40 kilometres to celebrate 40 years

Had things been different, 2023 would have been Neil’s 40th birthday. Had he still been with us I’m sure there would have been a party (or two), along with some other antics and adventures. I’m not sure we can do the party bit, but it seems appropriate to celebrate it somehow.

5 years ago a group of ladies, including one of our Trustees and Neil’s sister, walked the Lairig Ghru, a 20-mile pass through the Cairngorms from Aviemore to Braemar. As Covid prevented any repeat adventures over the last 3 years, we felt that a new challenge was necessary and what better opportunity than to mark a significant birthday. The next question was how? Well, surely the distance needs to have a 40 in it?!

With a bit of research we discovered that there is another mountain pass not too far away from The Neil Mackenzie Trust’s base that fitted the bill perfectly – the Corrieyairack. The Corrieyairack Pass is a remote route that runs through the Monadhliath Mountains from Laggan near Kingussie to Fort Augustus at the south end of Loch Ness. And the distance? 40 kilometres! The challenge – to complete this in a day.

The original team is back – Audrey, Carol, Caroline and Sian, and we’ve also been joined by Diana. It will certainly be a challenge; we’re all 5 years older and this new walk will be another 5 miles on top of our previous efforts, across remote terrain and reaching an altitude of 770m. Neil loved the Highlands and the mountains so we do hope that this is a fitting tribute, and he will certainly be in our thoughts as we embark on our adventure. The training itself will be intense, as although we all have a reasonable level of fitness we are not regular long-distance walkers, so we’ve got a bit of work to do to get marathon fit before our chosen date of 19th August! Hopefully we can have an adventure or two along the way – we will keep you updated on our progress here too.

As well as enjoying the challenge, we will of course be fundraising for The Neil Mackenzie Trust - any donation will mean so much.

The Neil Mackenzie Trust gives Expedition Grants for challenging adventures worldwide and Educational Expedition Grants for trips related or unrelated to school or university courses. Our Skills Training Grants are awarded to anyone over 14 for outdoor non-competitive courses in Scotland in order to prepare the applicant to be able to go into challenging situations safely and with confidence.

Thank you! Audrey, Carol, Caroline, Diana and Sian x