Cave on Holy Island

Sustainable walking holidays

Since the start in of the business 1995, About Argyll Walking Holidays has aimed to provide responsible travel to wild and remote places in the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland. We offer you the experience of the solitude of these places. You will see wildlife and wildflowers, which are almost extinct in other parts of Britain and Europe such as otters, golden eagles, white-tailed sea eagles, slow worms, wild orchids and sundew. We recognize this as being irreplaceable and a source of inspiration to us all.

Dwarfed and windswept oak forest on Mull

We are dedicated to preserving and promoting the value of Scotland's wild areas by doing our best to reduce the environmental impact of our walking holidays and ensuring the long-term sustainability of tourism in the area. The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are one of Britain and Europe's last wildernesses, and we feel a responsibility to protect and conserve these fragile ecosystems. We want you and future generations to enjoy this unique natural environment and biodiversity. Therefore, our walking groups are small. This reduces the impact on the environment and increases the chances of seeing wildlife. Our guides will inform you about how to minimize your impact on this precious environment.

Our small-scale business provides local benefit, environmentally, culturally and economically to the places we visit. We work with many small, rural businesses. You will stay in locally-owned accommodation, eat in local restaurants which use fresh, local produce. All of this contributes to the local economy.

Our sustainable business practice extends to the running of our office by reducing the use of energy, water and other resources, reducing and recycling our waste, doing most of the correspondence by email or on recycled paper.

We also try to reduce the impact of the carbon emissions of our minibuses by supporting Trees for Life, which use our donation to plant trees in order to restore the Caledonian forest in the Scottish Highlands. You can do your bit by reducing the impact of the carbon emissions of your journey to Scotland.

We are committed to improve the sustainability, increase the social and local benefits and reduce the environmental impact of our holidays and our office even further. Some of the actions we are taking are:

• Monitoring the use of energy and other resources we use and trying to reduce it even further.
• Encouraging the B&B's and hotels we are using, to use green and sustainable practices, using locally sourced or fair trade food for the breakfasts and picnic lunches.
• Taking you to places to eat in the evening that use locally sourced food.
• Informing you about walking without leaving a trace.
• Encouraging you to use public transport for your journey to and in Scotland.
• Having a wildlife garden around our office with a pond, wildflower meadow and native trees.
• Liaising with the local community and support them as we can.

Click here to download the responsible visitor guide from the Tourism Innovation Group and Scottish Natural Heritage.

To underline our commitment and policies, we are a member of the Green Tourism Business Scheme, which has recognised our efforts resulting in a Gold Award, the highest award possible.