Walk the Highlands Together — No One Walks Alone

From the shore of the Beauly Firth to the high ridgelines above Fort Augustus, the landscape around Inverness ranks among the most spectacular walking country in Britain — and for a great many people who actually live here, it has remained stubbornly out of reach. The barrier might be practical: a single-track road with no bus service, a community hall twenty miles from the nearest walking club, no mobile signal on the hill and nobody to phone if something goes wrong. Or it might be personal: never having been shown how to read a contour line, never owning boots that fitted properly, never simply having anyone to go with. Cairnvost Howe – North Star was formed specifically to dismantle those barriers. We publish and lead a rolling programme of graded walks along the Great Glen Way, into the ancient Caledonian pinewoods of Glen Affric, and up onto the Munros and corbetts that line the south shore of Loch Ness. We travel to outlying communities from Drumnadrochit to Whitebridge and beyond, collecting walkers at village pick-up points rather than waiting for people to come to us. On every outing our qualified walk leaders carry the map-reading, weather judgement and group first-aid kit so that participants can concentrate entirely on the landscape — and every beginner who wants it leaves better equipped to one day go out confidently alone.