Hiking Scotland

Stirling is beautiful! Scotland is beautiful!

Now that I have my bearings pretty well set the weekends are beginning to fill up with adventures. Some of those adventures are organized with the new friends I have made while others are with the groups I have become a part of.

During our first week here several of us on the floor put together a bucket list. This list had various places to visit or things to do in the UK and Europe while we are here. Only a few of those things have been accomplished thus far but many will be in the coming weeks. One that we have accomplished is "Climb a motherf***ing mountain".

Other accomplishments include: "Draw a dragon on the bucket list" and "swim in the loch"

There have been two hikes up Dumyat Hill (our residential "mountain") made by the residents of our floor. There was much rejoicing had by all when we reached the peak and all of Stirling lay before us.

Success! The peak of Dumyat marked by the stone on the right. Stirling spread out below on my left. 

Hiking being such a great way to get out and about, get some exercise, and have fun I have joined the University of Stirling Mountaineering Club! They are a great group of students who enjoy hiking and climbing around Scotland. There are hikes most weekends and climbing excursions most Wednesdays. The climbing is mostly indoors at this time of year.  

On Sunday we hiked Ben Cleuch. We took a bus to the town of Tillicoultry about 15 minutes out of town, wound our way through town and then just headed up. Starting at the valleys between the hills the temperature was good and there were trees and shrubs. When walking along the ridges the wind was enough to unbalance us on occasion and make every layer necessary to keep warm. 

In the valleys...

Along the ridges...

  

Windy at the peak!

On Saturday I am going on another hike with the club. This one will be all day and about 9 miles round trip. I debated signing up for the longer hike but I worried about whether or not I was prepared. I will know more of where I rank as far as hiking preparedness after this weekend.