The Solitary Walker

To complete the account of my summer Scottish trip... From Duncansby Head I drove the east-coast road south to Wick, and then on to Helmsdal...

My time in Scotland was nearly over. I had to get back for work by mid-August. So I hurried along the northern coast, edging from Sutherlan...

The next day I left my tent pitched at Durness and took the coast road south-east to Loch Eriboll. The road - often single-track with passi...

After the delights of Sheigra and Sandwood I followed the broad, bare sweep of a glacial valley for several miles to the Kyle of Durness. Th...

Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in ...

Norman MacCaig had a friend in Inverkirkaig (where he spent his summers for many years) called Angus MacLeod. When his friend died, he wrot...

Who owns this landscape?-/The millionaire who bought it or/the poacher staggering downhill in the early morning/with a deer on his back?/Wh...

I spent my last day on Lewis in Stornoway (Steònabhagh in Gaelic), the burgh where one third of the island's 26,000 inhabitants live. I ...

One of the most remarkable sights on Harris and Lewis is the standing stone complex at Calanais (Callanish). These ancient megaliths are b...

Leaving Uig, I drove south through South Lewis and onto the Isle of Harris. As I headed into the mountains the rain fell ever more heavily....

Early next morning I went to Camas Uig (or Uig Bay - 'camas' means 'bay' in Gaelic) - just a few miles west of Cnip. I left ...

It was early evening when I reached the campsite at Cnip (pronounced 'neep'), a small crofting community on Lewis's western coas...

One Friday morning I took the Calmac car ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis... Lewis is the largest and most northerly is...

The next day I climbed Stac Pollaidh which lies just north west of Ullapool in the Inverpolly Forest. Of course the forest is a forest no l...

From Gairloch to the Garden of Inverewe, Scotland's finest garden, situated on a promontory jutting out into Loch Ewe. Despite sharing t...