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Scotland

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The Second Chance

For someone who grew up in the flatlands and was only able to get to the hills occasionally, the dream of living in the mountains was always a seductive one. My first chance came in 2008 when I was 22 years old. In 2008, I was uncertain about a lot

The Second Chance
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A fastpacking circuit in the Cairngorms

51km through the Cairngorms with running shoes, a lightweight pack, and a mindset that wasn't quite hiking and wasn't quite running but something distinct from both.

A fastpacking circuit in the Cairngorms
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Scotland: the first two months

Two months ago, my wife Hannah and I moved into our new home in a small hamlet west of Forfar in Angus. So how have things been going – and has it been as adventurous as I hoped?

Scotland: the first two months
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Home...

Yesterday, after packing all our stuff into a big red van, we made the drive back up north from Lincolnshire to our new home in Scotland. Dire warnings of snow spiced things up a bit, but in fact we barely saw a speck of snow on the drive, and skies

Home...
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A first walk in my local hills after the move to Scotland

Yesterday, Hannah and I moved into our new house near Forfar. We've got a to-do list as long as my arm, but today I managed to escape up into the Sidlaws, our local hills, for a couple of hours...

A first walk in my local hills after the move to Scotland
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Photography on the Trail

You don’t need a ton of gear to create meaningful images on a long-distance trail. Sometimes an agile approach can be best. This feature was first published in On Landscape (Issue 132), February 2017. All images © Alex Roddie. By its very nature, landscape photography requires the photographer to be

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The Alder Trail – Field Notes

Alder Trail, Scotland, backpacking

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A moment in time: November 30th, 2009

‘I can’t do it, Roddie. I’m going back down. Sorry, mate.’ It was one of those most perfect of winter mornings. The season had started early in Glen Coe, with snow sweeping the mountains before a cold snap froze everything up, bright and gleaming. In the bar the

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Book review: Moonwalker by Alan Rowan

Moonwalker: Adventures of a midnight mountaineerby Alan Rowan Walking the Munros. This is a time-honoured subject for hillwalking books, and it might be thought that nothing new can be contributed to the topic. Search for books on the Munros and you’ll find everything from detailed guides to memoirs. However,

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The Caplich Wind Farm proposal threatens the wild land of Scotland

Update: UKHillwalking asked me to adapt this article as an opinion piece for their website. You can read the extended version here. Although I lived in Scotland for a number of years, I can’t claim an intimate acquaintance with the far North West of the country — that wild and

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