The Great Outdoors

TGO Magazine is your essential guide to hillwalking and backpacking in the UK and overseas. Get out more! We provide all the inspiration you need to plan your next trip, plus expert reviews and tips. The Great Outdoors is for anyone who loves walking in the hills, mountains and wild places. With information on the latest gear, in-depth features and stunning photography, The Great Outdoors will help you access the high peaks and long trails of Britain and beyond. Our enhanced digital addition includes even more great photos and interactive content.

Unlocked and loaded

IN THIS ISSUE • Meet some of the folk that made this magazine…

The Great Outdoors

ALMANAC

Duncansby Head & Sea Stacks, Caithness

Readers’ page

Unwilded – Finding Our Way Back to Nature

ON THE LOOKOUT GOLDCRESTS • Nadia Shaikh falls for Europe’s most ‘aggressively cute’ bird as it’s joined by other tiny travellers this migration season

Out of the ashes, hope rises: a story of resilience and solidarity • As RSPB Scotland’s peatland project manager, Sally Berry has spent years working to restore degraded peatlands around Abernethy National Nature Reserve. This summer she watched the area she loves literally go up in smoke as a vast fire ripped through the area. But amid the sadness and desolation, the incredible response of the local community has brought her consolation

WIN HILL • Jim Perrin looks back fondly to the best sunset bivouac site in Britain, surrounded by summits and crags with names like wilderness poetry

Do you really have to queue at the top of a mountain? • A Welsh mountain rescue volunteer and staunch defender of the summit selfie, Carys Rees asked her ultra-running MRT colleague – who happens to be a professor of social order – when it is acceptable to queue-jump on a mountain summit. His insights can teach us valuable lessons about sharing our precious high places

GIMME SHELTER • Bothies are more than just ‘stone tents’ – they represent a whole sub-culture of hillwalking, with its own systems, stories and way of life. We take a look into the world of bothying through the eyes of those who know it best…

STORIED PLACES • Two seasoned bothy-goers share the bothying experiences that have stayed with them the longest

The basics of BOTHYING • Andy Mayhew, MO of Essan, answers the most commonly asked questions about bothying culture

ACROSS SCOTLAND •  After crossing Scotland on foot following their own bespoke routes, graduates of the TGO Challenge Class of 2026 tell first-hand tales of rain, sleet and hail showers, high, fast-flowing burns, and bog-trotting through the landscape on this truly unique journey

Chasing the DRAGON • Francesca Donovan, Stew Hume and their four-legged friend Maus embark on a piecemeal approach to walking Mid Wales’ national trail, following in the footsteps of a legend along Glyndŵr’s Way

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER • The GR131 links all seven Canary Islands with a network of ferries, traversing 560km of volcanic deserts, sub-tropical jungle and cloud forest poised between two continents. David Myers eschews the stag dos and his own prejudices to embark on a winter sun adventure with a difference

SKILLS: STAYING SANE IN THE RAIN • After a very wet continuous link-up of all of the Welsh Nuttalls – and another soggy round while surveying routes for his guidebook Peak Bagging Wales – Will Renwick has learnt a thing or two about enduring bad weather in the hills. Here’s how he deals with downpours…

SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE

GEAR • Britain’s most experienced gear team goes the extra mile in walking boots, takes a wry look at waterproofing, and spotlights next year’s kit innovations

HIKING BOOTS • Mountaineering instructor Kirsty Pallas and wildlife photographer...