Just recieved confirmation from the BBC that the next Adventure Show is scheduled for Sunday August 31 at 6pm. This show includes the Highland Cross event, paragliding, gear review on walking boots, a C2 kayaking sequence and my own Wild Walks slot. This month we’ll be climbing Ben Venue in the Trossachs.

The recent petition on legalising wild camping in England and Wales has helped focus attention on the definition of wild camping, even in Scotland where its legal status was formulated under the provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

While Scotland’s access legislation means everyone can go camping, pretty much anywhere (with a few reasonable exceptions) as long as it is done responsibly, the issue has caused considerable concern for many land owners and local communities in rural areas and urban fringes throughout the country. Scottish Natural Heritage, the organisation charged with looking after Scotland’s countryside, is keen to focus attention on what constitutes “responsible” wild camping.

Backpackers and hillwalkers know that wild camping is all about being in a special place, getting away from it all to enjoy a refreshing and invigorating experience, but according to SNH the natural beauty of many of these special places is being seriously compromised. An increasing number of antisocial and careless behaviour cases are being reported at wild camp sites across Scotland. These incidents include vandalism, out-of-control fires, rubbish, abandoned equipment and pollution from unburied human waste.

Scottish Natural Heritage is now particularly keen to target casual and occasional campers who pitch beside accessible roads or lochs and help them understand their responsibilities.

While the majority of campers observe the “leave no trace” principles of wild camping some inexperienced or less thoughtful campers can be less considerate. Access rights depend on responsible behaviour, and it’s vital that people think about the effects of their actions on others and on the environment.

It’s worth remembering that Scottish access rights do not cover certain areas. Places exempt from the access code include: buildings, curtilage around buildings, and compounds; reasonable privacy and disturbance zone around houses; sports and recreation fields while in use; schools and the land they use; where you have paid for entry previously; building sites, demolition and engineering works; quarries and surface mineral workings; sown or growing crops including hay/silage fields at late stage of growth; golf courses, except to cross over them.

Everyone who goes backpacking should do so in a responsible manner anyway. The Scottish Outdoor Access Code suggests you should use a camping stove if possible. If you must have an open fire keep it small and under control and remove all traces before leaving. When disposing human waste, carry a trowel and bury it. When urinating outdoors, do so well away from open water, rivers and burns. Never leave litter lying around. Take it away with you and dispose of it responsibly. Glass bottles, cans and plastic bags don’t just look unsightly; they also cause seriously hazards to wildlife. When driving to a site, use a designated car park where possible and never block a road or lane, an entrance to a field or a building.

I think if I had my way roadside camping would be banned and I do have serious concerns that the irresponsible attitude of the few could affect those who go backpacking in a responsible manner.

www.outdooraccess-scotland.com

We were filming a walk for my slot on the BBC’s The Adventure Show and, as in all these walks, it’s important to set the scene, to show the viewer where we are and say where we’re going. To do this I had chosen a lovely spot near the foot of the Ledard Burn, which tumbles down from Ben Venue in the Trossachs. The burn passes the very old Ledard Farm and I was aware that Sir Walter Scott had once stayed there to while working on the notes for his books, The Lady of the Lake, Rob Roy and Waverley. It was said that he worked by a pool on the Ledard Burn near the farm, nowadays known as Scott’s Pool.

Above Scott’s Pool and a tumbling waterfall lies another pool, overhung with oak and birch and framed by steep slopes of bracken. This is Helen’s Pool, where Rob Roy Macgregor courted his wife, Helen Campbell. It is a rather romantic spot in a romantic corner of Scotland.

Less than 20 miles from Glasgow it’s easy to discount the Trossachs as daytripper country, and I guess Sir Walter Scott overly romanticised it but up until the Jacobite uprisings this tumbled land of rocky bluffs and lochs, mountain and wild glens were virtually sequestered from the laws of the land. The clansmen who lived here were beyond the law and lived to an older system of self regulation and family loyalty.

