Scottish Highlands & Munros, 27/9 & 3-4/10 2026

I’m now in Peebles, Scotland, for two weeks of accelerator education at the CERN Accelerator School (CAS). We only got Sunday off (yes, we had school on Saturday), but after the school finished, I visited my friend Douglas in Inverness over the weekend. Here is a short report on my three adventure days.

27 September – Sunday

Finally, some time off. Whereas literally everybody else is going to Edinburgh to participate in the guided tour organized by the CAS organizing committee, I had other, better ideas in mind: exploring the Scottish countryside. Spoilers: I saw a lot of sheep, multiple different species.

I left the Peebles Hydro Hotel where we were staying and headed east along the River Tweed to the small town of Innerleithen, while feasting on the blackberries growing along the path. From Innerleithen, I hiked south on the main road for a while until I reached the European long distance path E2, where I stopped for an early lunch. As always, I had prepared my hiking staples: cheese, nuts, dark chocolate, and avocado. The UK is not exactly known for its gourmet cuisine, by all rights, I might add, after having been served food at the hotel for two weeks. Anyways, I had managed to find a local cheese shop that had an interesting assortment of cheeses that I’m now enjoying. French cheese is better.

Afterward, I followed the E2 south across the lush Scottish hills, surrounded by sheep, in harsh winds and heavy rainfall. Ah, proper Scottish weather! At St Mary’s Loch, I diverted from the E2 and headed east for a short while to Megget Reservoir, before turning north back over the lush Scottish hills towards Peebles. It was pretty cold at this point. I only brought three layers of clothing (t-shirt included), and it turns out the rain jacket I brought is no longer rainproof. I should have taken my good rain jacket instead, or one of my other four rain jackets. You can never have too many rain jackets.

Just before the sun was setting, the rain cleared and I got to enjoy the sunlight for a brief moment before darkness settled. I came back to the hotel well after dark, having covered 56 kilometres and 1,500 meters of elevation gain according to my route planning tool. It was a bit longer than I had expected.

Despite the weather, this was a nice day. Scotland has a surprisingly large amount of wildlife. Sheep and cows aside, I saw deer (both dead and alive), roe deer, many different bird species, including various birds of prey, an owl, pheasants, etc., and the surroundings were not all too bad.

3 October – Saturday

Time to go Munro climbing. Having taken the train from Edinburgh to Inverness yesterday, I’m now at my friend Douglas’ and his fiancée’s, Zainab, house just outside of Inverness. And we are going Munro peak climbing. There are 282 peaks in Scotland, based on some prominence criteria, that are above 3,000 feet, these are called the Munro peaks. Back in April last year, when I also visited Douglas, we climbed 3 of them, and at that time Douglas had climbed 217. Now he is at 231. The plan for today is to add 3 more to the list.

We drove past Loch Ness, without seeing any sea monster, towards the Isle of Skye on the A87, stopping a bit before reaching Skye. From the parking lot we could see the first peak of the day, A’ Chralaig, or I guess technically we could not see the peak as it was shrouded in rainy clouds. Anyways, we set off towards the clouds and made quick work of the first summit. After that, we made a short descent, followed a ridge, and started ascending towards Mullach Fraoch-choire, where we met the first fellow hikers of the day.

During our full-speed descent, running in slippery mud and falling a lot, from Mullach Fraoch-choire, the weather shifted and we received a pleasant but short dose of sunlight. As we made it down the valley, we heard a bellowing red deer. Or rather, Douglas heard that it was a red deer and told me. Unfortunately, we only heard them; one would have thought that in a mostly open landscape they would have been easier to spot. We had to be content with seeing two small roe deer instead.

Finally down in the valley, covered in mud, we started the third and final ascent to summit Ciste Dubh. After which we hiked back to the car. And that is that, a short but nice Scottish adventure, and it was definitely not too warm.

Back at Douglas’ house, I tried to widen Douglas’ culinary senses by suggesting beef tartare. I failed. A tough sell apparently; I will soon have another opportunity during New Year’s Eve.

To round off the day, we went for a short hike nearby together with Zainab just before the sun was setting. I managed to find one raspberry, yes, a whole one.

After today, Douglas has climbed 234 Munro peaks and I have climbed 7; 3 last year, 3 today, plus at least 1 back in 2022 in the Cairngorms. It was at least one in Cairngorms, could have been more but I cannot remember. That is why I’m blogging now: to keep a record!

4 October – Sunday

A lot of running today. First, Douglas and I went running to a lake (I do not remember the name) and took a nice, chilling Scottish bath. Well, I did, the cold seemed to be a bit too much for the actual Scotsman, or maybe an aspiring Scotsman with still too much Swedish inside?

Then, in the afternoon, Zainab wanted to go running. She said, “just a short one, 4–5 kilometres,” and I thought, sure, fine. Then as we were running, it somehow just got longer and longer, not exactly just a short one anymore.

In the evening Douglas and I started talking about hiking the Green Ribbon in 2028 and discussing route choices. After which I hit the sack relatively early. Tomorrow I’m taking the 6:00 AM flight back to Geneva. I will return to Scotland again next year; the Scottish wedding bells are ringing. It will be my first time in a kilt, that is for sure. The only question to ponder: undies or no undies?

Thank you for having me, Douglas and Zainab. I’ll see you for New Year’s Eve.