To quote Stephenson and Gould in British regional geology: the Grampian Highlands, fourth edition, 2007 when discussing the features you might expect to see in this part of Scotland,  'Metagreywackes, siliceous psammites and fine-grained quartzites are interbedded with the predominant well-foliated green schists containing abundant chlorite, epidote, biotite and albite porphyroblasts.' Well, quite, I couldn't have put it better myself.  When I was young we lived in London and I would often head in the school holidays to the museums in South Kensington. The big draw these days is the Natural History museum but back then dinosaurs weren't quite as popular as they are today and much of the ground floor was a series of somewhat lacklustre dioramas that were populated with a cast of vaguely unsettling stuffed animals.   Around the corner in Exhibition Road was the Science museum which became a big favourite with me mainly due to the number of interactive displays. The joy

It’s difficult to know exactly what to make of Rob Roy. Sir Walter Scott’s famous fiction painted a rosy outlook of his exploits, making him seem like some clannish Robin Hood. Chroniclers of history ignore the myth and either regard Rob Roy as a brigand and blackmailer, faithful to the Jacobite cause, while others argue that Rob Roy had been wronged and had no option but to live a bandits' life.  As with so many stories the truth may mostly depend on your viewpoint and if, like me, you have no allegiance to either side, then it becomes possible that both accounts can co-exist.  Whatever the real story may be, it cannot be denied that for a short period Robert 'Roy' McGregor (Robert the Red or Rob Roy) was the laird of Inversnaid and the West Highland Way crosses through it. No doubt, if descendants of the Wild McGregors, as they were known -  and I'm sure it didn't mean they had legendary parties  - were still in possession of the land today there would be a paymen

Drymen, where we are headed this evening isn’t pronounced how you might expect. This is one of those quirks that quickly becomes normal in Scotland.   When the locals say Drymen it rhymes with women or swimmin’,  keeping  the emphasis on the beginning of the word and it is said with pace, there’s no lingering over the syllables. So our attempt, which was basically looking at the word and saying what saw ie ‘Dry - men’ was wrong on just about every level.   Leaving the Glengoyne distillery we were walking on an easy path across a flat plain. However we were by this stage becoming aware of the vast numbers of fellow walkers and began to worry about the meal options for the evening. Chris looked online at the various hostelries and decided that he liked the look of one in particular so he booked a table. The hills continued to offer an enticing prospect to our right but the path ignored their siren call. Very quickly we arrived at a road and beside it, handily placed for a lunchtime stop

Scotland’s first long distance path is one of the most popular long-distance walks in the world. So what draws over 30,000 people each year to walk the West Highland Way?   Is it the spectacular scenery? - which is practically continuous from the start at Milngavie, a suburb to the north of Glasgow to the end at Fort William, nestling under the shadow of Ben Nevis the highest mountain in the British Isles.    Glencoe Or is it history? From the Romans who built the Antonine Wall, part of which can be traced through Milngavie. Or passing by a neolithic monument of standing stones at Drumgoyach? - the significance of which is lost in time. Or walking in the steps of Rob Roy and Robert the Bruce? Or crossing Glencoe? - the setting for the vicious slaughter of members of the clan MacDonald. Maybe looking across to Lochan Lunn Da Bhra? -  where on a tiny island Macbeth was alleged to reside (a Scottish King who should be contacting his lawyers about the lack of historical accuracy in the Sha