenuous and rough.
