Essential Gear List for Successful Wild Camping and Backpacking
What to pack for a successful wild camping or backpacking trip? The chances are that you have already found out that people get very passionate about their camping gear. The materials, weight, size, brands – everything goes. There are people out there that have made camping into an art form! If you are not quite at that point yet – and just want to build a good basic gear list for wild camping – this post is for you! I will go through my wild camping gear list and the items I would not camp without. My kit is by no means the lightest or the most technical – but…
Easy Munros to Climb in Scotland
What are Scotland’s easiest munros to climb? Scotland has 282 munros, or hills above 914m/3000ft. Attempting to climb all of them is a surprisingly addictive sport known as munro bagging. This list collects together 9 easy munros for you to get started with!
Compass Corner: Lesson 6 – How to Use Compass Bearings
Welcome to the first lesson in the second part of the Compass Corner navigation series! The next five lessons will focus on intermediate navigation skills. During these lessons, we will cover subjects like; using time and distance as navigation aids, contour interpretation and contouring, as well as using the landscape to aid us with navigation. This includes how to handrail, aim off and choose catchment features. However, today’s lesson will answer the questions: how to use a compass bearing and what is magnetic variation? I covered the basics of compass use, and how to take a bearing, in the last lesson. Now, we will take a more in-depth look at…
Compass Corner: Lesson 5 – How to Use a Compass
In this lesson, I will cover the basics of compass use for navigation. Knowing how to use a compass accurately is crucial for more advanced navigation techniques. It also becomes very important when navigating complex terrain or in poor visibility. Read on for a complete introduction on what is a compass, and how to use it. Followed by an easy step-by-step guide on how to take a bearing. If you have a specific question or aspect of navigating, that you’d like to learn more about, feel free to drop me a message or a comment – and I’d be happy to answer it in a future lesson!
Compass Corner: Lesson 4 – How Create a Great Navigation Strategy
All the term ‘navigation skills’ really means, is the ability to look at a map, plan a route and follow it. A good navigator will break these bigger tasks into smaller objectives. They will then create a solid strategy for how to approach these objectives methodically and work through them. Creating a good navigation strategy comes down to the 4 Ds of Navigation. Most commonly, these stand for distance, direction, description and duration. Read on for how to use these to create a navigation strategy which allows you to confidently navigate anywhere in the world.
10 Reasons to Visit Scotland in the Winter
Follow my blog with Bloglovin Against popular beliefs, Scotland is a great place to visit in the winter! From snowy hikes on its beautiful mountains, to quiet roads and romantic getaways in the Highlands, there is so much to see and experience during the offseason. Read on for my list of 10 ultimate reasons why you should travel to Scotland in the winter!
Compass Corner: Lesson 3 – Orientating Your Map to the Ground
Orientating a map to the ground is a key skill and an important building block for developing your navigation skills. Orientating a map can be done using a compass and matching the map north with the compass north. However, this lesson will focus on how to orient your map without the help of a compass. This is important and will help you learn how to identify and match features on the map and the ground. Orientating a map means simply to line up the features on the map with those on the terrain in front of you. When doing this the map north will always match with the north on…
Explore Picturesque Corrour and Climb One of the Easiest Munros
Would you like to experience the remoteness of the Scottish Highlands in a day and be able to stand on the top of one of Scotland’s famous munros (a Scottish hill over 3000ft/914m high)? The good news is that if you know where to go, these are very attainable goals. Even if you are not an experienced hillwalker or rambler. Corrour is one of the last strongholds of Scottish wilderness. Not accessible by public roads, the way to reach it is to take a train to the picturesque Corrour station. Just a few stops along from Fort William, heading in to explore Corrour is an excellent way to leave behind…
Compass Corner: Lesson 2 – Why are Grid References so Important?
I have decided to cover this important skill early into the series, as it is so crucial in an emergency situation. Knowing how to find out the grid reference of your location, either using a map or another tool, can make all the difference when things go wrong. It is especially important to know how grid references work, if you ever need to alert the Mountain Rescue, or another rescue service. The brilliant thing about grid references is that they will always accurately describe your location anywhere in the UK. Recently other services, such as the What3Words, have become popularised for the same purpose. However, there are reasons why these…
Compass Corner: Lesson 1 – How to Read a Map
Are you interested in brushing up your navigation skills or learning how to read a map for the first time? This lesson will cover common maps used for outdoor activities in the UK, have a quick look at the common types of map symbols, and explain different map scales. The aim of this lesson is to help you to choose what type of map to use for your adventure and how to start using it for simple navigation and route planning. Learning to navigate in different circumstances will increase your confidence and allow you to move in the outdoors safely and independently! Learning how to read a map does not…