2025 has started very cold here in Aberdeenshire with steady accumulations of snow and arctic-sourced winds....good conditions for XC skiing in other words!  I set out from the high point of a road close to home and skied up a forest track before breaking out onto the end of the Correen Hills.  My timing was fortunate, 30 minutes after sunset and the sky was a range of beautiful shades.  This stunted pine tree is usually the first skyline object on the ridge and makes a nice foreground to pictures. I made an energy-sapping climb on the skis to catch the colours at the cair ..read more

On the second paddling day of our trip in Wester Ross Allan and I launched from the jetty at Laide in Gruinard Bay.  This is a handy launch spot but there's virtually no parking at the jetty itself so we parked back up the road a way so as not to block things for any other users.  There's also an honesty box, ingeniously adapted from an old fire extinguisher, for donations towards the jetty's upkeep. It was another very cold, clear and calm morning - "frost smoke" was rising from the sea as the sun climbed a bit higher. We paddled around the inner part of Gruinard Bay and landed ..read more

 We paddled along the southern shore of Loch Gairloch (a tautological name which translates as Loch of the Short Loch) and took a coffee break at Port Henderson where a narrow strip of sand allows an easy landing on an otherwise bouldery beach. Of course, when there are so many excellent beaches to savour, it pays to have plenty of hot water for coffee!  We headed north and made the 4km crossing of the outer loch to a beach which is simply known as "Big Sand"...for the most obvious of reasons!  A landing on the broad expanse of warm-coloured sand was followed by another ..read more

 December 2023 and into January 2024 saw some exceptionally wet weather in the north east of Scotland - Aberdeenshire received three times the average monthly rainfall in December as storms tracked more to the south than usual, resulting in a run of what felt like weeks of south easterly wind and rain for us.  This part of Scotland is usually the driest place in the country, but there have been only two dry-ish days in the last 20! But, at last, the rain pulled away early afternoon on the 5th January with a forecast of much more settled weather for the next week or so.  As the ..read more

The second half of April had some really fine weather with high pressure close by the north of Scotland.  Douglas and I watched the synoptic picture carefully for several days before deciding on a trip starting at Mallaig.  we came from opposite corners of the country but arrived within minutes of each other and after a coffee and croissant from the rather excellent Bakehouse, got our boats packed and set off. Our plan was initially to paddle up to the head of Loch Nevis for the first camp, but we soon modified that.  High pressure close to rather than over the country c ..read more

 When I started this blog back in 2009 it was primarily to create a record and to share some of the sights and experiences in Scotland's outdoors.  When things got busy with work or family life, the natural tendency was to post less, but lately I've really let it slip.  The last posts were some eight months ago - and they were recalling a trip in April 2022!  "Retirement" from a long career at sea in March 2022 was quickly followed by setting up a new venture in "retirement", so there has been a lot going on. In my defence, I've been posting a lot on the Mountain and Sea In ..read more

 After the warmth of late march, early April saw temperatures drop dramatically in north eastern Scotland as pressure systems realigned and allowed a bitterly cold northerly airstream to establish for a run of two weeks. In our local shop I overheard a Mum remarking that on a Sunday afternoon her toddlers had been in the paddling pool in the garden, and by Thursday morning they were building a snowman in the same garden! The hillwalking has been good though, clear northerly air gave great views like this one from near Coilochbhar Hill showing Pressendye and some of the other Donside hill ..read more

I woke to birdsong and warm sunshine at our camp near Ardlamont Point.  We ate breakfast while enjoying the sights and sounds of the place. Donny left earlier in his F-RIB than we did in our kayaks, he wanted to get back to the launch point at Kames at a relatively high tide which would considerably reduce the carrying distance with his boat, kit and outboard engine.  It had been great to do another trip with Donny; his film of the journey is here. After a leisurely breakfast while waiting for the dew to dry off our tents we packed up too and got underway.  We erased al ..read more

Replete and refreshed from our second breakfast in Tarbert, we headed south down the Kintyre shore before crossing back to the Argyll shore of Loch Fyne.  Conditions remained absolutely perfect with calm water and warm sunshine - we had to keep reminding ourselves it was still March! Close by the Argyll shore we landed on the tiny island of Sgat Mor (the name is possibly Big Skate after the fish).  We were delighted to find this tiny shell sand beach on which to take a leg-stretch.  We didn't stay long as the island is home to a colony of Great Black Backed gulls who v ..read more

Life, work and other things meant that this blog was a little neglected during 2021.  That's not to say that I didn't manage to get out and about though, and there will be some catch-up posts coming in the next few weeks. Just a couple of days prior to the winter solstice and there isn't much daylight here in Aberdeenshire, realistically six hours is what we get.  When Allan and Lorna and I left our homes in inland Aberdeenshire we were in bright sunshine with temperatures well below zero Celsius.....just 45 minutes drive north to the Moray Firth coast and things were a lot differen ..read more