Loch Bagging for Paddleboarding

What is Loch Bagging?

If you live in or have visited Scotland you have most likely heard of Munro Bagging. For those of you who haven’t Munros are hills of over 3000 feet or 914.4 meters. Bagging those Munros involves climbing or hiking (also known as hillwalking in Scotland) to the top. Once you have reached the top of the Munro you can consider it bagged! There are lists of all the Scottish Munros to bag and there are people who have bagged them all, multiple times!!! So what is Loch Bagging? Loch Bagging is Munro Baggings lesser known cousin – an activity for those of us who are more interested in paddleboarding than climbing.

Why should I Loch Bag on my Paddleboard?

Why not? Loch Bagging is a great way to explore areas that you may otherwise not have known about or visited. It provides a great framework for exploring this great country of Scotland!

How many lochs are there to Bag?

According to the Murrays List which was complied from 1897-1909 there are 544 Freshwater lochs which have been mapped for both their depth and underwater features. Some major lochs have been left off this list due to accessability issues for boats which suits our purposes quite well! As there is somewhere in the region of 30,000 freshwater lochs in Scotland we need to narrow them down somehow and accessability is a great way to start. This list was complied before many of the newer lochs were created when hydroelectric schemes were build and so the well travelled amongst you may find that there are some lochs missing.

What are the different types of Lochs to Bag?

As well as the Freshwater Lochs listed above there are also many seawater or saltwater lochs. In this article we are talking primarily about the Freshwater lochs as they are more easily defined for our purposes. Whether or not you wish to add the salt water lochs to your bagging list will depend on exactly how it is you wish to bag them and what length of time you have to complete your bagging. Remember there are 544 freshwater lochs alone on the Murray list – that’s 1 loch a week for over ten years!

Should I try all of them?

First you need to work out how long you are going to dedicate to this undertaking. If you live in Scotland you have a headstart! For anyone who is visiting you might like to divide this list into sub groups and work on one or two groups for the duration of your trip. Some ways of doing this might be by region or features such as Lochs with islands.

How do I bag a loch on my Paddleboard?

According to the Murrays list of Lochs to Bag the actual definition of a bagged loch is to simply put your hand into the icy water. This type of Loch Bagging was created moreso for hillwalkers and so is fairly simple to achieve. As we are paddleboarders though we will of course need to up the anti. Actually being out upon the loch on your paddleboard is the aim of the game. With this in mind there are different levels of bagging that you can achieve

1. Standing on your paddleboard in the loch (and taking the gratituous selfie!)
2. Doing a yoga pose on your paddleboard in the loch
3. A minimum of 1 mile or 1 kilometer paddleboarded on the loch
4. Paddleboarding the width or length of the loch
5. Paddleboarding the circumference of the loch

Where do I start?

To get you started we have created a Loch Bagging List for Paddleboarding. You can download the Aberdeenshire Loch Bagging List for free here.  Make sure you sign up to our email list so you are the first to know when the other areas will be released.  Alternatively you can start by creating a SUP it List which you can read more about here and your free SUP it List to customize.

For insiration check out the most comprehensive and FREE video library on Paddleboarding in Scotland

Make sure to join our SUP Chick Community on Facebook.  Checkout and like our SUP Chick Facebook Page and Subscribe to our SUP Chick Youtube Channel.

To keep in touch please sign up to our weekly updates where we share our hints and tips along with some of the most epic places we have paddleboarded.

If you haven’t yet watched part one of our SUP Safari Scotland Travel Video Series  check it out here.