Where is it?
Leanachan Forest, on the northern slopes of Ben Nevis, just up the road from Fort William.
Why do you go there?
Ostensibly, it’s to walk the dog, but it’s also where, with nobody else to get in the way, I generally come up with book ideas and solve story problems in whatever I’m currently working on. I also briefly tried running there, but since I despise running in all its forms, I stopped almost immediately.
How often do you go?
Not nearly as often as I used to. It was once a daily event, but our dog broke her leg a few years back, and can now only manage short walks on the flat, not big all-day treks through the woods.
Sometimes, though, when I’m fully stuck on something, I’ll take myself up there for a few hours and just wander the tracks.
How did you discover it?
I’ve always been dimly aware of “all those trees” while driving up towards Inverness, but it was maybe eight years ago when I decided on a whim to take the then one-year-old dog up to check it out. We both immediately fell in love with it.
What’s your favourite memory?
My wife, two kids, and myself, on one of those all-too-rare gloriously hot summer’s days in the Highlands.
Getting absolutely plastered in stinking mud after the dog decided to swim in a small pond of the stuff, then rushing back to excitedly share her discovery.
Or the time the dog walked out onto a frozen pond, then panicked and wouldn’t come back, leaving me to waddle nervously across the ice while my son stood back and laughed.
Or the look of wonder in my then five-year-old daughter’s face when we randomly found a rock that someone had quite expertly painted and left out for a passer-by to discover. Or… In fact, there are too many fond memories to list.
Who do you take?
In the past, the whole family. Nowadays, just myself. Which sounds quite sad when I write it down but is actually bloody lovely.
What do you take?
A small notebook, several pens (because you can’t be too careful) and my knottiest, most stubborn writing problems.
What do you leave behind?
Footprints and gratitude.
Sum it up in five words.
Quiet. Remote. Wild. Inspiring. Green.
What other travel spot is on your wish list?
We did a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon a few years ago. While standing marvelling at it, my wife and I spotted a boat on the Colorado River and both wished we’d done that instead. So, that.
JD Kirk is the author of the bestselling DCI Logan crime novels. He has written a new series of thrillers set in Kilmarnock centring on DI Heather Filson. The first instalment, The One That Got Away (Zertex Crime, £9.99), is out now
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