Scottish Journeys

Gulfs of Blue Air: A Highland Journey Inspired by a verse in a poem, Crumley treks from one end of Scotland to the Northern Highlands recording his thoughts as he goes. Owing to his poet's nature, he narrates and describes in such clear images that you can see the pictures he records in the book. Walkers in search of solitude will welcome the way he records experiences that only he has and then shares them with us all. His description of the deer stampeding, of the peregrine's attack and of the absolute stillness conjur up reflections of this in one's mind eye. Scottish Journeys.

The Famous Highland Drove Walk Following the path trodden by ancient drovers, a long distance coast-to-coast walk from the Isle of Skye to Crieff. Includes relevant maps and advice for walkers, as well as tales from history and legend featuring places en route.

Coasting around Scotland Still rarely visited are many parts of Scotland's shoreline which offer some of the finest coastal scenery in Europe. This book provides an entertaining account of a journey on a mountain bike around this ever-changing coastline. Nicholas Fairweather's starting point was Portpatrick in Dumfries and Galloway. He followed coastal roads and tracks over Arran and Mull to the wild shores of Ardnamurchan, hitching lifts on boats to cycle across Knoydart before taking the Glenelg ferry to Skye. There were more tracks past the mountains of Torridon with a boat trip to Ullapool and a hard pedal through Assynt to beautiful Sandwood Bay. After losing the track and common sense, the demanding cross-country push to Cape Wrath proved to be a minefield, but Nicholas eventually reached the famous lighthouse and towering cliffs. The route then followed the northern edge of Scotland, crossing over to Orkney before heading south, down the north-east coast, past Dornoch to Inverness. At a later date, Nicholas resumed his coastal exploration via Lossiemouth through the dark forests of Culbin and Tentsmuir. The last part of the journey took him along the south-east coast to a sunny evening at St Abbs Head, over the deserted hill roads of the Borders to Dumfries and on to the Mull of Galloway. The book, illustrated with photographs and maps, evokes the beauty and mystique of Scotland's intriguing coastline while offering some practical help to aspiring travellers. Scottish Journeys.

To the Highlands in 1786: The... nquisitive Journey of a Young French Aristocrat. Francois and Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld have already earned their place among the more remarkably perceptive and lively commentators on eighteenth-century England, in the two earlier books of their travels presented so vividly and with such a wealth of detail by Norman Scarfe. Now it is the turn of Scotland to fall under scrutiny, in a journey undertaken in 1786 by Alexandre alone, in the company of his tutor Lazowski. As with the previous tours, the journey was undertaken to learn at first hand, but this time what preoccupied them was farming improvement (though industry, in the form of Paisley gauzes and other developments, also captured their enthusiastic attention). In a great sweep, they travel right round Scotland as far as the Moray Firth and the Great Glen, and down to Glasgow and Paisley. Scottish Journeys.

A Long Walk on the Isle of Skye: A New... David Paterson has pioneered another route through the spectacular scenery of the West Highlands, this time on the Isle of Skye. The 75 mile walk goes from the most southern to the most northern tip, and is described in full here.

Faintheart: An Englishman Ventures North... Seasoned journalist and writer Charles Jennings goes in search of the contradictions, cliches and surprises that make up a land that is singular in its clearly-held identity, cherished even by those with less than a second-cousin's-cat-once-removed claim to Scottish heritage. Stomping the quintessential Highlands from Inverness to Skye and risking frozen extremities to reach breathtaking Hebridean islands, he discovers a land of awe-inspiring beauty. And then travels city-wards to reach a nation of awe-inspiring iron(bru)-clad stomachs from the legendary deep-fried Mars Bar to the underrated and delicious haggis, classic oatcake, and fine whisky. Contemplating whether his great grandfather's legacy qualifies him to shed a tear at the sound of bagpipes, Charles Jennings compares the elegance of Edinbugh with the industrial action of Aberdeen, risks a pint in Kelvinside and sinks into the peaty bogs of Mull. Scottish Journeys.

Recollections of a Tour of Scotland On a 663-mile journey through the Scottish Lowlands and southwestern Highlands in the late summer and early autumn of 1803, Dorothy Wordsworth kept a journal. Travelling with her brother William and, for a short time, Samuel Coleridge, she recorded the adventures, sights and landscape of their trip. Her journal returns to print in this volume that provides black-and-white photographs of the Scottish scenes described. Carol Kyros Walker has captured these places in a photographic essay that follows each week of Wordsworth's journal entries. Walker also contributes an introduction to locate events of the journey within their historical setting and to explain the significance of this trip for the three participants; a discussion of Dorothy Wordsworth's skills as a writer; extensive notes to clarify her many allusions; and a map of the itinerary. Travelling in an eccentric Irish jaunting car - a rudimentary horse drawn vehicle - the Wordsworth party encountered assorted strangers and a wild countryside. Wordsworth presents a series of vignettes - a brutish ferryman beats her horse; solicitous Highland girls laugh as they choose dry clothes for her and her brother writes a poem about them; and a hermit's cell near Killin, with its moss decorations, stuffed foxes and wooden books covered with leather, fills her with wonder. Samuel Rogers and Walter Scott are alive in these pages and mix of historical figures also appears, including Rob Roy, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Robert Burns. Dorothy even incorporates early versions of her brother's poems in order to enhance own descriptions. Scottish Journeys.

A Light Walk Whilst on duty in the cramped confines of Muckle Flugga Lighthouse, Ian Cassells, took to walking circuits round the lighthouse station for exercise, 12 laps to the mile. With this background, when the Northern Lighthouse Board celebrated its bicentenary in 1986, he made the suggestion that in commemoration of the anniversary he carry out a sponsored walk to raise money for the RNLI, calling at all the then manned lighthouses on the Scottish mainland. It took the author 58 days in which he covered at least 1100 miles on foot.

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