Whilst most walking trips in Scotland are each unique and provide a breathtaking perspective of a breathtaking country, most of them have at least one thing in common; they have a corner in them.
Scotland, being a country filled with ridges, hills and valleys, doesn’t tend to be explored in a straight line, but a growing community of hikers have found a way to explore the country in a simple, yet unique way.
The straight line challenge is a quest to traverse the longest linear trek you can make in the United Kingdom without crossing a road, which the Ordnance Survey checked and found was a direct path across the Cairngorms, from the Pass of Drumochter to just south of Corgaff.
This was a distance of just under 49 miles (78.55km), on a route that travelled over several hills and mini mountains, as well as through several waist-high fields of heather.
The first people to actually complete the mission were Calum Maclean and Jenny Graham, who took 83 hours and 56 minutes (around three and a half days) to complete the gruelling journey, with the help of their hiking experience and walking poles.
There were several particular hazards to this route, including potential pitfalls, steep descents and peat hags that made progress slow on occasion, and they admitted by the end of the journey they were too exhausted and starving to really celebrate it.
This was considerably better than the Ordnance Survey predicted, as they warned people from trying it as the route involved several scrambles, most notably when climbing the 1179m Beinn a’Bhuird.
Whilst the pair claimed they would never try it again, they did immediately think of an idea to do a straight line triathlon.