On any given Saturday morning between March and November, a white sixteen-seat minibus leaves Seagate in central Dundee at half past eight carrying a mix of students, parents with young children, people trying hillwalking for the first time, and regulars who have been coming for three years. The destination might be the car park at the foot of Glen Clova, from where the group will follow the Jock's Road path up onto Broad Cairn, or it might be the Sidlaw ridge above Balkello, taking in the Iron Age hillfort at Auchterhouse Hill before dropping back through mixed woodland to the Newtyle road. Whatever the route, the pattern is the same: spare waterproofs and walking poles are handed out at the minibus, introductions are made, the walk leader briefs the group on the route and the weather, and then the group goes. Walk leaders are trained to Hill and Moorland Leader standard and carry full first-aid kits, emergency shelters and group communication equipment. The maximum group size of sixteen is maintained strictly because we believe that a walk where nobody falls to the back and nobody gets left out is more valuable than a walk that is simply bigger. Alongside the walks themselves, our skills sessions operate on a different model — smaller groups of six to eight, slower-paced, with time built in for questions and practice. Navigate & Go sessions teach map and compass skills from scratch using the Sidlaw Hills as a classroom. Our occasional Wild Weather Awareness days, run in partnership with the Mountain Weather Information Service, help walkers understand the specific patterns of orographic rainfall and temperature inversion that make the Angus Glens behave differently from the forecast at Dundee Airport. And our biennial Introduction to Hill First Aid course, accredited through Outdoor First Aid Scotland, has so far trained over sixty people — many of them now leading their own informal groups through routes they first walked with us.
Our flagship programme of weekly and fortnightly led group walks into the Angus Glens, Sidlaw Hills and Lomond Hills, open to all Dundee residents with a maximum contribution of five pounds. Indigo Walks run year-round, typically on Saturday mornings with occasional weekday evening outings during British Summer Time. Routes range from gentle three-mile circuits through Glen Prosen suitable for families with children aged eight and above, to full-day ridge walks on the Sidlaw escarpment for those wanting more of a challenge. Every walk departs by minibus from the Seagate bus station, and kit lending is available at the vehicle before departure. Groups are kept to a maximum of sixteen participants to ensure nobody gets left behind.
Practical half-day sessions teaching map reading, compass use and route planning in the Sidlaw Hills, designed for people who want the confidence to plan their own days out. Navigate & Go sessions run on Sunday mornings from March through October, launching from the car park at Auchterhouse village. Participants work in pairs with 1:25,000 OS maps and Silva compasses provided by us, completing a series of short navigation exercises that build from basic map orientation through to full route-finding on unmarked moorland. By the end of the session most participants can take a bearing, identify their position by triangulation and plan a safe return route in low visibility. No prior experience is required and the session is fully accessible to anyone of moderate fitness.
Dedicated family outings into Glen Clova and Glen Isla with a slower pace, naturalist activities for children, and a shared picnic stop, running on the first Sunday of each month. Family Glens Days are designed specifically for parents and carers who want to share the hills with young children but feel uncertain about route choice, pace or what to do if the weather changes. Our walk leaders adapt the pace and the content for mixed groups of adults and children aged five and above, incorporating simple wildlife identification, burn-dipping and a guided look at hill farming landscapes along the way. Child-sized waterproof jackets and wellies are part of our kit pool, and the five-pound maximum contribution applies per adult — children come free. A thermos of hot chocolate at the halfway point is non-negotiable.
A dedicated strand of walks and skills sessions run in partnership with Dundee University and Abertay University student unions, timed to the academic calendar and priced at zero. Student Outdoors grew from our observation that a large proportion of Dundee's student population arrives from cities and towns with no history of hillwalking and leaves four years later having never visited the Angus Glens. We run six sessions per academic semester in direct partnership with student unions at both universities, offering fully free places to students who sign up through their union. Sessions include a navigation introduction in the Sidlaws, a winter-skills awareness day in Glen Clova (no crampons required) and an end-of-year full-day traverse of the Lomond Hills in Fife. All transport, kit and packed lunches are provided.
On any given Saturday morning between March and November, a white sixteen-seat minibus leaves Seagate in central Dundee at half past eight carrying a mix of students, parents with young children, people trying hillwalking for the first time, and regulars who have been coming for three years. The destination might be the car park at the foot of Glen Clova, from where the group will follow the Jock's Road path up onto Broad Cairn, or it might be the Sidlaw ridge above Balkello, taking in the Iron Age hillfort at Auchterhouse Hill before dropping back through mixed woodland to the Newtyle road. Whatever the route, the pattern is the same: spare waterproofs and walking poles are handed out at the minibus, introductions are made, the walk leader briefs the group on the route and the weather, and then the group goes. Walk leaders are trained to Hill and Moorland Leader standard and carry full first-aid kits, emergency shelters and group communication equipment. The maximum group size of sixteen is maintained strictly because we believe that a walk where nobody falls to the back and nobody gets left out is more valuable than a walk that is simply bigger.
Alongside the walks themselves, our skills sessions operate on a different model — smaller groups of six to eight, slower-paced, with time built in for questions and practice. Navigate & Go sessions teach map and compass skills from scratch using the Sidlaw Hills as a classroom. Our occasional Wild Weather Awareness days, run in partnership with the Mountain Weather Information Service, help walkers understand the specific patterns of orographic rainfall and temperature inversion that make the Angus Glens behave differently from the forecast at Dundee Airport. And our biennial Introduction to Hill First Aid course, accredited through Outdoor First Aid Scotland, has so far trained over sixty people — many of them now leading their own informal groups through routes they first walked with us.
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