Vegan hillwalkers scottish highlands

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Feb 13, 2018
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49
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  1. Vegan
I am looking for people to answer a couple of questions about access to vegan foods in the scottish highlands which appears to be very limited.

I am doing a study into how many people would be interested in vegan restaurants. Would be really grateful if you could answer a couple of questions please.

1 - Have you ever visited the Scottish Highlands?

2 - Do you feel vegans are adequately provided for in the highlands?

3 - Would you entertain eating in a vegan restaurant or cafe based in one of the popular highland destinations
 
Please define "Scottish Highlands".

Also, there are a number of Scottish vegan pages on Facebook where you might get more replies,
 
1 - Have you ever visited the Scottish Highlands?
Yes.

2 - Do you feel vegans are adequately provided for in the highlands?
I don't know. I doubt it.

3 - Would you entertain eating in a vegan restaurant or cafe based in one of the popular highland destinations?
Sure.

I think the question here is whether any place in the highlands would be big enough to get enough customers to fill up a vegan restaurant. Vegans are only 1% of the population (or something like that) so restaurants catering to vegans must either be in large cities or attract plenty of non-vegans.

In a mid sized town, I would have a vegan restaurant/cafe and target the local and general tourist population by promoting it as a good quality restaurant with good quality food, but without using the word vegan. Meanwhile, promote it online as vegan using a separate marketing strategy the vegan community which are so desperate for anything vegan that you only have to do a half-hearted effort to get the ball rolling and they promote it for you.

I suggest either a small restuarant with only a few tables, or more like cafe or a stall. A big restaurant would be risky.

You mentioned hillwalkers. You could sell road-side snacks on the way to a popular trekking route or mountain again using online promotion to vegans and a different approach to passers by. But that would only work in season (July/August) not a year round business.

All of this is based on common sense, and not on a knowledge of the highlands. I mostly only know the hebredies and even that was years ago.
 
I have pondered the same questions as l would like to visit family roots and lost family.
It may seem difficult but if there are grocery stores then you will be able to do it but l am thinking that it may be necessary to compromise my lifestyle temporarily. I would suggest that when in Rome do as the Romans as you may find that local foods are indeed part of the experience.
 
l am thinking that it may be necessary to compromise my lifestyle temporarily. I would suggest that when in Rome do as the Romans as you may find that local foods are indeed part of the experience.

Augh come on Windrose. You’ve got to be kidding. You cannot be suggesting that a vegan visiting Scotland should be eating haggis.

How about lobster in New Brunswick, paella in Spain, jerk chicken in Jamaica, elephant soup in Burundi or bat soup in Palau?

I have walked extensively the hills of the Trossachs and the Highlands and travelled much of the world without having to compromise my beliefs. All it needs is a bit of forward planning and a tad of determination. There is no will power involved because being vegan is being vegan.

“You cannot be serious.” John McEnroe.

Roger.
 
A more general comment - only loosely related to the topic... I sometimes go hill walking. Sometimes moderate walks of 5 or 10 miles and occassionally 20-30 mile walks in order to get to mountain tops or really interesting places. On some of these, I even had to run parts to make it back in time. I live in South America so they have proper mountains here. 20-30 miles on hilly terrain is far harder than the same distance on the flat. A few times after doing this in hot conditions I've come back and found I lost 4 kilos in weight due to temporary dehydration and my body is a little hot to the touch as it tries to lose excess heat.

I did this before I transitioned to a vegan diet, and I did it after. What I personally found is no difference whatsoever on my energy levels since going (mostly) vegan. I used to eat ham and cheese sandwiches, and now I take a tomato and an avacado and a knife and some bread. And supplement with crips, nuts, cookies etc.