Hi, As most of you will be aware, The Highland Cross is described as: a 50-mile duathlon (20 miles on foot, 30 miles on bike) traversing the spectacular Scottish Highlands coast to coast, west to east from Kintail through Glen Affric and Strathglass to Beauly. Having hopefully completed enough training to take me through the event (which included borrowing a bike as I don't own one myself), I headed north on June 19th, with over £1100 worth of sponsorship ple...

Hi, For a travel website this event can be categorised as the 'shortest journey ever'. On the 24th July my good friend Anna MacKay was married to the Reverend Lyle Smith from Texas. The wedding took place at St Jude's Church in the west end of Glasgow, which is about a mile from my flat. The service was conducted by Reverend Roddy MacLeod. The reception was at The Hilton Grosvenor Hotel which is just half a mile from home. Not a long journey but a memorable one...

Hi, Just a few photos from a recent walk, which started in the village of Carlops, about half an hour south of Edinburgh. The route follows the rights of way path, 'Buteland by the Borestane.' A pleasant and easy three hour circular walk took us up to the North Esk Reservoir. The structure was constructed between 1848 and 1850 to produce water for the paper mills. The high point of the walk produces fine views across the Borders hills around Broughton and the f...

Hi, The second week of May produced that rare Scottish Phenomenon: guaranteed weather. And so it was that my good friend Donald Gillies texted me on Wednesday to see if I would be available to take a trip up to the west on Thursday for some walking to view old Scotia's grandeur. We caught the Skye bus on Great Western Road in Glasgow's west end around 0715 and got off at the White Corries just south of Glencoe around 0930. Leaving the road we joined the West Hi...

Hi, Have posted some pictures of our family gathering up north at new year. A family dinner on New Year's Day has always been a tradition over the years, but with the parents moving to Inverness in may this year was always going to be a bit different... We managed to rent a cottage on Dalmagarry Farm, which has a strong family connection. My mother's uncle Andrew MacQueen bought the farm in 1908, so amazingly our first new year up north coincided with the cente...