My February 2023: Adventures in the Cairngorms & Inner Hebrides

I’ve settled into my new life in Aberdeen, and I’m enjoying it so far – despite the heavy workload that comes with postgraduate studies! I’m trying to balance my studies with weekend adventures and evening hangouts with my friends at the pub and climbing club!

Destinations visited in February 2023

Scotland

• Aberdeen
• Cairngorms National Park (Ballater, Tullich, Loch Kinord, Dinnet, Crathie, Lock Muick)
• Oban
• Inner Hebrides (Isle of Mull, Isle of Kerrera, Isle of Lismore)

Top 3 favourite new destinations

1. Isle of Kerrera, Scotland
2. Isle of Lismore, Scotland
3. Isle of Mull, Scotland

Daily life

Life in Aberdeen

My first lecture of the month was cancelled due to a nation-wide strike among teachers and lecturers. The others went ahead, with lots of reading and interesting seminars on cannibalism in prehistory, ancient DNA, the Little Ice Age and several other intriguing subjects. I started working on my upcoming exams and planning out my thesis work, and started to realize just how much work postgraduate studies require, but I’m enjoying it so far. March and April are going to be very busy, though, so February was like the calm before the storm.

When I wasn’t reading or writing for uni, I hung out at the local pub with my friends, got to know new friends (and dogs!), failed repeatedly at the Tuesday pubquizzes, went for walks in the city and worked on the blog. I also spent a fun Friday singing Taylor Swift at karaoke, and started climbing every Thursday with the university’s climbing club. I’ve really enjoyed getting back into it although my arms felt like spaghetti after the first few sessions!

Travels and local adventures

The first hike in Cairngorms National Park

In early February, took my first trip out of Aberdeen since moving to the city in mid-January: a Sunday hiking adventure full of pretty views, lakes and cultural heritage. I’d wanted to climb Mount Keen (939 m.) as I desperately wanted to get started on bagging munros (the Scottish word for a mountain over 3,000 feet or 914.4 m.), but without a car, I wouldn’t be able to make it in time for the early winter sunset. Instead, I set out to conquer a few smaller mountains. I ended up hiking 21 km with lots of interesting archaeological sites and beautiful views along the way!

I started my hike in the town of Ballater and climbed the mountain behind the town: Craigendarroch at 402 m., which rewarded me with wonderful views of the national park. Then I made my way to the ruined church in Tullich, built around 1400 and abandoned in 1798. I then climbed the low mountain of Cnoc Dubh at 325 m., which offered a beautiful view of Loch Davan and Loch Kinord where I was headed next. The two lakes are a hotspot for archaeological sites! I explored an abandoned village from the past century, the remnants of an Iron Age settlement and an early Christian carved stone. Loch Kinnord was a true beauty and gave me the most memorable sunset since my arrival in Scotland.

A 33 km hike to Loch Muick

On a sunny Sunday in mid-February, I met up with my friend Stine for an early bus journey back to the Cairngorms. I’d planned out a long yet relatively easy hike taking us to the beautiful Loch Muick, nestled below some of the highest munros in the area.

Arriving in the small village of Crathie at 10 AM, two hours after we’d set off from Aberdeen, we immediately set out on our hike, not wanting to waste any daylight as we knew we wouldn’t be able to make it back before dusk, however we tried to limit the nighttime hiking as much as possible. The light was beautiful from the get-go, the wind was mild and the air cool – perfect conditions for a long day of hiking!

On our way to the lake, we took two small detours to summit the low mountains of Tom Bad a’Mhonaidh at 473 m. and Meall Corm at 553 m., which awarded us with beautiful views over the area. Reaching Loch Muick, we found a spot by the shore to enjoy a little break before continuing on our hike, following the shore of the lake. Wanting to take a different route back to Crathie, we continued almost to the end of the lake, then took a trail through a forest and up to the Falls of the Glasallt. This section was the most fun part of the hike. The scenery was also the best we’d had on the hike, with lovely views over the lake and the waterfall cascading down rocky cliffs. We filled our bottles with the fresh mountain water, and then continued up to a mountain pass between Little Pap (956 m.) and An t-Sròn (708 m.). This was when we first came into contact with snow – I was actually surprised we hadn’t seen any earlier considering the early time of year.

