0 In Fitness & Health/ Scotland

Bagging my First Munro | Hiking Schiehallion

I’ve finally bagged my first munro!

Back story: Ever since I moved to Scotland I’ve wanted to hike a munro. Thing is I was always a bit out of shape and it always felt too daunting. I kept postponing it and here we are six years later.

I’ve obviously been training for my upcoming triathlon for the last few months now, so when a colleague mentioned we should go for a hike I said yes. Then last week came and I started to be quite anxious about it. What if I was bad? Needed a lot of break?

I’m not gonna lie, I almost bailed. I was too scared. But I thought I’d be so proud of myself if I went and reached the summit. So I pushed myself to go and a coworker picked me up on Saturday morning. We drove toward the mountain for 9am to get an early start.

Schiehallion is a munro situated near Pitlochry, between the Trossachs and the Cairngorms. A munro, for those who aren’t in with the cool Scottish slang, denotes a mountain over 3,000 feet (914 m). There are 282 in total in Scotland. Munro bagging is hiking as many as you can.

Hiking Schiehallion was a big feat for me, one I’m very proud of. It’s a 10km hike. The beginning was the worst part, it was rough and it hurt and I wondered what I was doing there. Then we got into a rhythm. It was great to be in a group. Some were better and went ahead and some of us just went at a slow but steady pace. I liked that. I liked going to my own pace. 

The visibility was very bad as the clouds were low, but it cleared once in a while and we got glimpsed of the great views. Toward the end we hit the boulder field and it was rough as hell. Very tough on the knees and the feet, even with hiking boots. It felt very adventurous though. I kept imagining being in the fellowship of the ring #bignerd. 

We thought we reached the summit a few times, only to go up a peak and realising there was another one, and another one, and another one. Then after about 2h30, we reached the summit and it was amazing! The views were gorgeous, but mostly it was the sense of accomplishment that was so worth it.

hiking schiehallion entrance

hiking schiehallion hiking up

hiking schiehallion view

hiking schiehallion selfie

hiking schiehallion boulders

hiking schiehallion view from the top

I’ll definitely go hiking again! It was tough but a great workout, especially worth the views and memories. 

Do you like hiking? What’s been your favourite hike?xx

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