Testament to what happens when life becomes so happy and joyful, please enjoy the next few entries representing my heart’s escape back to the wild landscapes of Scotland while my school career presently returns me to England.

June 2023: Summer is in full swing here in Scotland, meaning almost endless hours of daylight and plenty of motivation for being outside. Lately, I’ve been making more conscious efforts to explore the St Andrews surroundings and further afield, and continue my gradual health recovery (see previous posts), with maximum Vitamin D. Of significance, I’ve been enjoying swimming in the North Sea, running on the West Sands, dining al fresco as though this peninsula 56 degrees N were the south of France, and driving up to the Highlands to bag a few Munros with my adventurous Auntie Maggie. Incrementally challenging myself in the outdoors has been a breath of fresh air, even if my health & fitness are still far from where they used to be. The slow progress, however, has also allowed me to enjoy summer closer to home. Here, there is balance to be had and lots to be loved.

Schiehallion, Schiehallion, Schiehallion.

3rd June, Maggie and I picked Schiehallion for our first Munro challenge together. As Munros go, it’s neither too tricky, nor too technical, just a continuous, slightly strenuous climb along a well-marked path (we had no map). Also, Schiehallion is easy to reach as it’s found just at the south-eastern entrance to the Highlands, so it’s doable in a day from the Scottish Borders and Lowlands. But what Schiehallion lacks in difficulty, it gains in expansive views of the surrounding Scottish hills. In fact, with the weather we secured, we had full panoramas across Perthshire, down into the valleys below, and way out to the Highlands to the west. Apart from being assailed by beetle-flies on the summit ridge – their six suction-cup legs felt horrible landing on your skin – and aside from my relative lack of fitness, I’d say we had a Successful Day. It was made all the sweeter by afterwards riding the roller-coaster country roads in Maggie’s wee Audi A1 down to Pitlochry where we found a cool hydro-dam to visit and the all-important Pub for dinner. Day well spent.

One Munro down and plenty of summertime left to use, as I write, I am trying to swing sticking around in Scotland for the rest of summer, despite need of finding a new job in St Andrews (I only had a short contract with the University). I’m aiming to bag more Munros as, so far, I’m technically only at two: Schiehallion and Cairn Gorm. I thought I’d bagged at least one more, but Cairn Lochan is not counted as a standalone peak, so doesn’t qualify, unfortunately. We’ll have to wait and see what happens over the next month if I can arrange more mountain challenges!

A day out on Schiehallion, a montage.

More Munros and unexpected silver linings…

July 2023: It’s now July and miraculously I have secured my Scottish residency for another two months thanks to a new job on The Scores – Concierge at The Rusacks Golf Resort Hotel! That’s two more months of swimming, hiking, picnicking and basking in the Kingdom of Fife with some of the best people I have ever known before heading to life in Boarding Land! Between friends’ graduation parties, soirees and eternal sunsets, were many more micro-adventures, but the real beauty of the last few months has been a steady improvement on my part at living in the present. Suffice to say there is no place I’d rather have spent my summer.

8th July, another glorious summer day, another Munro. After a night in the Borders, Maggie and I once again took the little A1 back up the road to Highlands, passing through the vast Forth River valley and ever-climbing hills from the Lowlands to the Campuses and finally the Highlands themselves. This time, it was Ben Vorlich at the entrance to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs (where Clan Galbraith once held strong before we were allegedly deported to Ireland), with possible addition of Stuc a’ Chroin. Another beautiful day, this time accompanied by Liadh the dog, yet on this occasion I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about the climb. I wondered that perhaps I didn’t have it in me any more, that perhaps I burnt out my mountain climbing abilities in the Alps and in the Cairngorms last year. Perhaps, I thought, I would be better adjusting myself to more tranquil activities…

Fast forward a couple of hours and more than halfway up another strenuous walk (not so much a climb), I am finally finding my rhythm and shaking off my earlier apprehension. In so doing, I reasoned that mountain climbing does not always need to be about conquering – I am learning to enjoy the process and the lessons it brings, even when I am pushing through tough challenges, whether it be climbing a mountain or getting through a hard day’s work. Relaxing into the hike in this way, I found myself accelerating up the steepest section of the Munro until I was suddenly at the summit and all of the Trossachs opened out around me, while Maggie and dog Liadh were still miles behind, never to catch up!

When reunited an hour or so later (no time for Stuc a’ Chroin today, Liadh really wasn’t having any of it), Maggie and I took the liberty to go enjoy the shores of Loch Earn a little while, me enjoying a gentle dip in the delicious loch water (I have really taken to wild swimming), before driving off into the sunset for a very thankful Mass in Stirling. Sometimes I wonder if my planned adventures are meaningless pursuits, but when they end in happy satisfaction like this I know that can’t be the case.

A day out on Ben Vorlich, a montage.

Perfect summer memories of everyday life

I cannot possibly describe the magic of many small moments had over the rest of summer outside of the Munro-bagging adventures. This year, for all my anxiety surrounding ill health and recovery, and other unforeseen circumstances, life has been the stuff of an adventurer’s dreams.

Please join me in my next post for an unfiltered montage of uncaptioned moments of unplanned joy outside of all the planned adventures. It’s these that have meant heaven and earth to me.

Yours adventurously,