Notes from our trail journal
Why we walk in shoulder season
May and September are the honest months on the Scottish coast. Fewer people, better light, and the weather you were probably going to get anyway.
The peak-season version of any famous walk is a slightly different walk. The path is the same, the villages are the same, but the experience gets crowded around the edges. In shoulder season you get the trail back.
The case for May
Long light, gorse in full flower, the sea still cold enough that no one is swimming in it but warm enough to sit next to. Accommodation is easier to book, and the pubs remember why they liked doing this.
You booked a walking holiday, not a queue.
The case for September
Warmer sea, the last of the summer produce, and the kind of long golden evenings that make you late for dinner. The path is quieter after the schools go back, and everyone you meet on it wants to be there.
Written by
Craig MacIntyre
Founder, Big Trail Adventures
Craig has walked the Fife Coastal Path more times than is strictly reasonable. He builds the trips we run.
Also from the trail journal.
The Smell Is Not a Problem
Beth Langley has fastpacked the Tour du Mont Blanc twice. The second time she had company, better legs and one t-shirt fewer.
The Shore Looked Easier
Kit Birks walked 5,000 miles from the top of Norway to Greece. The day that nearly ended it began with a shortcut.
The Long Way Home
Elsey Davis ran the whole edge of Cornwall and back to Land's End in six days. The record was never really the point.