A few lines in an old Statistical Account of the times suggests they were prone to regular “predatory excursions” on their neighbours in the south, usually on cattle raiding ploys. It wasn’t until after Culloden that the area began to open up, with artists and writers and poets leading the invasion.

It’s worth reading Scott’s Rob Roy and Lady of the Lake and it was good, later in the day, to sit near the summit of Ben Venue and gaze down on Loch Katrine beyond the Bealach nam Bo, where, it is claimed, the Macgregors once drove their stolen cattle back to their homelands at the head of Loch Katrine. Beyond the pass lies the Corrie of the Urisks, or Goblins and beyond that, in the loch, lies Ellen’s Isle, or Eilean Molach, the setting for Roderick Dhu’s stronghold. In the Lady of the Lake, Helen Douglas, the heroine, and her father escape from the island and hide in the Goblin’s corrie.

And beyond the literary and historic connections lie the hills - silent and enduring. Ben More and Stobinion, An Caisteal and Cruach Ardrain and Stob a’ Choin above Inverlochlarig, once the home of Rob Roy himself. 

It’s easy to overlook the Trossachs and head for the bigger hills of the north, but there is definitely an intimacy about these hills and glens as though all the great features of the highlands have been compressed into one small area. And curiously, I would suggest that the pen portraits that Scott painted of the Trossachs soon become generic of the highlands as a whole. Well worth a visit!

The image is of the islands of Loch Katrine from Ben Venue.

Found some time this morning to put up 25 images of The Sutherland Trail that Gina and I hiked a couple of weeks ago. I’ll be writing a descriptive route account for the November issue of TGO magazine and the route itself will be the feature of an hour long television documentary I’m working on for the BBC. That will be broadcast at Christmas this year. There will also be a DVD available.

In short the route runs from Lochinver to Tongue in the north-west highlands of Scotland. It’s about 70-odd miles in length but you can lengthen that by climbing some of the marvellous hills en route, like Suilven, Canisp, Ben More Assynt and Conival, Glas Bheinn, Arkle, Meall Horn and Foinaven, Ben Hope and Ben Loyal. My own hope is that it will become a popular trail and bring some much-needed economic boost to the communities of Sutherland, one of the truly great wild areas of Scotland.

If anyone tells me the north-west of Scotland has a poor climate then I simply won’t believe them. Last year my wife and I walked the Cape Wrath Trail in glorious weather and I’ve just returned from two more fantastic weeks in Sutherland.

During the past week I’ve been filming for a television programme I’m working on for the BBC but the first week was spent walking a route that might become known as the Sutherland Trail.

The route runs for 70-odd miles between Lochinver and Tongue and is mostly on trails and tracks with a little bit of off-trail walking and a few miles on minor tarmac roads. It potentially takes in hills like Suilven, Canisp, Ben More Assynt, Arkle and Foinaven, Ben Hope and Ben Loyal but the route can be walked as a long distance trail without the summits.

We left Lochinver a couple of weeks ago in beautiful sunshine, camped below Suilven, continued through the hills towards Elphin but cut across the east shoulder of Canisp and followed the river to Inchnadamph. On our second day the temperature hit 30 degrees!!!

We then climbed over the high shoulder of the Corbett Glas Bheinn and followed wonderful stalkers’ paths to the virtually dry Eas a Coul Aliunn, supposedly the longest waterfall in the UK. We then dropped down to Kylescu and stayed at the wonderful Kylescu Hotel.

Next day we wandered over the high route of the Reay Estate to Achfary, made our way to the bothy at Lone and climbed over another high bealach to Gleann Mhor below Ben Hope. Our last day followed an old peat road, the Moine Path, over the north shoulder of Ben Hope to the road just south of Tongue, close to Ben Loyal.

The route took us just over 5 days and was magnificent. I’ll get some images of it onto the Gallery in the next few days.

The images on this post are (above); crossing the high ground between Kylestrome and Achfary and (bottom) Arkle.