Thistle Trekking

11/01/2025

Wideopen Hill, the highest point on St Cuthbert's Way, provided a local winter walk today. The Cheviot Hills are currently under a blanket of snow, and temperatures below freezing as they have been all week. A truly frozen landscape.

Those starting The Spine race tomorrow will be hoping to arrive over the hills in view by next weekend, having traversed the length of the 268-mile Pennine Way in less than 7 days!

07/01/2025

2025 is here and we have a busy year ahead on the UK's long-distance trails! From April to the end of September we will be walking all the following routes:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland - from the Lowlands to the Highlands and Islands:
✅West Highland Way x6
✅Skye Trail x5
✅Cape Wrath Trail x2
✅Highlights of the Hebridean Way x2
✅East Highland Way x2
✅St Cuthbert's Way x2
✅Affric Kintail Way x2
✅Great Glen Way
✅Isle of Arran Coastal Way

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Wales - from the dramatic coast to the craggy mountains:
✅Snowdonia Way
✅Pembrokeshire Coastal Path

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿England - from west coast to east coast:
✅Northumberland Coast Path
✅Coast to Coast (West)

❓Is this the year for your first ever long-distance walk? Or, have your caught the bug and are searching for your next walking adventure?

📅There's something for everyone on our 2025 calendar, from gentler low-level trails to challenging mountainous routes. You will find lots of information about each of these treks on our website, but if you have any questions or queries don't hesitate to get in touch.

https://www.thistletrekking.co.uk/2025-trekking-calendar/

📸Looking over Loch Tulla to the Black Mount from the West Highland Way - Sept. '24 [Photo credit to our wonderful guide, Ed].

🥾As well as long-distance routes we have a selection of hillwalking holidays in some of Scotland and England's best mountain areas. You can find out all about these on the website too!

Guided trekking, walking and mountaineering holidays in Scotland including the West Highland Way, Cape Wrath Trail and Skye Trail.

06/01/2025

What better way to start the year than with some Munro bagging?

Perfect winter walking conditions, and especially clear views yesterday, made for a satisfying first foray into the Highlands of 2025.

Saturday was a big day, taking in three Munros in Ardverikie (hills to the south of Loch Laggan and the East Highland Way). Yesterday was a shorter outing to Sgùrr na h-Ulaidh, tucked in behind its more imposing Glencoe neighbour, Bidean nam Bian. Despite this it makes for an incredible viewpoint.

Happy New Year!

24/12/2024

All involved with Thistle Trekking would like to wish you Merry Christmas and many happy wanders in 2025!

08/12/2024

It's windy and it's raining, so why not pop the kettle on, pour yourself a brew, and then head over to our blog (link in comments below) to take a look at our top 10 viewpoints on the West Highland Way!
Everyone's WHW is different, so if you have any other favourite viewpoints that didn't make our list, we would love to hear about them in the comments.
Official West Highland Way

04/12/2024

Just birds - all snapped on our treks by our guides and walkers.

02/12/2024

A stomp along a section of the Southern Upland Way with the overnight packs was the order of the weekend: Moffat --> Over Phawhope --> St Mary's Loch.

We began in mild weather, reaching Over Phawhope as the darkness fell and the rain set in. After a bothy night, complete with cheese and port in front of the fire, we left the SUW to walk along the tops to St Mary's Loch. It wasn't the best day to be out walking, but we were thankful the driving rain was at our backs rather than in our faces!

28/11/2024

It was another blue sky and frosty morning here in the Borders. Today's pilgramage was to the garage first thing this morning, although St. Cuthbert did help with the 5-mile walk home.

I picked up a leaflet at Bowden Kirk about St Cuthbert's way, produced by 'St Cuthbert's Way Churches Together'. It included a quote attributed to St Augustine, "Solvitur ambulando" - it is solved by walking. I don't think he was referring to cars, but you never know....

25/11/2024

A couple of pics for the bird watchers from back in May, on our Highlights of the Hebridean Way trek. This Short-eared Owl was on the lookout for an evening snack in South Uist!

22/11/2024

New Thistle Trekking merch now available in our online shop! And, you can get 10% off all orders from today until Fri. 29th Nov. Just enter the offer code "TAKE10" at checkout!

https://thistletrekking.teemill.com/collection/other-merch/

20/11/2024

In June this year we reached the end of our first ever length of Scotland trek, on the Scottish National Trail. Over the course of 3 trekking seasons we tackled the route in 6 sections. We clocked up over 550 miles in the process, and climbed the height equivalent of more than 2 sea-to-summit ascents of Mt Everest!

We have received enquiries about a possible round 2 of this epic long-distance trail. If you would like to register an interest in this, and be kept up-do-date with any developments, you can do so here: https://www.thistletrekking.co.uk/the-scottish-national-trail/

18/11/2024

A beautifully crisp morning here in the Scottish Borders. Looks like being a cold but settled week, perfect for walking.

11/11/2024

NORTHUMBERLAND COAST PATH 2025 - 1 SPACE LEFT

UPDATE: FINAL PLACE NOW TAKEN - TREK NOW FULL - WAITING LIST AVAILABLE

🥾Our new trek for 2025 is the Northumberland Coast Path. Places have been snapped up quickly, leaving just one space left!

📅 Trek Dates: 8-15 June 2025
🟢 Difficulty Level: 2 / 5
🛏 Final space in is a twin room share (female only).

🌊All the details of this wonderful coastal trek can be found here: https://www.thistletrekking.co.uk/treks/northumberland-coast-path/

10/11/2024

It was a fine day for the Eildons, and it was really nice to be sharing a local favourite with this group from Canada. We took a circular route from Leaderfoot, passing Trimontium, the Rhymers Stone, and Melrose Abbey. A few ice creams/hot chocolates were purchased before we finished through Newstead on the Borders Abbeys Way.
This walk was provided for guests of Legerwood Scotland

06/11/2024

Yesterday we attended the River Tweed Trail experience design workshop at Glentress. With branding launched and path works underway, we were interested to hear more about the potential of this new source-to-sea trail. We look forward to seeing the finalised route map and eventually walking down the Tweed!

04/11/2024

Over the last couple of years we have been adding hillwalking holidays to our trekking calendar, as well as running some bespoke hillwalking trips on the request of our walkers.

To make sure we're are getting this right we would like to involve you more in the planning and scheduling of hillwalking and mountain trips. If you would like to find out more please register your interest by sending a short email to [email protected].

Thank you to all who have already clicked the button to this effect in our Autumn Newsletter, or sent a follow up email. You will all be hearing from us soon!

We'll post some of our favourite hillwalking holidays in the comments below, as a sample of what we offer so far.

📸 Yesterday morning at Loch Etchachan, in the Cairngorm Mountains. Well above the cloud in the glens, it was a beautiful blue sky day on the plateau, after a starry night's camping down at Loch Avon.