Explore Scotland's Wilderness Waterways by Canoe

This book takes over where most books on canoeing techniques end. It advocates striking out from the standard paddling routes further into Scotland’s breathtaking waterscape, linking lochs, rivers and streams in classic ‘paddle and portage’ style, in search of challenge and adventure. Although based on the author’s extensive experience of paddling off the beaten track in Scotland, the specialised techniques and customised equipment described apply equally to the more challenging type of trip in any region. As a taster of the rich store of information in this intensely practical guide, you will find tips for choosing multi-use gear, plans for making your own lightweight stoves, hints on finding campsites in unpromising terrain, ways of pitching your tarp to create a stable shelter in windy and tree-less areas, and how to load packs to maximise accessibility. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on learning for yourself, progressively developing independence and sound judgement, minimising your impact on the environment in Scotland’s threatened wild landscape.


As well as advocating the exploration of Scotland’s wilderness waterways, this book also takes the reader on a parallel exploration into the long and eventful history of canoe travel and the lore of the explorers and voyageurs of the classic Canoe Era in Canada. Much of the expertise gained by generations of paddlers in their birchbark and wood-canvas canoes is still relevant today. An awareness of the colourful story of canoe travel adds so much to the ‘feel’ of our own canoe trips. The book will take you deeper into this emotional appeal of wilderness canoe tripping by exploring such ideas as psychological responses to the landscape, the special lure of islands, and the relationship of today’s canoe tripping to the lifestyle and legends of the first people to travel through pristine landscapes by canoe.


The ideas and techniques presented in the first part of the book are brought to life in a series of ten stylish and detailed accounts of canoe trips into the wilder regions of Scotland. These accounts clearly bring out what it feels like to actually be there, traversing the wild by canoe. The stories are enlivened by many, often humorous anecdotes of similar situations and difficulties encountered by the canoe-borne explorers whilst establishing a network of canoe routes right across Canada.