Gurkha Highlander Walking Mallaig to Stonehaven

Four weeks of numb feet following a 340 kilometre trek along the Southern Upland Way with four Gurkhas was not enough to dampen Neil Griffiths' enthusiasm for coast-to-coast walking. Gurkha Highlander describes his second cross-country walk but this time on a new route and with different companions. Neil and five serving Gurkhas set off from the west-coast fishing port of Mallaig on the Sound of Sleat near Skye to march 320 kilometres to Stonehaven south of Aberdeen on the east coast. This formidable trek took them to some of Scotland's most stunning scenery: from the Rough Bounds of Knoydart, through the heart of the Highlands, across the Cairngorms, over Lochnagar and on to the sweeping farmscapes of Kincardine. Neil's colourful, and at times hilarious, account of one of the country's great walks is interspersed with little known but curious facts of Scottish and Gurkha history.