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Issue 13, the walk to the cabin

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The roads less travelled that take you to places that matter. The adventures that gather you up and sweep you away. The blend of the wild and the artistic that makes Scotland what it is. We'd love for you to join us.

Live from ScotlandGlasgow Central Clear in Glasgow, and the sun sets at 18:09.Watch Scotland live
  1. Loch levelsLoch MareeLoch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 29 centimetres higher than it usually is in October.
  2. On this dayBen NevisOn this day in 1894 the summit of Ben Nevis fell to minus 8.3 degrees.
  3. WildlifeCaithnessA common seal was seen in Caithness on Thursday.
  4. NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
  5. Just openedCaithnessCastletown Mill in Caithness, built in 1818, is a whisky distillery now.
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Did you know

On the island of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, scheduled passenger planes land on a beach, and the flight times move with the tide.

Barra Airport's three runways are marked out on the sand of Tràigh Mhòr, the beach known in English as the Cockle Strand, with wooden poles at each end. At high tide all three are under the sea, so the times of the flights to Glasgow change with the tide. Because the runways point three different ways, the little Twin Otter planes can almost always land into the wind. The first official service touched down on the sands in August 1936, and Barra is still the only scheduled beach runway in the world.

See Barra Airport · Outer Hebrides
Just addedAdded yesterday

We've just added Pumpkin Madness at Westerton Farm to the website.

Pick your own pumpkin at Westerton Farm near Laurencekirk, with a bale maze, farm animals and a barn of bouncy castles, every day from 9 to 25 October.

Find out more about Pumpkin Madness at Westerton Farm
From the magazine

Graeme Johncock, a writer who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland's Around Scotland column, reached the Wailing Widow Falls, near Kylesku in Sutherland, by a rough trek over rocks and through mud.

The falls were the final stop on a trip through the far north-west of Scotland, and as Graeme puts it, 'Our last stop took a little more effort than the usual leisurely walk from a car park'. The trek ran along a gorge to the enormous waterfall, which crashes down from Loch na Gainmhich high above. Earlier that day he had wound his way past the mountains Suilven and Stac Pollaidh, with hardly a soul to be seen, and at Achnahaird beach a curious seal kept a wary eye on him from the waves. The falls made an impressive end to the day, and for Graeme they showed that Scotland has incredible surprises even in its furthest corners.

See Wailing Widow Falls · Sutherland
TodayFor today's weatherLoch LomondSauna and Swim ExperienceActivityGlencoeWilderness SaunaActivityPerthshireBirch Tree YogaActivityStirlingshireSpa salts and tea blends workshopActivityArgyll and ButeThe SaunaActivityMorayshireWood-fired saunaActivity

Today calls for a sauna.

3° and clear across Scotland. Cold enough to want the heat of a sauna, and the swim after.

See them all
Did you know

Skara Brae, a stone village on the Bay of Skaill in Orkney, was a thriving community before Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids were built.

People lived in the village from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC. That is earlier than the Great Pyramid, built around 2560 BC, and earlier than the main building at Stonehenge, begun around 3000 BC. Once its people had gone, the village was lost from sight until a storm uncovered it in 1850. The houses still have their stone dressers and box-beds, and Historic Environment Scotland calls it the best-preserved Neolithic, or New Stone Age, settlement in Western Europe. Today you can walk among ten of its buildings and four of its passageways, five thousand years after they were built.

See Skara Brae · Orkney
WildlifeThis weekSeen 15 timesRed deerSeen 11 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 10 times · Ruchazie, GlasgowWhooper swanSeen 7 times · North BerwickGannetSeen 6 timesCommon sealSeen 6 timesGrey sealSeen 5 times · GlasgowDipperSeen 4 timesWhite-tailed eagleSeen 4 timesPine martenSeen 4 timesOtterSeen 4 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 timesBarnacle gooseSeen 3 times · Mid ArgyllBeaverSeen twiceGolden eagleSeen twiceRed grouseSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Endrick WaterAtlantic salmonSeen onceBadger

The wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.

Red deer are Britain's largest land mammal, and in autumn the stags roar through the rut, and this week they were the animal reported most often in Scotland: 15 sightings, the latest in Argyll and Bute Council. These are the animals people have reported most in the last seven days, the most seen first. Every sighting is logged with a photograph or a recording on iNaturalist, the wildlife recording site, and each card opens them on its map.

Where to see wildlife in Scotland
Did you know

Scotland's national animal is the unicorn, and on the old Scottish royal arms two crowned unicorns hold up the shield, bound in golden chains.

The oldest surviving version of the arms with unicorns is a weather-worn carving above the gateway of Rothesay Castle, on the Isle of Bute, made no later than the reign of Robert III, which ended in 1406. In about 1484 James III went further and issued gold coins called the unicorn and the half-unicorn. The chain is usually read as a sign of royal strength: the unicorn was thought too wild for anyone to tame, and only a Scottish king was strong enough to hold it. You can still spot unicorns across the country, from the top of the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh to the gate of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

LochsToday

Loch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 29 centimetres higher than it usually is in October.

That is about a foot, against the loch's own average for the month over many years. It is on its way down. A gauge on the loch, kept by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, reads the level every quarter of an hour.

See Loch Maree
Did you knowJess MacdonaldWritten byJess MacdonaldRead Jess’s piece

Glenhurich Lodge, a former hunting lodge in a remote glen near Strontian, in Lochaber, has also served as a schoolhouse.

‘Over breakfast, a quick read through the provided history of Glenhurich revealed that the trees were planted in the 1860s at the same time as the earliest part of the house was built. The second wing came some four decades later and was originally intended as separate accommodation for Forestry Commission staff. In the 90s after a period of serving as a schoolhouse (enrolment included 13 children at its peak), the two were renovated and joined to create a single family home.’

Jess MacdonaldWritten byJess MacdonaldRead Jess’s pieceSee Glenhurich Lodge · Lochaber
1894On this day

On this day in 1894 the summit of Ben Nevis fell to minus 8.3 degrees.

From 1883 to 1904 men lived in a stone hut on the top and wrote the weather down every hour, day and night. In their 20 years of this date the summit was never warmer than 8.5 degrees (1899) and fell as low as minus 8.3 (1894). The forecast for the summit at 10pm today is minus 4 degrees.

See Ben Nevis
Did you know

Loch Ness, in the Highlands near Inverness, holds more water than all the lakes of England and Wales put together.

Loch Ness isn't the biggest loch in Scotland by area: that is Loch Lomond, at 71 square kilometres. What Loch Ness has is depth. It runs for about 37 kilometres and reaches around 230 metres at its deepest, so it holds 7,452 million cubic metres of water, more than any other loch in Scotland. The water is murky too, because of the peat in the soil around it. And for all that depth, it is not the deepest loch in the country: that is Loch Morar, further west, at 310 metres.

See Loch Ness · Inverness-shire
OctoberA waterproof, and a warm layer under it: the rain comes sideways as often as downBoots: the paths are wet from September onA camera you will actually carry: the light is low and gold for most of the dayA torch for the walk back: the evenings close in quickly nowSomething warm for the evening, wherever you are stayingPacking7 minutes ago

What to pack for Scotland in October.

The best light of the year, and the first of the cold.