It’s Walkhighlands time!

🧵⬇️ Here's the weather data for August 2025 in the Lomond Hills. In short, it was very warm. The warmest August of my 15yr dataset in fact, and the 7th consecutive 'warmer than average' month. #Fife

This will be in place for our next summer season.

After many hours on the M6, a quiet walk along the canal was just what I needed 😉

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto!

Fife's latest tourist attraction. The Lomond Hills beach 😬

I genuinely love cycling along Boblingen Way in Glenrothes, early in the morning. I typically do it immediately after dropping my car off, at 8:30, for its MOT in Glenrothes....and it's always a pleasure. Certainly was this morning 🙂

Snow!❄️ Not what we expected on a September trip to Torridon, but a good reminder to prepare the pack for winter. Great to be out with @redropescot.bsky.social pals. A cold wind, but we got lots of ☀️ too.

Things are just simmering at the moment, but this guy's already a player 🦌

Snow showing up on the Netweather radar now, on Beinn a' Bhuird and Ben Avon 🙂

Not acceptable! In addition to @ramblersscotland.bsky.social below @walkhighlands.co.uk makes some pointed and entirely justified remarks in its guidance www.walkhighlands.co.uk/perthshire/c...

Oooo, this rowan is on fire! 🔥😀

Even first thing, the leading edge of the afternoon's incoming weather front was conspicuous.

Repeat sighting of the white tailed eagle at the end of the walk too 🙂

Not a big round today, but the hill's southern flank is pretty hard going. Steep and grassy. Once up there it's an enormous, peaty plateau with great views across to the Lecht and Ben Avon.

Spot the white tailed eagle 🦅🙂

Beautiful cycle into Glen Gairn, early this morning. Just above freezing, and absolutely no breeze whatsoever. On my way to slog up Brown Cow Hill before the sun retreated and the rain arrived.

Well, it's all happening this morning! First morning below freezing, yes, but also the first stags roaring and the first pink-footed geese flying in from the north. All on the same day. Frost really does work wonders y'know 😉

Just nicked our first air frost of the season 🙂 -0.1C

Why do people on Facebook moan so much?? Is it an age thing? 🤔😉

When your sewage network's such a shitshow that journos almost 6,000 miles away are writing about it.. www.surfer.com/news/raw-sew... #surfing #sewage #surfersagainstsewage #sas

A satisfyingly wet afternoon has brought 9mm of rain to Mar Lodge. Very welcome but more, MUCH more, would be even more welcome.

Suffice to say, I didn't see anyone all afternoon. I can't imagine these hills see much footfall, although the thin tracks and cairns suggest otherwise. The only signs of life were a golden eagle, lots of pipits, and these Intriguing hare remains presented neatly on this table-like cairn 🙂

A couple of new hills for me today. Ones I can see from home and yet had never climbed - Millstone Cairn and Creag nan Leachda....plus a climb up Creag Loisgte. No real plan, just wandering about and walking wherever looked interesting 🙂

I had originally intended to start in the village but somehow forgot how seized-up Braemar gets on the approach to Games weekend 😆 Kept going and started at Keiloch instead, which has the added bonus of crossing the Brig o' Dee 🙂

Stravaiging above Braemar this afternoon 🙂

A shallow rainbow yesterday evening at the Quoich. #rangerdailydiary

Gawd, even in the rain it looks pretty special 🙂👍

Definitely feeling on the cusp of autumn now on Deeside. The heather is still looking great in places but is generally on its way out, while the bracken and birch are starting to brown.

Typical. Months and months working outdoors and.....no ticks. Then I spend two straight days in the office.....and then find a tick on my thigh this morning 😆 #rangerdailydiary

Trout on top. Salmon below. Or so I'm told 😆

A spot of electrofishing with the River Dee Trust this week too, seeing if there were any salmon way up the Lui. Veeeeery midgey at Derry Lodge #rangerdailydiary

It's been another Quoich today......obviously 😆 Spent the morning showing a newish colleague where our problem locations are for campfires, and then in the afternoon reacquainted myself with the spec for the current path work. #rangerdailydiary

Today was the first vaguely autumnal-feeling day on the estate....and it was lovely! Windy, damp, longer shadows, browning trees and purple heather. Still 2 or 3C warmer than one would expect with such weather, however. #rangerdailydiary

The birch are going too.

The rowans are always first to go 🙂

There's not much for scale, other than the road and the heather, but this is easily the longest, chunkiest adder I've encountered this year 🙂 I was driving along and came to an abrupt and sudden halt so that I didn't squish it.

One of the finer views on my fire patrol 🙂 All quiet this evening, save for a full house in the bothy. Great to meet folk from Dundee who are only here because of the new Ember bus. It was the same last week when I met a Dundee chap who'd brought his bike up on said bus 👍 #rangerdailydiary

How did I get through 2004 without hearing of this album???

OMG, it is a crazy-beautiful day in the Quoich! 😎

A day off......but where else would I be on a day off? 😉 Spent the morning watching the airlift of stone making its way up the Quoich, for Phase 2 of our path maintenance 🙂

"I've just bought a new ipod"....is something I haven't said since 2009. But I just have! 😀

I remember roaming this hillside as a child back in the late 1960s and early '70s. A few scattered mature trees and acres and acres of stumps and heather. These photos really do bring tears of happiness to my eyes. Beautiful.

Doire Bhraghad is probably the most uplifting corner of the estate, as it's where the woodland regeneration has really surged in the last decade or so. I was up there today snapping some seasonal fixed-point piccies on my day off 🙂

Another beautiful (and very quiet) fire patrol this evening. #rangerdailydiary

Following the UK's warmest and sunniest spring on record, this summer now also on course to be one of the warmest....and the dry pattern continues for many too.... www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Walk ✅ Cycle ✅ Swim ✅ Beer ✅ Twiglets ❌ Four out of five isn’t bad though

Summoning up every ounce of will power to not scratch my neck where a ked bit it yesterday 😬 Much more inflamed, much more itchy than a midge, mozzie or cleg bite 😳

Alongside a startling paleness of grasses, the western New Forest currently sports a rare & very striking colour scheme, as blooming heather accompanies drought afflicted ferns.

I spent the morning walking around the Quoich, then after lunch I cycled to Craig Leek, then came back for a swim.....before concluding with beer and twiglets 👍 A perfect Deeside Day 🙂