Sophie Bennett
Plan Ahead, Then Plan a Little More
Leave No Trace starts long before you pull on your boots, usually at the kitchen table with a map, a forecast and a mug of tea. In the Highlands, a good plan is the difference between a memorable day and a call to mountain rescue, and it also protects the ground you will be walking over. Check the forecast for the summit, not just the glen: conditions on a Munro plateau can be two seasons away from the car park. Note sunrise and sunset, and build in enough time to be down in daylight, because unplanned finishes in the dark almost always mean shortcuts across fragile vegetation.
Think about pressure points too. A popular Munro car park can be full by half past eight on a sunny Saturday, and cars left on verges churn up roadside ground and block access for estate vehicles and emergency services. Arrive early, have a plan B, and remember that midge season, deer stalking and the autumn rut all change where it is sensible to go. Before you leave, tell someone your route and your expected return time.
Stick to the Path, Even When It Is a Bog
Scotland's hill paths are caught between a wet climate and a great deal of love. Once a line of footsteps opens in deer grass or moss, water gathers, the ground poaches, and the scar widens year on year. That is why the most useful thing you can do on a busy path is keep to it, even when a muddy stretch invites you to step wide onto the heather.
- Walk through the mud, not around it. Wet feet dry out; damaged peat can take decades to recover.
- Use the zigzags. Cutting a switchback corner creates a fall line that water follows, and a new gully can appear within a season.
- Choose rock or gravel where you can. If a path has braided, follow the most established line rather than starting another one.
- Skip the cairn-building. Moving stones disturbs habitat and muddles navigation for everyone who follows.
Across most of the Highlands you have a right of responsible access, and with it a duty of care for the land. Where a route crosses something fragile, such as a high plateau used by dotterel or a mossy corrie floor, a small detour onto durable ground is nearly always possible.
Give Wildlife Room to Breathe
Golden eagles, ptarmigan, ring ouzel, capercaillie, red deer, mountain hare, pine marten. The list of reasons to walk quietly in the hills is a long one. Disturbance costs energy, and in hard winter weather or at the height of the breeding season, that energy matters enormously.
- Keep your distance. If an animal changes what it is doing because of you, you are too close. Back off and use binoculars instead.
- Avoid leks, nests and rutting grounds. Capercaillie gathering in spring and deer rutting in autumn are especially sensitive to people appearing at the wrong moment.
- Never feed wildlife to earn a photograph or a closer look. Habituated animals become dependent, aggressive, or dead on the road.
- Keep dogs under close control or on a lead around ground-nesting birds and livestock, and anywhere between spring and late summer.
Take Everything Home, Including the Awkward Things
The old line that an apple core is "natural" does not hold on a mountain. Fruit peel and tea bags can take years to break down, look like litter to the next walker, and draw in scavengers. Assume you will carry out everything you carry in, and pack a spare bag or two for rubbish you find along the way.
- Banana skins, orange peel and apple cores go in your rucksack, not behind a boulder.
- Wet wipes and tissues never rot. Carry them out, sealed.
- Human waste should be carried out where you can, or buried in a hole about 20cm deep, at least 30 metres from any burn or loch and well away from paths. Toilet paper always travels home with you.
- At bothies, leave the place cleaner than you found it. No rubbish, no food scraps, no fires lit on the floor.
Wildfires are a genuine risk in dry spells, particularly on peaty ground. A stove is safer, quicker and cleaner than an open fire, and it leaves no ring of blackened stones behind for someone else to tidy.
Photography That Leaves the Scene Untouched
A camera should change nothing except the light you capture. The well-known viewpoints on the Highland circuit take thousands of pairs of boots a year, so think about where you stand and what you stand on. Repeated tripod feet in one mossy spot can leave marks that last for years.
- Do not clear vegetation, shift stones or snap branches for a tidier composition. Reframe instead.
- Drones: check local guidance, avoid wildlife and crowded summits, and accept that many people come to the hills precisely for the quiet.
- Watch your lights and your noise at dawn and dusk, when wildlife is most active and the air is stillest.
Small Choices, Big Difference
Leave No Trace is less a rulebook than a habit of attention. Volunteer path repair, litter picks and local conservation work all rest on the same instinct: this place is worth more than my convenience.
So take the photograph, boil the flask, watch the eagle drift along a corrie edge. Then walk away and leave the hill exactly as you found it, ready for the next person who needs it.
