Scotland Vacation Comments - Eric Praetzel

Hiking in the Hills

Scotland is blessed with exceptional mountain hiking; and wet, foggy weather. It was not unusual to have hours of light rain each day. Clouds clung the to mountain peaks making navigation difficult. You could see for a few meters and there was rock that went down and up; but you never quite knew if you were really going upto the peak or down to a steep dropoff! Topographical (ordinance) maps and a compass are necessary if you are doing longer hikes.

Clothing
In a single hike it was not usual to be everything from hot to very cold, wet and windy. You will need good wind jackets and pants as it gets very windy, and wet, on the peaks. Sweaters are necessary and gloves and a hat are very useful. Rain gear is very useful; but with a slow drizzle I wonder if you will sweat more inside a plastic jacket than you will get wet from the rain. However, steady rain is not unusual so there are days when you will get totally soaked.
Much of the hiking is also thru bog; even high up. Except to get wet boots most every day unless you are only hiking on rock.

The Trails

There are no trails as we are accustomed to in Canada / USA. "Trails" are a right of way on private property. It has been established by decades of use. As such, trails are not marked, not maintained. If you're the type to ask "Am I there yet?" you will always find the answer to be NO! You will not find warning signs, ropes, fences or anything to protect hikers. Some trails require mountain climing experience and many require mountain climbing equipment

The Scots seem to have no concept of a variety of grades of hiking. I consider a "walk" to be a short distance walk that can be done without special boots or equipment. They call everything a walk. It can be 20 mi / 30 km, 15 hours long and involve climbing up a rock cliff. Then seem to use the word "scramble" whenever a "walk" involves the use of your hands. But there is little to distinguish between a "scramble" and a full blown scale of a cliff face with climbing equipment.

I am quite afraid for Scotland. There are battles forming between land owners who don't want hikers all over their property and people fighting for the right to keep hiking these mountains. Some parks are being formed and things could keep on going as they are; except that the popularity will quickly make this problem worse. The Scots are surprised that some of these trails see 20,000 to 30,000 people per year. Trail erosion dammage is quite evident on mail trails. That is the real problem that Scotland faces. When there is large amounts of erosion the land owners will see a cost to these "hill walkers".

The Hikes

Hostels

Scottish Youth Hostel Association

I highly recommend the Scottish YHA. They accept credit cards and most hostels have self-catering kitchens with pots, pans, crockery, cutlery and utensils. You can pre-reserve nights over the web as well as check how full a hostel is.

Independent Hostels

The Independent hostels are different. They don't tend to have the rules of the YHA's [ie you can not check in until 5 pm] and their quality tends to be highly variable.

Car Rental

After much research I can only recommend one company www.EasyRentaCar.com. As much as I hate some things about the way that their web pages work [don't even try to use Netscape!] they provide the most detailed information bar none and come highly recommended by associates who have used them several times. Their rates were typically 1/2 that of competitors; primarily because of insurance arrangements.
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