On Sunday we climbed the adjacent peaks of Sief (2424m) & Col di Lana (2452m), scene of bitter high-altitude fighting between Austria-Hungary & Italy during 1915-18.
(Details via Alt tabs.)

The hills are connected by a narrow rocky ridge &, very unusually for the Dolomites, are volcanic in origin.

Have you seen that Tweet by Douglas Carswell? They're finally feeling that it's OK to just come out and say what they've been thinking all these years. Genuinely turns the stomach.

Aviemore in the OS Map, surveyed c. 1866-1870.
maps.nls.uk/view/74490557

*Even* longer than the usual approach! :-)

This was one of the favourite walks of a very dear and now departed friend of ours, a native of Buchan, very well travelled, but for whom Braemar and the surrounding area was the centre of the world.

Cheers!

Thanks; I know next to nothing about them but my interest has been piqued!

Fascinating too to read about the Cairngorm crystals that were found on Ben Avon. I'd heard about these, but hadn't appreciated their importance.
One found in 1788 weighed 22kg, and was 66cm wide by 50cm long. The laird paid the finder £40 (~£20k in today's money).

I find it mind boggling.
Unfortunately I don't expect much in our towns and cities these days, but the sort of person who makes the effort to go to a place like Corrour must at least appreciate the outdoors to some extent... and yet they are capable of doing this?!

Likewise, and same here! :-)

I am the bloke with the French wife who was with you on the way up today.
Thanks for everything you do!

You people deserve bloody medals for this. Seriously.

My daughter takes parties of tourists around Glasgow - have sent this to her.

Photographed one in our house here in Aberdeenshire, back in 2023!