Where to go in Scotland - inspiration for families and keen explorers
Exploring outdoors with my family has long been one of the main inspirations for my art, however, there’s more to it. Experiencing beauty and wonder of nature in the fresh air charges up our ‘batteries’ and makes us more resilient to every-day challenges and stresses of life. It is absolutely essential for physical, mental, and spiritual health. As a result, I love sharing suggestions of hiking routes and beautiful places to visit. I keep getting messages from friends/family/acquaintances asking for some suggestions, so I thought I would make this resource to share some of our favourite places.
What makes a good family-friendly place to explore?
Families come in all shapes and sizes and a range of physical ability. A good place to explore will have something that everyone will be able to enjoy and for us that also means a range of hiking routes that offer variety and flexibility.
Scotland is wonderful and there are lots of places like that, in fact I am hoping to write a book about this one day! In the meantime, if I had to limit myself to 10 places, this would be it:
St Abbs Head
This is one of our favourite coastal walks with dramatic cliffs, seabird colonies, an inland loch, and a lighthouse. There’s a toilet and little café at the start of the walk and a short accessible section to see the cliffs in case rougher paths are not a possibility for you. Some of the paths follow the cliffs closely and some of them bypass the steeper sections which makes it easy to adjust the walk. The coastal paths also continue well beyond the lighthouse and St Abbs area which makes it easy to extend the walk if you want a longer hike than the popular loop around the cliffs, the lighthouse, and the loch.
Aberlady to North Berwick
Scotland has many fine beaches, but we love this stretch of coast, perhaps because it’s reasonably close to home, but in addition to that it offers a wide range of beautiful beaches, many of them with public toilets in the area. Fancy a longer walk with wild-life spotting opportunities and a quiet beach? There’s Aberlady Bay Beach. A more popular beach with toilets and car close-by and a town with café’s? Gullane beach. Beach with a playpark and lighthouse views? Yellowcraig beach. Town beach with restaurants/cafes, tidal pool, and boat trips nearby? North Berwick beaches. There’s also the small but mighty North Berwick Law to climb and two castle ruins (Dirleton and Tantallon, both are really fun to explore with kids).
Lomond Hills
It’s not the place that comes up in the top Scotland lists, but there’s much variety and beauty to explore and it’s often less busy with tourists and busier with locals. If you are looking for a gentle even walk, RSPB Loch Leven lies at the foot of the hills and offers a range of accessible paths and great wild-life spotting opportunities. If you want something a bit more strenuous, Maspie Den is a delightful river walk with and option to walk behind a waterfall on the upper parts of the walk. East Lomond hill is probably the most accessible peak of all Lomond Hills, including a very short ascent from the Mast car park. If you fancy something a bit more adventurous, going up West Lomond hill from Glen Vale is an absolute delight with great views, amazing rock formations, and a hidden waterfall!
Killin
It’s a great place to start an adventure, there are a few shops/cafes, public toilets, and a great little playpark. Falls of Dochart run through the middle of the town – a worthwhile place to visit in its own right and you can get a key from the shop behind the bridge to visit the island in the river too. There’s a trail running south from the town up to Glen Ogle and the Glen Ogle viaduct (good for bikes and off-road buggies). If you are looking for a little hill, the path up Sron A’Chlachain starts from the playground with great views over Loch Tay and surrounding hills. If you are ready to tackle something bigger, the Ben Lawers car park is just a bit further up the road offering a higher altitude start for a few surrounding munros, including Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers with a shorter Edramucky trail that partially follows the initial climb up Ben Lawers path, offering a sense of higher hills without commitment to getting to the top of the munros.
Glencoe
It’s a busy place nowadays but its beauty really does keep drawing you back! There’s numerous amazing munro hikes that start from the glen, many of them better suited to more experienced hikers. If you are looking for something level and buggy-friendly, there are lots of trails running from the Glencoe visitor centre. Signal Rock and An Tor offer another short and easy option with rougher trails and a great spot for picnic/playing/painting near the river with amazing views. If you want to head higher, but not quite keen on the munro hikes, you could go up the Devil’s Staircase (part of West Highland way) for amazing views over the Glen and also over to Ben Nevis too. Another popular option is of course the Lost Valley. If you do want to head up some munros, you are spoiled for choice, if not sure, Buchaille Etive Beag offers the easiest hike up with two tops and amazing views over the other Glencoe giants.
