Blog

Use this website often? I invite you to support my work through Patreon or by making a one-off donation.

Top Walks for the Festive Season

There’s always so much going on in the lead up to Christmas that going for a walk can often be the last thing on your to-do list. And if you’re anything like me, come Boxing Day cabin fever is setting in and you NEED to get out. Here are my suggestions for walks you might…

Read more

Six Walks to try this Autumn

It’s time to welcome the arrival of Autumn and all the joys that the season brings: the colours that tease your camera out of your pocket, the crunch of fallen leaves under your feet, the return of the cool winds…. and therefore your favourite woolly hat. But where to go to make the most of…

Read more

Review: Visorando Mapping Website and Mobile App

Visorando is a mobile mapping app and website, with a focus on walking and biking routes. It is very popular in France, and developing a growing user base in the UK now too. It’s main functions are to find, prepare and share routes.

Read more

Heart-Shaped Walks for Valentine’s Day

The only thing more romantic than a Valentine’s Day walk with your beloved, is a heart-shaped Valentine’s Day walk with your beloved! In this post you will find a selection of routes I have written about which happen to be just that.

Read more

Whitelee’s Secret Forest – Valley Walkfest 2019

The blurb for my guided walk read “Join Gillian’s Walks and Rennie Mason, Whitelee Countryside Rangers on a visit to the tranquil, scenic side of the UK’s largest onshore windfarm at Cleughearn Plantation. Walkers will be bussed to Ardochrig from Darvel and we will soon find ourselves on a mossy track through the forest. This…

Read more

“Why Club 6713” by Colin

The most significant point of that third day and one that has influenced my life ever since, was after I emerged from the climb out of Kinlochleven. I had just hiked a tough 16 miles on my own, I was wet, cold, everything ached, and the view ahead was like looking into Mordor……

Read more

10 Family Walks For Easter

Easter is the perfect time for some family adventures in the great outdoors. Winter has given way to Springtime with longer days, daffodils and crocuses, newborn lambs and rising temperatures. Not to mention a lot of chocolate to work off! Here are my top picks to give you some inspiration for over the holidays….

Read more

“Walking For Weight-Loss” by Elaine

For the first in my series of Inspirational Stories From Everyday People, I present to you… Elaine. otherwise known (to me) as Mum :-) What drove Elaine to lose 3 dress sizes in 18 months and how has she kept it off? How has she coped with a devastating injury which saw her go from…

Read more

Why I Ditched The Car 44 Times In One Month!

December 2017 As a new volunteer with Kilmarnock’s Active Travel Hub I remember driving into the car park to risk assess a proposed health walk route and being a tad embarrassed when the Hub Officer arrived by bike! Considering I had come from a half mile away and Holly from the other side of town, it was…

Read more

10 Walks The Kids Will Love

It’s that time of year when we are all looking for fun ways to fill the days. On a dry day nothing beats getting everyone outside for a bit of fresh air and exercise. But, where do you go?

Read more

The Story Behind Gillian’s Walks

Something I read in December 2015 really hit a chord with me – “That thing that you do, after your day job, in your free time, too early in the morning, too late at night. That thing you read about, write about, think about, in fact fantasize about. That thing you do when you’re all…

Read more

Just a Girl Who Loves the Great Outdoors…

I was first introduced to walking as a young child when, from the age of 7, my parents took me into the Scottish hills at weekends. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, these exposures were developing in me a deep passion for the great outdoors.  We stopped going when I was in my teens and I went…

Read more