One of the best things about moving to the Highlands is being able to explore some of the most beautiful and most remote parts of Scotland. For many, the way of life up here is centred around outdoor activities. It’s a source of regional pride, and given the range of places to explore within just an hour or two of Inverness it’s hardly surprising. During my time in Inverness I was lucky enough to meet a fantastic community of people who shared this sense of adventure and were able to teach me more about how to safely enjoy and explore our beautiful country.
Now I know I’m an outdoorsy person by nature, and upon moving up to Inverness one of the first things I wanted to do was visit the local climbing wall. This was slightly daunting as I couldn’t find anyone on my rotation who wanted to go, and climbing with ropes requires at least two people. As I arrived at the wall with all my kit I could see a group of people around my age just starting to climb, and by total surprise they turned out to be junior doctors who had also just moved here for their first foundation training year. On a side note, anyone who’s spent any time in Inverness Leisure Centre will know that this is absolutely typical, pick any sports club around Inverness and I guarantee you that most of the members will be Raigmore Hospital staff, its crazy! After getting to know the junior doctors and some other people at the wall, I started to enquire about trips outside of Inverness to explore. Sure enough within a week there were several people offering to hike up mountains, climb rock faces and go surfing, I felt completely spoiled for choice. During my short time in the Highlands I managed to tick another fifteen Munros off the list, and was taught by some wonderful people the basics of outdoor climbing, all while making friends along the way. Looking back I don’t think I actually spent a single day of my weekends in Inverness itself, but that’s not to say it isn’t a lovely city, and there are plenty of places to get together, some favourites of the cohort were Black Isle Brewery, Perk Donuts and Johnny Foxes.
Finding such a welcoming community with this wealth of outdoor knowledge was absolutely the highlight of my Year 2 rotation in Inverness. I urge anyone coming up here to give a new outdoor pursuit a try, even if you’re by yourself or a total beginner you can take courses in just about anything at Glenmore Lodge in Aviemore, or ask kindly of the many of experienced people in the local community. All the folks I met along the way were happy to educate and show off the beautiful part of the world they live in. In medicine its all too easy to get tunnel vision and focus on the workload in front of you, but ScotGEM is also a fantastic opportunity to meet people from all walks of life in the different regions of Scotland we are fortunate enough to be placed. No other course offers such an opportunity to do this, and I can’t think of a more beautiful place in the UK to get out and explore. The Isle of Skye, Applecross, Torridon, Ullapool and the Cairngorms are all great trips from Inverness that I can highly recommend – you can thank me for the photos later…!
