Regional library
Cairngorms Library
Explore the Cairngorms’ published mountain routes and bothy guides, with stories about the landscape, hill lists, wildlife, winter weather and navigation.
Hiking Route Guides
3 guides
Lochnagar via Spittal of Glenmuick
The standard long ascent of Lochnagar from Spittal of Glenmuick via Allt-na-giubhsaich and the Ladder.
Cairn Gorm via Windy Ridge from Coire Cas: Route Guide
Climb Cairn Gorm directly from Coire Cas by Windy Ridge on a short, steep and highly exposed route to the Cairngorm plateau.
Ben Macdui via Coire Cas and Windy Ridge: Route Guide
Cross the vast Cairngorm plateau from Coire Cas to Ben Macdui on a serious high-level route where navigation and weather judgement are essential.
Hill Lists and People
Bothies and Overnight Shelters
Access and Mountain Safety
2 guides
Reading avalanche forecasts: what they mean for your route
The Scottish Avalanche Information Service rates hazard by altitude and aspect, not as one blanket level for a whole area. The practical skill is reading location, elevation and slope angle together so you can choose a different route before you reach suspect terrain.
The Wild Camping Grey Area: Where You Can, Where You Can't, and Why Scotland's Different
Britain's wild camping laws are a proper muddle: you generally need permission in England and Wales, Dartmoor's commons offer a genuine legal right to pitch, and Scotland grants access across most land under its own statute. The confusion comes from assuming that permission to walk somewhere includes permission to sleep there, which it usually doesn't, and the legal ground shifts beneath your boots without so much as a signpost to warn you.
Weather and Navigation
4 guides
The Phone Signal Lottery: Which Networks Reach Which Summits
Mountain mobile coverage changes by route, position, network and handset. Learn how to check current predictions, use offline tools and plan for calling 999 or 112 without treating signal bars as a safety guarantee.
The Brocken Spectre
When the sun sits behind you and mist lies ahead, your shadow can loom across the cloud with coloured glory rings around it—a Brocken Spectre that is dramatic, personal and always worth viewing from a safe position.
Alpenglow and Fata Morgana: UK Mountain Optical Illusions
On rare, still days, layered air can warp the horizon while low sunlight paints the ridges pink—proving the hills don’t have to be soaking wet to hold your attention.
The Whiteout: Why You Can’t Walk in a Straight Line
When the ground and the sky become the exact same thing, safety becomes a slow, quiet matter of trusting the numbers.
Landscape and Place Names
Wildlife and Working Landscapes
3 guides
When midges attack: the case for repellent and a head net
If you've ever been swarmed by midges in the Scottish Highlands and wondered whether insect repellent or a head net might actually be worth the bother, here's a practical look at what works, what doesn't, and why sometimes looking slightly ridiculous is preferable to being eaten alive.
The Mountain Hare Moult: When Camouflage Arrives Three Weeks Late
Mountain hares turn white for winter, which works brilliantly until climate change makes the snow late and they end up sitting on brown heather looking like small luminous idiots. They're still there in summer, just harder to spot when they're actually the right colour.
The Grey Squirrel Problem: When an American Import Owns Every Woodland Edge
Grey squirrels arrived in Britain in 1876 and have spent the last century and a half making red squirrels extinct across most of England. They're heavier, more aggressive, carry a virus that doesn't affect them, and they've turned every lowland wood into contested territory.
History and Heritage
1 guide
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