Traditionally a time for gift giving, feasting, watching TV and staying indoors, Christmas can also offer fantastic opportunities for outdoors enthusiasts. It’s a day when even the most popular trails, hills and mountain are quiet and mostly free of walkers, runners and cyclists. Here are three great adventures I have enjoyed on Christmas Day itself. I didn’t miss out on a festive meal with all the timings either – it just came much later in the day.
Christmas Day – three adventures
Meall a’ Bhuachaille run
Christmas Day proved to be the ideal time to run a mountain near the outdoors town of Aviemore in the Highlands.
Timing it perfectly – when most festive revellers would be sitting down to a lunchtime dinner – my husband Gordon and I completed a circuit of Meall a’ Buachaille from Glenmore Forest Park Visitor Centre.
It was a real treat to climb a popular mountain path, in a normally busy tourist area, but without the usual stream of walkers.
The weather was also picture-postcard perfect with sunshine and a bright blue sky, except for some atmospheric cloud at higher altitude on the 2657ft peak.
Even better still, the winter conditions provided the opportunity to see a relatively rare optical phenomenon.
As Gordon and I took a moment to rest at a large stone shelter at the summit of the mountain, having briskly ascended 1600ft on the southern slope, we looked down on a stunning Brocken spectre.
It was only my second such sighting of this colourful radial bow in the clouds. “Now that’s a brilliant Christmas gift,” I said, as I smiled broadly at Gordon.
From the summit, we descended east on a steep zig-zagging path, before joining the Pass of Ryvoan Pass. The ancient drovers’ route travels below mountains on either side and passes magical An Lochan Uaine – the green lochan – which is fabled to be where fairies do their laundry.
Again, we were struck by our solitude as we ran along the pass, past the tourist hotspot lochan and a final stretch through a forest of fabulous old Caledonian pines to return to the visitor centre.
- The 5.5-mile run includes almost 1800ft of total ascent and took a leisurely 2.5 hours.
Misty and moody mountain bike ride
With a late family meal scheduled for Christmas Day, but the promise of an unusually bright winter’s day, my festive adventure needed to maximise limited time.
Solo would mean fewer hold ups and rests – and an outing at my own pace. A mountain bike also seemed like the right transport to explore country trails north of my Glasgow home without the need for a car journey.
Although sunny it looked chilly and I set out wearing insulated MTB shoes, double-layered gloves, a windproof jacket and fleeced-lined cycling tights.
Following a familiar route to start with, I cycled the southern end of Scotland’s famous West Highland Way and felt the exertion warming my cold muscles.
Before long I was in peaceful solitude on the normally bustling long-distance trail as I rode north through an undulating rural landscape.
The views of hills and distant mountains – including the famous Ben Lomond – were obscured by an eerily beautiful morning mist that rose gently from the frosty ground.
At the village of Strathblane, I joined another off-road route, the Strathkelvin Railway Path, to ride to Lennoxtown, where I followed more tracks to ascend into forestry to the south of the town.
The higher I climbed, the more expansive the views became as the mist disappeared and, instead, a layer of clouds collected.
The benefit of the darkening and damp sky was the formation of a rainbow over the nearby Campsie Hills. Seen from a high moorland trig pillar, the vista was dramatic and up-lifting.
Riding a delightful downhill section next, I left behind the tracks for a while and headed on to minor roads in a westerly direction.
The return home took me on to more local paths, passing Milngavie Reservoirs and returning through Mugdock Country Park.
After a morning of being almost completely on my own, I enjoyed a few cheerful “Happy Christmas” exchanges with a handful of dog walkers.
I got home to the heartening sound of Gordon uncorking a bottle of fizz.
• The circuit extended to 20 miles with some 1500ft of total ascent and took less than 2.5 hours.
Snowy Ben Wyvis hike
A move to the Black Isle, Ross & Cromarty, with Gordon in the summer of 2021 put the iconic Highlands Munro of Ben Wyvis on our doorstep.
It’s often a busy mountain due to its location just 40 minutes from the city of Inverness.
Indeed, I’ve reached the 3431ft top numerous times since the relocation.
Yet, Ben Wyvis offered a convenient adventure on our first Christmas Day in our new home.
Accompanied by three friends who had joined us for the festivities, we had a lazy breakfast and a slow start.
After a recent dump of snow and with a forecast of sub-zero temperatures at higher altitude, we packed full winter kit, including crampons and ice axes, and dressed in warm and windproof layers.
For some reason, I’d still expected the car park near the village of Garve to be as vehicle-jammed as usual – it’s often full to capacity – but there were only a couple of other cars.
It was therefore no surprise to meet only a few other festive walkers on the rocky path that snakes up the south-western slope. Most had decided to retreat from the high, wide ridge before reaching the summit trig because of apparently fierce conditions.
From around 2000ft elevation, the ground became slick with ice and, then, as we reached a cairn at An Cabar at 3100ft, a strong wind suddenly revealed its full force. The subsequent walk north-east to gain another 300ft elevation was both arduous and very chilly.
There were several rewards, however, for the challenging hike to the top of ben Wyvis, including being seemingly the only people to make fresh footsteps in the wind-blown snow that day. The feeling of wild solitude with good friends was exhilarating.
There was also the heady sensation of doing something totally different on a day that is normally so traditional. And there was the amazing taste sensation of sipping hot mulled wine from our flasks and eating sweet Christmas cake as we descended out of the cold.
Even better still, our festive meal that evening felt much less like an indulgence and more of a necessary calorie booster.
As we relaxed, indulgent in the heat from our woodburning stove, we all decided that every Christmas Day from now on should include a big adventure.
* The route on Ben Wyvis is around nine miles with more than 3050ft of total ascent.