Up next was a long section of gradual descending with a few short ascents. A nice and easy way to end the day, if it wasn’t for the fact that our legs and feet were killing us, the sun had already set and we still had 12 kilometres to go… Oh well, there’s nothing a bit of Taylor Swift singing and song ranking can’t cure!

We ended up walking 33 kilometres and 49,000 steps, the most I’ve ever recorded!

An extended weekend in Oban and the southern Inner Hebrides

For the last weekend of February, I had four days off so I’d hoped to be able to go home to Denmark to visit my family and celebrate my mum’s birthday, but flights were too expensive and the departure times meant I’d only have two days at home and spend the other two days travelling… So instead, I decided to go on an extended weekend trip to the west coast of Scotland, an area I came to love when I lived on the Isle of Skye back in early 2020.

I’d long wanted to visit the Isle of Mull, the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides after Skye, but since accommodation was quite expensive, I decided to stay in the quaint town of Oban on the mainland instead. Oban was very convenient as it’s linked to the rest of Scotland by rail, has relatively cheap accommodation and daily ferry routes to Mull and several other islands. I had three and a half days to spare for exploring, so I spent the first afternoon discovering Oban and then took day trips to three different islands on the other days.

My first day was spent on Mull where a rental car awaited me upon arrival. Mull is quite large and impossible to get around without a rental car, and since I wanted to see a lot, it was the only option for me. Unfortunately, I misjudged a hike I went on and ended up spending six hours instead of the planned three hours on it. The hike was beautiful – it took me past Nun’s Cave with early Christian carvings and to the geological wonders of Carsaig Arches – but it also meant that I didn’t have time for anything else except a short sunset drive after the hike. I’ll definitely be returning to Mull someday!

The next day was spent on the small island of Kerrera, located just a few minutes of sailing from the mainland. I’d never heard of Kerrera before going, and judging from the amount of people I met there (hardly any), I believe Kerrera generally flies under the radar. I had a beautiful day of slow hiking around the southern end of the island, with gorgeous views, a surprise shipwreck discovery, the remains of the 16th-century Gylen Castle, the rocky tidal island of Eilean Orasaig and several idyllic hamlets. I fell instantly in love with Kerrera, and I’ve firmly placed it in 2nd place on my list of favourite Scottish islands (following my absolute favourite, Raasay).

The last full day was spent on Lismore, a flat(-ish) island just 45 minutes of sailing from Oban. I focused my time in the northern part of the island where a muddy trail led me to an Iron Age broch, the idyllic string of whitewashed cottages in Port Ramsay, an unnamed tidal island, past several isolated farms and to the remains of Castle Coeffin from the 13th century.

I got super lucky with the weather, and especially the last two days were absolutely gorgeous with hardly any clouds in sight. It felt amazing to be back in the west and back to exploring what I love most about Scotland; its many rugged islands!

New on the blog

Most popular post

• Solo travel blues: Dealing with anxiety, burnout and loneliness on the road – The most personal post I’ve written in a long time. It took a lot for me to actually post it, so I’m happy it was received so well – and based on the private messages I received, I’m definitely not alone with these feelings.

The other posts

• My January 2023: Making the long-awaited move to Aberdeen – All about the big move to my new city!
• A brief visit to Zrenjanin, a small city in northern Serbia – Is half an hour enough to explore a city? Well, if that’s all I’ve got, you’d better believe I’ll make the most of it!
• Discovering Liège, my unexpected favourite Belgian city – The last post from Belgium this time around is about its unknown jewel, Liège.

Most popular Instagram picture

I haven’t been very active on Instagram lately as I’m getting increasingly annoyed with the takeover of reels, but I did post three pictures in February, and this one from the Cairngorms received the most love!

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Et opslag delt af Mel (@north.trotter)

Coming up in March 2023

With March begins the busy exam period… I have six assessments to do for this term, so I’m expecting a busy month with less time for blogging and adventures, but that being said, I do already have an adventure planned – a Sunday hike up Mount Keen with a bunch of friends. I hope to take at least another day trip or two somewhere close by, but I don’t think I’ll have time for any big trips in March. But some Aberdeen exploring is always on the horizon!