Sóller to Coll de L’Ofre

May 01

Sóller

It’s back to Mallorca for a bit of spring-time sunshine, bird watching and walking with the Missus. This was our first foreign holiday without the brat and so we could do adult things like imbibing the occasional tincture and walking without having to deal with teenage sulks: all very enjoyable. In this post I’ll talk about the best walk we did: a part of the GR221 long-distance path from Sóller to the Coll de L'Ofre.  And I’ll throw in an anti-cyclist rant for free.

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Macaterick

Apr 21

Macaterick and Tunskeen bothy

As regular readers know, “planning” is the watch-word here at FishBox HQ.  Nothing is done without months of diligent research and planning.  So it will come as no surprise to you that today’s walk came about over the coffee and toast this morning with the maps scattered about.  The bothy at Tunskeen caught the eye and with barely a “We haven’t been there yet, have we Jazz?” a plan for an easy saunter along forest tracks hatched.  And, of course, plans change…

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Kilchattan Loop, Bute

Apr 14

West Island Way stone

I want you to keep this to yourself because I’ve found an absolutely superb walk and I don’t want hordes of riff-raff coming along and spoiling it.  Luckily, because no-one reads this blog 1 it shouldn’t spread.  It is the loop of the West Island Way at the south end of Bute starting at the village of Kilchattan.  This is a 48km walk along the length of Bute and has been in place since 2000, but I’d only stumbled on by chance recently.  We’ve decided to do it in three stages, and today we’d head to south as I’ve always wanted to check out Kilchattan having seen it so often from the mainland.  Read more →

Notes:

  1. Apart from discerning people such as yourself, obviously. ↩

Glenkens Circuit

Apr 07

Old Raleigh Bike Sign

Today we were down in St John's Town of Dalry to do a 12km stretch of the SUW that we’ve been leaving because it doesn’t offer the chance for a nice circuit, and is too short for the bother of arranging two cars.  And sadly public transport isn’t an option either: I think the bus goes on Tuesday and comes back on Thursday…  So we’d have to either retrace our steps or bash some tarmac. Read more →

Culter Fell and Friends

Mar 31

Culter Fell from Hillshaw Head

The map just south of Biggar goes all brown and contoury 1 and is an area we usually just drive passed. Well, a bit of winter planning came up with a route that takes in one of the bigger lumps, Culter Fell and a few of its friends in a nice circuit taking in four Donalds and so today my legs got a much-needed stretch on a beautiful Spring day.  Read more →

Notes:

  1. I’m sure that’s a word. ↩

Straiton

Mar 10

All roads lead to Straiton

Straiton is a nice place I pass through (perhaps with a visit to the excellent public “facilities”) but never thought to use it as a centre for a walk, despite the village advertising itself as “Rambler Territory”.  Was it just not wanting to be a “rambler”?  What a moron – it is a great spot and the community are doing a great job are making it work with a range of routes all nicely described on a walking map.  Jazz and I approved. Read more →

Portpatrick

Mar 04

Dunskey Castle

You might remember last year when we did the start of the SUW that I’d been very impressed by Portpatrick and thought it would be a good place for a long weekend break with the Missus.  Well, as Man+Dog of our word, we invited her down this weekend and it was great.  We’d even ordered beautiful weather and were not disappointed: always worth a bit of advanced planning.  In this post we’ll combine two of our walks to make it look like we had an active weekend and didn’t just spend our time in the (excellent) pub. Read more →

Irvine Valley

Feb 25

So Where's the View?

Today was pretty murky so a local walk seemed a good idea. We opted for a few walks in the Irvine Valley around Galston. Jazz was born in the valley and so always nags for a return to her homeland.  The walks are well-signed at the various towns and there is a good web-site but it didn’t get the pulse racing. Read more →

Glen Trool

Feb 12

Looking east along Glen Trool

Normally when we are in Glen Trool we are heading along the glen to walk the hills at the east end.  Not today, and that was a great idea because we ended up with a 5-star walk (and they are pretty rare).  There was no real plan other than trying to do a bit of the Southern Upland Way at the west end of the glen and add on stuff that looked promising: one of those nice “Where does that path go?” days.  Let’s just say the route was very roughly a figure-of-8 centred around the visitor centre at Glen Trool 1. Read more →

Notes:

  1. Although it’s currently a building site as they refurbish it, which meant no shop, and hence no lovely Galloway ice-cream.  Update 12-May: full service restored. ↩

Durisdeer Hills

Feb 05

Durisdeer church

Readers with an excellent memory or fabulous text searching techniques will remember a walk from August 2010 where we were unimpressed with some Donalds near Durisdeer but thought the other hills in the area would make a much better day out.  Well, today we were back to find out, and to play around in some of that white stuff you’re meant to get in winter but which seems pretty scarce this year 1. Read more →

Notes:

  1. Probably caused by the BBC’s “It’s going to be another great year for Scottish skiing” report they did when Cairngorm had a snow flurry back in November. ↩