Braemar and Linn of Dee
The drive up to Braemar from the south is a delight for the eyes in its own right with the Glenshee Ski Centre car park on the way offering the shortest ascent to a munro (Can Aosda) in Scotland. There’s a range of walks starting from Braemar itself which has a few shops/cafes, public toilet, and a nice playpark. Creag Choinnich is a delightful little hill with marked footpaths. One of the paths climbs up to the top with great views of Braemar and surrounding mountains. There’s also a riverside walk with rough paths but little elevation gain. If you want something a bit more strenuous, you could go up Morven just south of the town. Linn of Dee just further west is also one of our favourites, many paths start here for long Cairngorm adventures, but just the wander along the river and through the woods is an absolute delight.
Aviemore and Glenmore
This area has a particularly wide range of great flexible walks. Craigellachie is one of them and easily accessible from Aviemore. The lower reaches have nice paths around the lochans, but you also have the option of going to the top of the hill on some rougher, steeper paths for great views of the Cairngorms and Aviemore. Uath Lochans and Farleitter crag is a similar type of walk with amazing views over Glen Feshie. Another great walk is up to the famous An Lochan Uaine, there are two paths that head there, one rougher through beautiful woodland and one wide forestry track that would be accessible with bikes and off-road buggies. After the Loch you’ve got the option to continue further and go up the corbett Meall A’Bhuachaille before heading back down to Glenmore. The Cairngorm mountain car park offers many choices for more experienced hikers, the Cairngorm and its northern corries being the closest of them, but even a short wander on the lower path towards the northern corries is absolutely stunning.
Fort William area
There’s an easy and reasonably level path along the coast in Fort William on the Great Glen Way with views towards Ben Nevis and ruins of Old Inverlochy Castle. If you are craving mountain views but have limited mobility, the car park at the Commando Memorial offers great views towards Ben Nevis and the Grey Corries. However, our favourite short walk in the area would be to the Steall Falls along the Nevis Gorge. It’s very scenic and the reveal of the waterfall at the end is hard to beat. If you fancy a longer walk without getting all the way to the tops, the walk up to the CIC mountaineering hut on the north face of Ben Nevis is a delight with the amazing atmosphere of the craggy north face and if needed could be cut shorter to just above the forestry with great views all around. If you are ready for higher hills, the hike up Stob Ban is amazing with views of its craggy face on one side and Ben Nevis on the other side. Carn Mor Dearg is another great candidate, the walk itself is long but straightforward with amazing views of Ben Nevis, the surrounding hills, and the narrow arete that connects it to Ben Nevis.
Morar, Moidart, and Ardnamurchan
This area takes a while to get to, but it’s much quieter than more popular places and is packed with beauty and great opportunities to spot wildlife from sea to summit! My highlight is always the Ardnamurchan lighthouse, there’s toilets, a café, a few paths to explore and then there’s the lighthouse itself that you can climb up to. On the way there, there’s many scenic places to explore, including Garbh Eilean Wildlife hide, it’s a short and reasonably level walk from the car park and it’s a great spot to linger to spot local wild-life. If you are looking for a hill to climb, Ben Hiant is rough but not too complicated, offering great views even if you don’t make it to the top. Another favourite place is Castle Tioram, a ruin on a little almost-island connected to the mainland by a little stretch of sand/rocks. You can follow the path along the coast and then head up to the hills before the path turns back to the coast for a 5-6km loop with further great views over the coast, the mountain lochans, and views towards Eigg. There are many beautiful beaches in this area, especially heading further towards Mallaig, some of them quieter and trickier to get to, like Kentra’s Singing Sands or Smirisary Beach and some busier and easily accessible like Camusdarach.
Around Loch Maree
In my opinion this is the most beautiful loch in Scotland! There are a few points to stop along the loch. Beinn Eighe visitor centre located the southern shores of the loch has public toilets and picnic benches and offers a range of walks from easier more level paths from the visitor centre to a longer and rougher mountain trail from a car park just further up the road. The mountain trail offers a great range of views and terrain without heading to the steep and scrambly sections that the mountains in this area are famous for. If you continue north up the road along the loch, you’ll get to Gairloch with a beautiful sandy beach!
I hope this gives you some inspiration for planning your trip(s) and exploring this wonderful part of the world. In the meantime, I’ll continue refining and researching best hikes and natural wonders to see and perhaps one day it will become a book!
If you have some questions or need some further help, get in touch, it’s one of the topics that I could talk about for days! :D
